Quote:
Originally Posted by toc
For the record I grew up in Mildura (little place called Irymple) which is in Northern Victoria, so I am used to smaller towns  |
Mildura ofcourse is by far the best place in Victoria for astronomy. Absolutely mops the floor with both Ballarat and Bendigo, and Melbourne, well that's like comparing brocolli to KFC, or Ice Cream to Snake Bile. Clear skies are abundant, and light pollution is easily taken care of. Drive an hour up the road to Broken Hill and you are at some of the darkest and most pollution-free skies in the world. Drive half an hour in any direction on the compass and you are in skies and climate that most of the folk on Cloudynights would KILL for. Seeing should also be generally good as the place is flat as a pancake for hundreds of km in any direction. The only thing is the wind, there can be strong winds, sometimes unforecasted, flat terrain mean unimpeded windflow. This is usually only a problem during southerly changes though, but can catch you unannounced.
The town itself these days has just about everything anyone could need, including a big modern Dan Murphys and the major supermarkets are open till midnight. There are regular airline services to Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.