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Trip to Warburton
Hi all
I am new to astrophotography and am waiting on a Canon 450d to be delivered which should come tomorrow.
In the meantime I have been taking some time to assess my light pollution situation. I am located in Boronia at the foot of Mt Dandenong in Victoria. lightpollutionmap.info shows that I have a SQM of 19.73 at my location. When I look outside this means that whilst I can see brighter stars i really don't get the full effect of the milky way.
I have been giving thought to where I could travel to which is near my location to get darker skies. With this in mind I went for a drive two nights ago. First I drove up to Mt Dandenong and thence to Kalorama. There is a small car park lookout facing west at Kalorama and the views were noticeably better than at Boronia. Still there was a little noticeable light pollution.
I then drove out to Warburton and looked at the skies out there. Much better with a clear view of the milky way. As I drove back this appeared to stay the same until I was just out of Lilydale so one does not need to go all the way to Warburton to get darker skies.
The other issue though was a general question about safety. In all these towns there is not much open late at night and it might represent a bit of a safety risk. I did however note that the central area of Yarra Junction seemed well lit and there were one of two places open so this might be a suitable dark sky site for late night viewing.
cheers Peter
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