Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewk_82
I was just looking at this article http://www.skyandtelescope.com/resou...tml?page=1&c=y at was wondering if anybody on this forum has experienced a class 1 dark sky as described in this article (limiting magnitude 7.6 - 8)  . Even class 2 and 3 seem extremely good.
To me it sounds a bit like astronomical heaven and not like anything I've ever heard described before. If skys really get that dark I want to know where!!! 
Cheers |
Hi Andrew,
As I have discussed on this forum before, Australia is pretty much one big
observing field. You have probably seen the satellite imagery showing the
globe at night. As it turns out, once you get away from the light pollution
'footprint' from towns and cities in Australia, it is pretty uniformly dark.
This is opposite to continents such as North America and Europe where it
is extremely difficult to find anywhere dark at all.
So in the end, it doesn't matter much whether you are in Lake Mungo, or
the Flinders Ranges, the Kimberley or the McDonnell Ranges or somewhere
on the road between Windorah and Birdsville, it is pretty much the same
when it comes to how dark it is, simply because the mean distance to the
nearest outdoor light bulb is a long way away.
In fact, what tends to differentiate one dark sky site from another in Australia
I find comes down to other attributes, such as the seeing and transparency
and general amenity and climate of the observing location.
For example, I would rather observe from the top of Mt. Kaputar, which is
a hop skip and a jump away from Narrabri, rather than observe from, say,
the West Macdonnell Ranges. The reason, you are at 1350m above sea
level on Mt. Kaputar and unlike the Macdonnell ranges or the Gibb River
Road in the Kimberley, you don't have two thousand flies crawling around your
eyes and corners of your mouth at 8pm as they try and steal every last
microgram of moisture they can find.
So you do indeed live in the lucky country. The types of dark skies that
those in other parts of the world can only ever read or dream about are
often less than a half day drive away from any major Australian city.
Pack the scope and get out and do it some time if you get the chance.