Astrophotography in Melbourne (Northern suburbs)

[Stephane]

Hi all,

Just wondering if everyone in Melbourne is shooting in their backyard?? I live in Preston and am looking around where I might get a little less light pollution. Bundoora park might be a nice option (10 minutes away). Further north, somewhere in Epping would be better, or a 2h drive up North would obviously be ideal, but not sure how far my motivation will carry me long-term.

Where do you guys in the Northern suburbs image?

Cheers,
Stéphane

[RyanJones]

My advice would be to start in your backyard. Many of us image from our heavily light polluted backyards. Get an idea of how things work. Refine your setup. Work out how much battery power you’re goi g to need to run an imagining session. Get your guiding worked out. Basically try to iron out a mostly consistent process that you feel confident in before you start venturing out. Being put in the field and finding issues is an order of magnitude more frustrating than finding those issues at home.

When looking for a dark site or darker site, remember that you might eliminate annoying neighbours lights etc but sky glow is quite broad and covers whole areas. To get real benefits you are beat traveling further away from the suburbs where sky glow is significantly lower and remember that if your target is positioned over a lit area any less than about 45deg above the horizon, you’re still going to get the effects of light pollution.

Hope this helps

Ryan

[Nikolas]

Bundoora park at night? You are taking your life in your hands mate, Star in the back yard then if you do want to do darker sites drive up plenty road till you go past the burbs

[Stephane]

LOL. I thought the same. Yeah might go further up in the future once I have gained some experience in the backyard.




Thanks Ryan, good advice. Will stick to the backyard until I get some experience.

[pfitzgerald]

For where you are your own backyard (depending on local street lighting) would be best.
I'm in Mill Park and to see how built up it has become from here out to Whittlesea over the past 20 years is enough to make you weep (astronomically speaking!).
If you are imaging using NB filters this won't be much of an issue - for example see some of Andy Campbell's work (from memory he's over Balwyn way).
For long OSC exposure imaging (> 3.0 minutes) you will need to get out of 'Dodge'. For me this is either in Kinglake, Mansfield or the Snake Valley Astro Camps.
The other possibility is to become an ASV member and make use of their Dark Sky Site at Heatchote.
HTH
Paul

[Stephane]

Thanks Paul, some nice alternatives to consider. I’ll look into becoming an ASV member which might help with my inexperience in addition to asking lots of questions on this forum and watching tons of videos.

Cheers,
Stéphane

[Saturn488]

I agree, would not go there!

[Lou]

Has anything bad happened there lately that makes the ppl scared to go there at night or is it just a caution of a general nature?

[Andy01]

Some good advice above ^ :thumbsup:

Start in your backyard & get your technical stuff sorted out. :)

Once happy with that, either image in narrowband from home (I'm in Burwood, Bortle 7 & NB is no problem here) or join the ASV & head up to their Heathcote dark sky site.:D

ASV run boot camps for Astrophotographers starting out, and the Astrophotography group is very welcoming, helpful & active. :)

[Nikolas]

Drug deals, drunken behaviour and some real weirdos hang out there at night