Dark sky sites *near* Brisbane

[ChrisM]

Hi folks,

I'll be visiting Brisbane next month and am looking for suggestions of dark sky sites with a view to the North within a couple of hours of Brisbane - preferably West or NW of Brisbane.

I'm hoping to image M31 hence the northern aspect.

Cheers and thanks in advance, Chris

[OzEclipse (Joe Cali)]

Hi Chris,
> looking for suggestions of dark sky sites with a view to the North within a couple of hours of Brisbane - preferably West or NW of Brisbane.



There aren't any. SEQ is all light pollution.

It depends how you define a dark sky site? You have to go a long way to minimise the LP hump from SEQ. Even at the Astrofest site, just north of Moore, there is a substantial skyglow to the southeast and east from Brisbane and the sunshine coast but ok overhead and to the W and NW. The LP follows the Warrego Highway for a long way inland.

Lake Coolmunda is 15km east of Inglewood and away from the runs of light pollution. It is 250 km/3hrs from Brisbane. There's a public campground, and a private caravan park with on-site vans or you can book into a motel in Inglewood and reach the lake fairly quickly in 10-15 mins.

Regards
Joe Cali

[mldee (Mike)]

For a closer to Brisbane area, you may want to check the Cunningham Highway west of Cunningham's Gap, only 1hr.30 from CBD Brisbane and plenty of camping sites in the area. Alternatively, I have friends there in the small village of Maryvale who run a B&B which has magnificent views due north and lots of open space for setting up. I also live in the area and have attached an uncalibrated happy snap of M31 taken from my backyard pier last year using Askar ACL200 and 294MC camera. The town is in a large valley with good hill shielding on all sides. PM me if you want further info

[ChrisM]

Originally Posted by OzEclipse

Hi Chris,
> looking for suggestions of dark sky sites with a view to the North within a couple of hours of Brisbane - preferably West or NW of Brisbane.



There aren't any. SEQ is all light pollution.

It depends how you define a dark sky site? You have to go a long way to minimise the LP hump from SEQ. Even at the Astrofest site, just north of Moore, there is a substantial skyglow to the southeast and east from Brisbane and the sunshine coast but ok overhead and to the W and NW. The LP follows the Warrego Highway for a long way inland.

Lake Coolmunda is 15km east of Inglewood and away from the runs of light pollution. It is 250 km/3hrs from Brisbane. There's a public campground, and a private caravan park with on-site vans or you can book into a motel in Inglewood and reach the lake fairly quickly in 10-15 mins.

Regards
Joe Cali

Thanks very much Joe. I'll check out that suggestion. Light pollution is a growing problem with little control it seems...

BTW, we've just been back to Spitsbergen and beyond - plenty of light up there with 24/7 sunshine!

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisM]

Originally Posted by mldee

For a closer to Brisbane area, you may want to check the Cunningham Highway west of Cunningham's Gap, only 1hr.30 from CBD Brisbane and plenty of camping sites in the area. Alternatively, I have friends there in the small village of Maryvale who run a B&B which has magnificent views due north and lots of open space for setting up. I also live in the area and have attached an uncalibrated happy snap of M31 taken from my backyard pier last year using Askar ACL200 and 294MC camera. The town is in a large valley with good hill shielding on all sides. PM me if you want further info

Thanks Mike for your suggestion. I'll check that out. That's a great 'snap' of M31 - I'd be pretty happy with that given what we can normally see (or not). I'll PM you in the next few days... Cheers, Chris

[JeniSkunk (Jenifur)]

Originally Posted by ChrisM

Hi folks,
I'll be visiting Brisbane next month and am looking for suggestions of dark sky sites with a view to the North within a couple of hours of Brisbane - preferably West or NW of Brisbane.

South West of Brisbane, there's the Moogerah Dam
Some local astronomy groups regularly use that as a viewing site.

Originally Posted by OzEclipse

Hi Chris,

There aren't any. SEQ is all light pollution.

The map that Joe showed images of, is the Light Pollution Map, using the World Atlas 2015 overlay to give an idea of the extent of how far the obvious LP extends.
When you compare the VIIRS data overlay for 2015, to 2022, things have gotten noticably worse. So the LP footprint the World Atlas 2015 overlay shows, would cover an even larger area.

I was out at Kalbar Observatory on the weekend just gone, and the sky glow from Brisbane and Ipswich was noticible as early as 30 to 45 minutes after sunset.
To get to a proper dark site in Queensland, you need to be ready to spend a few days on the road from Brisbane, first heading north to Rockhampton, then west from there out to Winton.

[ChrisM]

Originally Posted by JeniSkunk

South West of Brisbane, there's the Moogerah Dam
Some local astronomy groups regularly use that as a viewing site.



The map that Joe showed images of, is the Light Pollution Map, using the World Atlas 2015 overlay to give an idea of the extent of how far the obvious LP extends.
When you compare the VIIRS data overlay for 2015, to 2022, things have gotten noticably worse. So the LP footprint the World Atlas 2015 overlay shows, would cover an even larger area.

I was out at Kalbar Observatory on the weekend just gone, and the sky glow from Brisbane and Ipswich was noticible as early as 30 to 45 minutes after sunset.
To get to a proper dark site in Queensland, you need to be ready to spend a few days on the road from Brisbane, first heading north to Rockhampton, then west from there out to Winton.

Thanks for the tips Jenifur. As it turns out, the full moon is going to thwart my attempts this time so I will have to leave M31 until another time. I have been to Winton before, but at the wrong time of year for M31, which has a narrow window for photography. The skies from up there and further west are amazing!

Cheers, Chris