Well we moved into
the new property on the weekend.
It was freezing in Canberra and we had no gas for the heater yet, so we huddled around two column heaters, it was like camping inside a house
I had no scope or imaging gear just my eyes and a pair of binoculars. The clouds parted for long periods on Sat night and most of Sun night to show me what the skies were like at various times throughout the night, see how much Canberra's glow affected the sky and I was able to verify the quality of view and scout the land for possible observing locations.
As a litmus test, a few things that I could see were: a bright Milky Way overhead with lots of dark lanes, both the LMC and SMC and make out the Tarantula in the LMC, 47 Tuc, the faint star in the coal sack (mag 5.3), The Andromeda Galaxy, M33 and the Zodiacal light was obvious in the western sky in the early darkness. Due to it being right near the worst of the Canberra sky glow (not to mention my astigmatism
) I had to wait until 3am (less glow as everyone in Canberra is asleep
) to find Sigma Octans (mag 5.5) but it was only glimpsed with averted vision. Given I have mild astigmatism, views would be better with optically perfect eyes.
At 3am standing at my
intended observing spot (first photo attached = 360 deg view) I counted just two single distant porch lights in a 360 deg sweep of the horizon - very cool
funnily enough a third distant light was visible if I walked a few metres from the intended observing site, looked like a couple of lights really...in the morning and looking through binoculars, I discovered
what it was 
22km away - how ironic
So all up I am very happy...now to get the scope and gear down there ASAP
Oh and here are our
new neighbours 
...and my new get fit
Worlds Longest driveway - long way to take the Weely Bin