I'd definately recommend making the effort to attend one of the Star parties that are within 2-3 hours drive from Sydney. The IIS astrocamp is coming up in about 4 weeks time, and the views from there will blow away anything that you will get from the urban parts of Sydney! You don't need a scope, infact, the first time I went to a star party I barely usedmy own scope as I was too busy looking through other peoples scopes!
