[Wavytone]

Hi John, I know this spot from my travels many years ago as I had a friend living in Kangaloon, and I'd be happy to give it a try if there's a spectacularly good evening looming but if it's the slightest bit dodgy weather-wise I would give it a miss. I tried observing from the Bowral - Mittagong area in the 1980's, starting with Mt Gibraltar and the boat launching areas on the banks of both reservoirs.

The good side: For me (upper north shore) its still an easy fast drive and the time is about the same or possibly a few minutes less than the Katoomba airstrip; Alex and Peter have easy access via the M5 too.

The bad side: that area has a relatively poor record for clear nights for two reasons:

a) it is surrounded by farmland for many kilometres in all directions, ie heavy dark soils that hold a lot of moisture. Plus the big reservoir nearby. This means heavy dew most nights, a high likelihood of fog, and low cloud is common at night.

b) with the exception of Mt Gibraltar, the region is not high (take a look at a topo map or with a GPS) as well as surrounded by rolling hills. This is not effective to break the formation of fog or low cloud around the observing site you suggest, nor to assist the production of afternoon thermals (and thunderstorms) that could clear the air later in the evening.

In comparison the Blue mountains sites area are high (~1000 metres) on sand or sandstone, which don't hold water so dew is almost non-existent and fog can't sit on the observing sites. Even better, the escarpment on the west side creates big afternoon/evening thermals (I fly a paraglider in these) which play a significant role in producing clear skies at locations near the escarpment, and along the ridge to Bell.