Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Good writeup Paul.
Coonobarabran in NSW is where there are some professional scopes. Looking at the images Louie and Ross and Marco have posted it seems the seeing there is better than most locations. I wonder if there is something more quantifiable on that point.
Greg.
|
Hi Greg,
Coonabarabran typically ( at normal township altitude) has fairly poor seeing by comparison to some of the better locations in NSW and Australia. I am not sure what it is like up the mountain where the AAO is located, I haven't observed up there. We regularly host groups of US observers to Coonababran and rarely do we experience nights of good seeing. I have observed many many times from both Timor Cottages and Warrumbungles Mountain Motel and you can count on one hand the number of nights of good seeing we have experienced. It is a rare night I can push past 200X on the planets in either the 14" or 18" scopes.
I don't think being near the sea has much to do with it. I quite often get exceptional seeing from my backyard at Killarney Vale which is 50 metres from the Southern side of Tuggerah Lakes and about 2km from the beach. I observe the ecliptic to the north across the lake which is about 20km long and usually get exceptional seeing as the temperature of large bodies of water usually does not change much in short time periods, unlike land masses. It is common for me to push 300X to 500X on the moon and planets and a few nights per year I can get well over that. The best I have done is 1050X on the Moon and Saturn on a couple of occasions in the 18" Obsession.
Mount Kaputah which is situated just out of Narrabri, about 90 mins North West of Coonababran, is renowned for exceptional seeing. It is probably one of the single best observing locations on the planet for excellent seeing combined with excellent transparency and very dark skies.
Cheers,
John B