Stargazing at Tasmania

[patshek]

Hi all,

I come from Hong Kong. I am going to have a self-drive tour in Tasmania coming November. But I am not familiar with Tasmania, I would like to seek some advices on stargazing site. I want to it to be as dark as possible and accessible by car. Any suggestion? Thanks.

[omegacrux]

Where in Tas you going ?
About 80% + of Tas is a dark site
The whole of the west and south coast is dark small towns lots of open spaces between !
I'm on the NW coast and have no prob seeing the large and small mage clouds also can see Tuc 47 with the naked eye , small fuzzy blob
So its pretty good here sorry northerners

David

[iceman]

I think the weather is the main factor in TAS isn't it?

When are the best observing months?

[patshek]

My self-drive tour will start in Hobart. I haven't finalized my route yet, but I think I will drive along the east coast.

[Tinderboxsky]

East Coast is a good choice. Virtually the whole coast is a dark site with fantastic scenery thrown in. Weather outlook for the next several days is poor, but the East Coast will be relatively calm given the weather will be coming form the north west through to the south west.

I don't think there is a period of best viewing months. However, September through November is a very windy period.

Enjoy.

Cheers Steve.

[space oddity]

IF you can get clear weather, there are plenty of dark places and quite a few really dark places less than an hour from a major centre. Bruny Island is a great place in general and dark sites plentiful with little driving.A couple of really dark places:- the Crotty road off the Lyell highway should be very dark but is just about the furthest placer from civilization you will find. The west coast should get you heaps of dark places without huge amounts of driving. You will need to be staying at Stachan , Queenstown or Zeehan or it will be a very long drive. I dare say there are some retreats on the road to Cradle Mountain that may not be very dark, but would be comfortable.If you do not mind the odd passing car lights, the road from Cradle Mountain to the west coast is in some wild country. East coast between villages will have satisfactorily dark skies, once again with the odd passing car. If you do not mind a bit of a walk and some camping, Freycinet national park will be dark. The hut at Lake Dobson at Mount Field national Park although a long dirt road will give you a dark sky at respectable altitude without driving a long way(have not been there for 30 years)
Last but not least, if you do not mind the ghosts ,Port Arthur could be an easy access but a bit of light pollution spot. I guess it now boils down to what other things you want to do and if you do not mind sleeping in a tent. Just thought of another couple of spots.The Great Lakes region and the road up to Walls of Jerusalem National Park. When I was there, I had not discovered astronomy yet and we were usually tired after a day's walking, so tended to crash out. Modern cameras with their high ISO ratings could get some interesting full sky with interesting landscapes with a bit of lunar light shots. Pity I am probably too old to get back in to the walking in the deep Tassie wilderness like in my younger days.The good old days with film(Kodachrome 25 professional, tech pan) cameras, a bag of lenses and a tripod. Once took a 6 x 9 camera to the Mount Anne region for some panorama shots in Tech pan off the beaten track. Unfortunately, someone in the camera club did not wash the spiral properly and the negatives were ruined. Luckily no one else was around to hear the obscenities-not happy Jan.
Last trip to Tassie 5 years ago we stayed in a place on Bruny Island facing south, hoping to score an aurora. Good view of the Milky way though. In the evenings, we went on slow wildlife drives spotting the numerous animals.
Jealous.

[patshek]

Thanks. Is hiring campervan is a good choice to self-drive in tasmania? Do I need to park the campervan in designated area?

I am dreaming that I could drive to middle of nowhere and enjoy the night sky with my friends in a campervan. :rofl:

[pluto]

I hired a campervan and spent a couple of weeks driving around Tassie in February this year. I mostly stayed in camping/caravan parks but I did spend one night just parked in a car park on the side of a road. I didn't have any problems but I'm not sure what the laws are relating to this.
One piece of advice I would offer in regards to driving a campervan around is that most of the roads are quite hilly and windy (especially in the west) and so you tend to take longer to get anywhere than you normally would for the same distance. Also the hilly/windy roads seemed to cause the van to drink a lot more petrol than I would have thought.
Awesome trip though, I highly recommend it! :-)

[pshaw]

You should be able to find dark sites on the east coast with little problem. Your biggest obstacle will be the weather. The chances of getting a cloudy night are greatest on the west coast and in the south (where I live :() because that's where the prevailing weather comes from. Good luck with your trip.