Where in Vic can I go tonight?

[Heath]

Morning all,

terrible conditions in Melbourne are driving me insane and I'm wondering whether anyone can reccomend somwhere I can drive to this evening that may provide clear and darker skies? Willing to drive about an hour and a half

Thanks Heath

[Cloudyagain]

Not much help I know Heath but I can tell where not to go!

I have had 2 weeks off down here on the south west coast and have had 1 clear night. Back to work next week so conditions will probably improve then.

Neale.

[pgc hunter]

Satpic shows the high level junk clearing the SW of the state this morning, so I can only assume Melbourne might see some clear sky by late arvo/evening. I would suggest staying put. Melbourne might actually be the prime spot tonight, cloud-wise. Too far west and there's the risk of running into the mid-level band behind it, and east/north/NE you'll end up under the high cloud again.

[Heath]

I can sympathise with you Neale. I was in Apollo Bay for 10 days and had two nights which were ok-ish. Terribly frustrating.

I was thinking of driving up past Macedon and trying to find a spot? Not sure if the conditions will be any different to Melbourne Metro though.

The fact the weather is clearing in the South east is promising though.

[Moon]

What side of the city are you?

[Heath]

Hi James,

Im in the inner north west - Moonee Ponds. Good striking distance to the north and west

[Paddy]

I would defer to Sab's reading of the satellite picture for today. But normally we seem to have much better conditions north of the Divide. I wonder if you were to head up to around Kyneton - perhaps out towards Drummond or Lauriston you might well find a place to pull over with good wide raod reserv on a quite road.

Another option might be the rec reserve at Mia Mia on the Kyneton-Heathcote road near Redesdale. it would have very dark skies - It has a few cleared hills around it, but you would still get some good views.

[Heath]

Would I be better to look at a high terrain vantage point up there? Also will need to avoid hoons tearing around the country lanes I guess

[jamiep]

You can try MPAS down the Mornington Penninsula (it's about 1 1/4 hours from mooney ponds ish).

They have a dark-ish sky site, and I think a public night on tonight 8pm until 10pm.

http://www.mpas.asn.au (http://www.mpas.asn.au/)

Jamie

[Paddy]

Somewehere high would be ideal. I'm just not familiar enough with places closer to Melbourne than Castlemaine to suggest anything. I don't hink you have to worry about hoons - they like freeways more than rugged narrow country lanes. At least around here we never get them.

[Moon]

Not sure about the weather tonight, but in general, the further you go the better.

Last night I went for a drive up into the hills, departing around midnight.
I stopped every 10 kms and took a 30 sec exposure of the sky, directly overhead. I used a spirit level and a compass to get the same orientation each time. The idea was to take all the images on the same moonless night with the same camera within a short period of time. Then on the way home, I repeated the process just in case the total sky was changing over time. Unfortunately I got clouded out on the way home, especially at Site 1 and a little bit at Site 2 and at home. My pic at Site 2 on the way out was also out of focus, but you get the idea.

The stopovers were as follows:
Home = Donvale
Site 1 = Kangaroo Ground
Site 2 = St. Andrews
Site 3 = King Lake

So I say - get up to King Lake or as far away from Melbourne as you can get in a reasonable timeframe.

James

[Heath]

Thanks guys for your suggestions. That is quite amazing James! the difference is incredible. A really good way to demonstrate the light pollution in Melbourne. I took a drive this afternoon up to Kyneton to check a few places out. I found a country lane with a good 360 view near the end of a dead end road. Sits about 20-25 klms nor north west of Mount Macedon so should be quite good. Will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again guys.

[Paddy]

Sky's looking good at present - hope you have a good night.

[pgc hunter]

Looking very marginal now, northern Vic completely socked in and that stuff to the north is rapidly developing. Satpic filling in "nicely" :mad2:

Melbourne might escape it, but it's a slim chance. If anything, I can see cloud to my north/northeast already.

[Cloudyagain]

Despite my earlier post it's turned into a beautiful clear night down here. Still about 28 degrees though.

