More than that, Mark, and as a non-member. "Being in it to win it" to me only means an enjoyable, peaceful night observing in good conditions. I'm not really interested in going to a site with barely average seeing and a poor record for transparency when there are much better ones closer to home.
More importantly on a number of years observing elsewhere on the same weekends, to find out later from those who went that I had the better weather. There's a lot to be said for being on sandstone at 1100 metres with a cliff on 3 sides.
There was no site survey carried out before Wiruna was acquired to find out what it was like at night over several months let alone assess the seeing and transparency properly. No effort was made at analysing the microclimate - despite the site selection processes used by observatories elsewhere being known to several at the time. Somewhat remarkable considering at the time Bowen was well known for turning on better seeing than most other locations, and for good reasons.
Last edited by Wavytone; 27-05-2009 at 04:39 PM.
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