Good places to stargaze?

[simjojim]

Hi Folks,

Living in South East Qld I can't remember the last time i saw the night sky in its glory. I have 2 young children and I would like to introduce them to the wonder of our universe.
Where do you guys go? Are there areas that are better than others, or do you just drive until there is no lights around pull over and and drag out the telescope? :) I've been in town too long.
I'm in the Redlands just south east of brisbane.
Any suggestions on where to go would be welcome, thank you.
Ohh and maybe a suggestion on a good beginners telescope also.

[Dennis]

Welcome to IIS.

For objects such as the Moon and the Planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars (these show most detail in amateur sized ‘scopes), then Redlands is fine as these objects are so bright that the local light pollution doesn’t really matter, except aesthetically!

For Deep Sky Objects (DSO’s) such as galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, etc. then a dark sky site definitely gives the best, most detailed and inspirational views, although DSO’s are generally quite faint and you get to appreciate them more with experience and larger telescope apertures.

Visually, DSO’s rarely look as stunning as the photos of DSO’s you may have seen in magazines. Most of these images were taken by cameras with exposure times of 1 hour and more; unfortunately, the eye cannot accumulate or “build up” the light as can CCD cameras or the less used film cameras.

In terms of getting to see some ‘scopes, there is an astronomy club in Redlands, the Redlands Astronomical Society (RAS) and if you can get along to one of their meetings, you should be able to look through a variety of different ‘scopes as each type has strengths and weaknesses.

Cheers

Dennis

[Louwai]

I ive in Melbourne now, but I have a house in Topatig St, near the Redlands Show Grnds. I used to get pretty reasonable views to the east & south from my balcony. Nth-east was pretty crap due to the light glow from the city, but generally pretty good.

The Redlands Astro Club have a meeting place in the park at Ormiston. You need to walk into the park a bit as it's in the middle of all the trees, bet they are a good screen from the lights.

[CoombellKid]

You could join the SAS guy's out at Leyburn one weekend. It's always a bit
of fun. Or you could come down to nice dark northern NSW ;) my back yard
is pretty good, beter than Leyburn :thumbsup::whistle:

regards,CS

[coldspace]

Hi there,

Good to see more people wanting to get into the best hobby on earth or should I say off earth. Great to see you wanting to get your kids into this fascinating science of existence. My young daughter loves it and so does all her young cousins and friends. Nothing puts more of a smile on my face than watching the young ones get excited when the telescopes get dragged out. You are welcome to come to our club the 'SAS' at Pimpama and see what we do. We have a meeting once a month and every new moon people can go out to Leyburn dark sky site to view under pristine conditions,well most of the time.;)
You don't have to own a telescope as you can hire the clubs ones for $10 a month. Go to our web site. www.sas.org.au (http://www.sas.org.au)

Regards Matt.

[simjojim]

Thank you all for the info. I will probably start with the Redlands Astronomical Society sounds good and just down the road. Thanks again