Neale.

[Heath]

nooooo! dont say that, I'm just about to pack the car! :confused2:

Maybe I should head south west? :question:

[Paddy]

looks very good here Heath - I'm just about to cool the scope

[ballaratdragons]

Nice and clear up here at the Snake Valley club site.

Wren is here testing his new 12" Lightbridge and it is clear as a bell.
And Dark as usual :thumbsup:

[pgc hunter]

In Melbourne, it's always a dilemma :sadeyes: I've spent many hours agonising whether or not to set up (10 time trip minimum one way!).... it's the unfortunate reality of a climate as fickle as this.

It's looking alright now, that cloud to the north looks like staying north of the divide so you'll likely get some clear weather.

I jsut came in, I was out for a quick look at Jupiter and M42 with the 8" dob, but I couldn't take the mozzies and sweaty 30C temps anymore so called it quits.

[pgc hunter]

I just tried his old 8 incher for the first time. Seeing poor, but it appears the optics are atleast as good as in the SDM! :D I'm not staying out, the mozzies are murder and too warm to dress up against them. Nothing like being covered in sweat while swatting around your head :(

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: Squish em :lol:

I'll let Wren know you like his optics :thumbsup:

[jamespierce]

Agreed - the mozzies are vicious tonight - just got setup so we can getup at 4:45am and try and take a squizz at the storm on jupiter.

[pgc hunter]

I tried, and almost drowned in my own frustration sweat doing it :lol:

My folks suggested Aeroguard, but that stuff is evil, the smell, the slimey feel of it as it works itself into a sweaty oozy vile cocktail and most importantly it doesn't work! :rolleyes:

[ballaratdragons]

Wren, Jake, and I had a great night here with the Lightbridge and 48 billion mozzies :rofl:

Sky was absolutely magic!

Hope Heath finally found a place for the night.

[Greenswale]

Yep, the sky was absolutely fabulous, so was the dark. Seeing was excellent for hours! Lots of meteorites too. The night made for lots of Oooh-ing and Ahh-ing!

Even though I've been to a couple of star parties, I've never had as much company as last night. However, 27 billion mozzies make pathetic conversation (seriously monotone!) and aren't all that comfortable to be around!

Sab, try Aerogard odourless low irritant repellant, avaliable in a pump spray bottle. Worked very well, didn't irritate or stink, and was not noticable on the skin a couple of minutes after application. I needed to re-apply every couple of hours.

[Heath]

After my last post, I started towards to Calder freeway to head north but saw the clouds and made a uturn and went south west instead. Decided to check out You Yang mount range near Little River, inbetween Melbourne and Geelong. Never been there before so driving around in the dark looking for a suitable spot was a challenge. Tried one reserve car parks but there was a suspect car stationed there so drove to the north side of the range and found a dirt track and another reserve car park which was secluded and well away from basically everywhere. Wind was pretty bad, as were the mozzies but I fortunately do not have any reactions from their bites (Apart from slapping myslef). This was my first time setting up my gear in the field for photography work and given my last minute decision to change location did not have the accurate Lat and Long, dec coordinates. Roughly aligned the mount and set the rest of the gear up. Took me over an hour to get fully set up and overcome a number of technical issues, mostly due to being the first time callibrating the guiding set up etc. Eventually settled into a night of imaging. The wind was pretty severe at times and I'm sure this impacted on stability but none the less it was wonderful to be out under the stars finally. Glow from Melbourne was still visible but only as a dome, as was Geelong but overall it was much much darker than home.

The spot itself was quite allnight apart from a few snapping branches and odd noises coming from the woods. There are toilet amenities there, no lamps or lighting so all in all a pretty reasonable spot for anyone looking for a pretty safe spot to view/photograph. Laptop was covered in a pretty interesting spread of insect life and a few managed to make their way into my ears and mouth, not to mention the car.

Have now taken my first asto shots and will attempt some processing now and will post results later as well as a few of the spot itself.

First shot attached now

Happy for a night under the stars :D