Quote:
Originally Posted by pgc hunter
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.
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I was in Mildura a few years ago and, yes, it is a pretty nice place. It does have all the amenities and some nice parkland along the river (but they should give up on trying to grow roses in the botanic garden). And although it's a reasonable size there is still that relaxed, friendly country ambience. I was also impressed that when I went to the local medical centre with an eye infection they were able to get me an appointment with an eye specialist that day. [However he is a visiting specialist and I just got lucky that he was in town.]
My ideal situation would be to have a backyard observatory and so central Mildura is not a good choice but on the fringes of town or down at Redcliffs would probably be fine. I'm not a fan of that 'flat as a pancake' look but that's just me - I've always had hills for a backdrop. The only thing is that it has a climate that would KILL most of the folk on Cloudynights. There are hotter places in the world but it does get its share of heatwaves.