Warrumbungles - Dark Sky Park

[Allan_L (Allan)]

For those that missed this on last night's news, this sounds almost too good to be true. Can't wait.

Extract and link from ninemsn 2016 article Here: NSW Park Bans All Artificial Light

In what is believed to be an Australian-first, the “dark sky park” in the Warrumbungles, around 550km north-west of Sydney, has banned all artificial light.
The heritage listed national park, home to the Siding Spring observatory, is now being billed as a major attraction for stargazing tourists.

And their own web site
http://www.warrumbungledarkskypark.org/

[Wavytone]

Well, I guess that's more an attempt on the part of the observatory to stop further development in the park and twits using driving lights at night in the park.

The bigger problem long term is the skyglow from Coonabarabran, which is outside the park.

If you want to go observing with your own scope though, there's a better spot - Mt Kaputar. Admittedly its cloudier compared to Siding Spring, but it has a camping ground at the peak - and several excellent observing areas on the peak and when it's clear it's probably darker than Siding Spring Alfie to being even more distant from any large town.

[glend (Glen)]

Yeah I have been following this, and the local government submission to get approval for restrictions and recognition of the Dark Sky environment: This first appeared last year.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...4e22ea6558a216

A submission was made to NSW Planning back in January 2016:
https://www.coonabarabran.org/coonab...ion-completed/

This is the important one: The NSW Planning now approved policy (released in June 2016),

http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/~/med...e-2016-06.ashx

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Well done.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

This only makes Coonabarabran an even more attractive destination for observing! Excellent news!!

[Brickbots (Richard)]

I know I'm a bit late to the thread, but rather than start a new one, I thought I'd try posting here first.

I'm very excited about this new designation and am thinking about a trip after the new year for a week or so of camping. There seem to be various sites there, but it's hard to tell which might be best for doing some observing. Ideally it would be non-too-populated (i.e. not many/any fires generating light) and have a good open sky/horizon.

Does anyone have any experience with the campsites in the park?

Cheers,
-Richard

[Wavytone]

The campsites are in the valleys at the bottom. Not great for observing if you're taking a scope.

For amateur stargazing there is a nicer spot - Mt Kaputar, where there is a campsite on the peak at 1450m among snow gums with a permanent spring and hot showers, a lovely place in midsummer, and a couple of excellent observing sites away from the campsite.

Of course visit Coonabarabran on the way past.

[Brickbots (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

The campsites are in the valleys at the bottom. Not great for observing if you're taking a scope.

For amateur stargazing there is a nicer spot - Mt Kaputar, where there is a campsite on the peak at 1450m among snow gums with a permanent spring and hot showers, a lovely place in midsummer, and a couple of excellent observing sites away from the campsite.

Of course visit Coonabarabran on the way past.

Thanks so much for the info Wavytone! I see there are two campsites listed on the Parks NSW page:
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/...Park&extent=In

Is one preferred over the other?

Cheers,
-Richard

[theodog (Jeff)]

I've been to both for observing since the mid 80's. In fact there was a regular astro-camp organised at Kaputar in the early days (from Queensland I think), but little observing was ever achieved , usually due to "tropical" downpours and cloud until just before dawn.

At Camp Blackman (Warrumbungles) I have developed 15 min exposures (on techpan) of suspected supernova taken by Tornado33 with no skyglow.

Originally Posted by Wavytone

Well, I guess that's more an attempt on the part of the observatory to stop further development in the park and twits using driving lights at night in the park.

Bzzzzzt. Wrong.

Originally Posted by Wavytone

The bigger problem long term is the skyglow from Coonabarabran, which is outside the park.

Sky glow from Coona can't be seen from the campsites.

How then do you explain international consortiums placing $million scopes/instruments at SSO in the last few years?

I have camped at Kaputar. No open sky unless you carry your gear a long way. Like other camp sites with hot showers -they are lit and this brings many fellow campers with lights.

I would still look into the Warrumbungles. But I could be bias.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

I recently stayed at Camp Blackman for a couple of nights and it was nice and dark there, I was fortunate enough to have considerate campers around me that went to bed just after darkness fell

The horizon is OK there in most directions, although there are a couple of small hills intruding in the N and NE directions. How much depends on where you setup camp. There was no discernible sky glow in any direction that I could tell.

There is the risk of a camp fire making for a smoke stack and I don't recall seeing anything posted anywhere about considerate use of light at night, so I considered myself lucky...

[Wavytone]

Having read the site survey report the reason the warrubungles was chosen was the weather - siding spring mountain has a significantly higher number of clear nights per year than Kaputar - which was the second best in the survey.

The key to complex decisions is understanding how the "wants" are weighted and in this case the percentage of clear nights was considered the most important parameter. A mature politically stable country able to preserve a dark-sky site for the long term was the second priority. Seeing was not a high priority.

Being further north and closer to the coast, Kaputar suffers cloud pushed in from tropical lows along the Queensland coast, whereas siding spring does not.

On the other hand the seeing at siding spring is below average because it is downwind of turbulence created by peaks and ridges to the west and south. Even the blue mountains offers better seeing. Kaputar on the other hand can turn on nights of stunning seeing in laminar air, as it has nothing to disturb the airflow.

As one who also frequented Kaputar many times in the 80s and 90s I agree it can be clouded out but when it is good it is very, very good indeed.

[Allan_L (Allan)]

This is what space looks like from Australia's first Dark Sky Park


http://elsewhere.nine.com.au/2016/11...nsw-time-lapse

[Allan]

Interesting they say Siding Spring is home to the Southern Hemispheres largest telescope. True I guess, if you ignore the larger ones in Chile and South Africa!