I'll never say Sydney skies are bad again!

[evo]

Just got back from 2 weeks in Japan where I spent most time in Osaka and Tokyo. Not a cloud in the sky for mos tof the time I was there, but failed to see a star! Light and smog were so bad.

I'll never complain about the lights of Sydney again!

An unrelated question - does anyone have a schedule of when the moon is visible during the day? The kids at my son't kindy are at the moment fascinated with space and I'd like to take my scope along so they can see the moon....

thanks and regards, mike

[ving]

at sky and telescopes site you can find the rise and set times of the moon. is that what you are after?

[evo]

hey ving - is that http://skyandtelescope.com ??

[ving]

yup, just adjust it to your locataion :)

[Starkler]

Reminds me of our family trip to the USA when I was a teenager.
I thought I would take the opportunity to check out the northern sky but not a chance from downtown L.A. The sky was milky white and not a star to be seen :(

[rumples riot]

Being from Adelaide, I have to say that Sydney skies are bad. I was there three months ago for a Wedding and during the reception I looked into the heavens and I could only count 25 stars from Liverpool. At my place here in Blackwood 15km from Adelaide there are thousands of stars and I can see the Milky Way pretty well. So Japan must be really bad, glad I don't live there.

[Astroman]

Man I wish I had the skies I had when I first moved in here, but with more people moving northward the skies are getting dimmer :( Havent seen any other cities night skies yet so cannot comment on that but with bigger populations I can imagine.

[Starkler]

Your lucky Paul. I live pretty much right on the suburban outskirts of Melbourne and can only see the brightest parts of the Milky way naked eye, and the LMC, SMC are on the edge of detection from my backyard.
Thats with my best views to the south and east.

[slice of heaven]

Good onya Evo. The kids will love it.

[rumples riot]

Yeah I know that I am lucky Geoff, for a capital city with a population over a million we have very good skies. Mind you go two hours out of the city and the skies become magical. Black as black and millions up millions of stars.

[evo]

Thanks for the feedback folks...regards, mike

[dhumpie]

I agree. In general Australian capital cities (yup cities) are much better than a lot of places on earth. Singapore is easily right up there with places like Japan and Hong Kong. Malaysia is slightly better (from where I come from) but still the limiting magnitude there is horrendous (mag 4.4 and above only from the city and suburbs) and the skies are not dark but have a pinkish hue. By comparison I now live about 15 minutes (or a little more) from the heart of Brisbane city and can easily see mag 5.4 on a bad night and 5.6 during those starry transparent winter nights. I can hunt galaxies mag 10 and brighter from my apartment balcony, see the LMC and hints of the SMC and the milky way shows structure when at zenith during those nights. Plus all we have to do is take a 30 minute drive (or maybe slighly more) to get to good skies and an hour or slightly more to get to great skies. that is one of the reason's why I rekindled my love for the night sky......we have it good here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darren

[fringe_dweller]

Some of that has to do with prosperity and air traffic as well IMHO. I think there was an APOD or something I once saw a photo from space or from a satellite at least maybe, of the heavy air traffic over somewhere in the US (maybe NY? region) the country was totally criss crossed in contrails - must make it very hard for observing! sometimes it is good to be a backwater?
Kearn Jones
Adelaide

[slice of heaven]

Hi fringe dweller.
After Sept 11, during the period of no air traffic,the US skys cleared completely of contrails . The scientists crammed as much time as they could on research of the atmosphere during that period .

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Slice of Heavan
I didnt know that is very interesting - thanks!

BTW can you get them to turn those bloody lights off at Murray bridge - MB have seriously contributed to ruining our fav quickie darksky site of the last 11 years! Specially that stupid prison with its stalig 17 floodlights - we used to have beautiful dark skies there! (along with the $ signs in their eyes developers turning Williamstown and the Barrossa into some kind of retirement destination) I know its not your fault mate just kidding :) dont shoot me!
Bah! hate the real estate boom and single occupiers and - it seriously sux - bring back the recession we had to have!
signed grumpy Old fart

[slice of heaven]

I wish I could. The prison lights dont create a big problem for me, I'm on the other side of town, but they probably add to the skyglow though when it's cloudy. Throw in the freeway and bypass lights,lights on the swanport and murray bridges, the speedway and showgrounds and Redlegs football club floodlights and with a touch of cloud cover its enough to tick you off.
But kill the floodlights and with a clear sky the LP is pretty good compared to any city. My backyard view is good enough that I've never yearned to take my scope to another site. I get the total view of the Milky Way in all its glory..Give it another 10 years and the 4-5 square miles along the river towards the town will be developed and I can kiss the dark sky goodbye.

Slice

[fringe_dweller]

I guess some international and Big city readers would bemused to hear me whinging about the skies not being dark enough here heheh
Your backyard at MB would kill mine here in the adders NE suburbs - i step outside and it looks like orange auroras are happening.
more whinging here > - I dont like whats happening at meningie and Goolwa/hindmarsh island either - or near the border with VIC - Naracorte ect. - that one is outrageous in particular to me - but thats progress - gotta love it!

Fringey