Non-light polluted areas sydney

[Frostyricho (Stephen)]

Hi members of IIS,
My dad and I are thinking of taking the scope out next week to a dark place to get better use out of my scope. I live in the liverpool area and i want to know some areas where there is not much light pollution. How far will we have to drive out to get a decent view of the night sky.

Kind regards stephen.
Also dont want it to be too far out like Blue mountains way.

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

You need to go this week! wait too long and the waxing moon will bleach out the sky too much.

Areas like Bargo should be OK for you - around 30 -40 minutes drive down the freeway. The Sutherland club use and old abandoned airstrip at Bargo.

Better still is west of Mittagong. The further south west you go the better, it is best to view objects when near the meridian and the north/south line at Mittagong points to Katoomba at its northern end and not into the glow of Sydney which is very much to the north east.

I sometimes travel from my home in town at Bowral to a location west of Mittagong - quite dark.

[Wavytone]

Liverpool... As above take the M5 southwest towards Mittagong. But Mittagong and Bowral create their own light pollution, so...

1. There are a couple of dams with recreation areas near Bargo, not sure if you can stay there at night but maybe worth a try. (Avon dam, from memory).

2. Go through Mittagong and find a park somewhere near Robertson, in the backblocks there's no traffic to bother you. Pretty much anywhere. Maybe get to know a local landowner and ask for permission to use a paddock occasionally in return for something they appreciate.

3. There's a wetland nature reserve on the western side of the M31 just past Goulburn, before the Canberra turnoff. This is useable and very dark.

4. Onwards towards Canberra, on top of the ridge that runs along the western side of Lake George. There are sone back roads up there and yes it's really dark.

2 hours drive IMHO is the safe limit, btw, for a nights observing.