Where is the Best Astro Site in OZ?

[abellhunter]

Questions:

O.K, where can i get the most clear nights per year in OZ?

i love Dry, Dark Skies with no night domes.

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If you were going to build an observatory/home what would be your
short list of best locations?

Please take into consideration the following: a town within
60 or so miles. A place where you can buy land and will have
water. And lastly, will stay dark for the next 20 years.

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my short list is Coonabarabran & somewhere outside of Alice Springs.
i like Alice a little more just because you can see allot of the
northern sky at -23

Any comments, ideas or suggestions would a great help...

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Best Wishes, Lance

[davidpretorius]

Welcome to the forum Lance and hopefully Welcome to Australia in the near future

Are you interested in planetary ie good seeing places or mainly dark clear skies?

[Nightshift]

NOT coastal Queensland. It's so long since I saw the night sky the stars coud have all gone supernova and I wouldnt know about it.

[astrojase]

backyard

[duncan]

Welcome Lance,
Yep Alice Springs to my mind as well. I'm sick of the coastal fringe weather!
Cheers

[GrampianStars (Rob)]

My Place in the Grampians

[fringe_dweller]

Lance, now is not a good time maybe wait 50-100 years? as the recources boom is going even more mental. they are digging up oz at an alarming rate now, where ever you put it, and probably the more remote and dark the worse, you could wake up one morning with a dirty great big mine (with small town/trucks/traffic/dust) next to ya in your pristine dark sky
i notice arkaroola is to get a huge uranium mine, wonder how they feel about that at the astro site there - and another one closer to broken hill

[fringe_dweller]

http://www.arkaroola.com.au/mining.php

[astrojase]

Starkler posted a cool link of light polluted Australia
http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/w...pages/fig9.htm

I guess anywhere where it is black (on the map) would be good...

Arkaroola is amazingly dark...ah the memories...

[Ric]

Hi Lance and welcome to IIS, I hope you enjoy your stay.

I have heard a lot of people speak highly of Coonabarabran. The last time I was there was about 10 years ago and it knocked my socks of.

I'm also very happy with my patch of soil as well.

Cheers

[glenc (Glen)]

Lance, these maps will help you find clear skies.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averag...exposure.shtml
The Gregory Ranges inland from Cairns and Townsville in Qld are good but they may not meet all of your criteria.
Here is some more data:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/

[xelasnave]

Welcome Lance ...
I like my spot as it is home but the weather has me beat at the moment but when its clear it is good as there is little industry here to contribute to making the little light polution worse... plenty of water and reasonably close to beaches and fair sized towns... the likelyhood of developemnt seems remote as we are too far from our state capital for anyone to care...

Best idea get a camper van and live in that ... I have seriously considered same because of the hobby.

best wishes

alex

[Cronulla_Chris]

I managed to get to White Cliffs in western NSW a couple of years ago. The nights are to die for.

[madtuna (Steve)]

Hillend NSW.

Being a historic gold mining town and protected by the national trust, it cant grow any bigger.

The houses there can be bought extremely cheap, the only covenant is they must keep thier external historic appearance...but what you do to the inside is up to you.
Still only 1 hour from Bathurst and 3 from Sydney.

Beautiful clear black skies!
Being both an astronomy and metal detecting nut, it suits me down to the ground!

[Night Owl]

I drove a mates POS Cameira stationwagon from Melbourne, via Sydney, Mt Isa, to Katherine, and slept in the car or on the ground all the way.
Anyway, I saw three cars in 24 hours on this road, and I stopped here one night...

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&h...&t=h&z=18&om=0

And I'm telling you absolutely NO light pollution. I tried to sleep on the ground in my bag, but could not shut my eyes. I stayed awake till 3:00am because of the WOW factor of the detail I had never seen before. If I had a scope I might not have ever left!

Seriously, the air is so dry there, and you are 300km from the nearest light bulb. If I was serious about viewing, I wouldn't hesitate to spend a week there.

[citivolus (Ric)]

I figure somewhere inland from Carnarvon, around the area they are looking at building the square kilometre array. If they did build, it would have dark sky protection by virtue of the prohibition that would put on development because of the need for radio silence (see http://www.atnf.csiro.au/SKA/ms32.pdf ). The area also has very good historic numbers for clear sky and low rainfall, at least from the info of the BOM. Just build your observatory to handle the occasional cyclone

I'm not certain how good the access to water would be, though.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

I was about to suggest up near the top of Mt. Kosciusko, but then I remembered that all the Ski Villages would have all their floodlights on at night

[glenc (Glen)]

I agree with White Cliffs NSW and with the road from Mt Isa Qld to Tennant Ck and Katherine NT.
Buy a van and you can travel to the best place depending on the season.
Here is some more data: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averag...s/sunhrs.shtml

[citivolus (Ric)]

After a bit of searching, Roebourne, on the NW coast of WA averages 234.9 clear days a year (vs 43.9 cloudy): http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averag...4035_All.shtml

You would definitely be needing a cooled CCD there, though, and would still need to build cyclone proof I'm also not certain how it fairs with the jet stream, and am making a bit of a dangerous assumption that clear days == clear nights.

[abellhunter]

G,day astro heads!

you guys rock! Thanx for all the help..... i went Down Under in
2005 for back to back astro events. Both were held on the shores of
Lake Titicaca, Bolivia..... Dark, Dry and 12,500 feet elevation! After
34 days (all August +) i went home and kept asking my self "what
the hell am i'm do'ing here..... i only see 1/2 the milk!"

If ya got a minute check out my ol' observatories at:

http://www.anzaobservatory.com

i built 3 over a 17 yr period at this site, where i could see the
dome of Palomar Observatory from. The last being a 28 X 24 foot
steel building with a roll off roof. This is what i want to copy down
south.

Also on my web site is my "Go South" page that gives ya an
idea how i roll.

Best Wishes, Lance

28" Starmaster w/goto
17 1/2" w/DSC
C-14 w/Argo Navis
20 X 125mm astro binocs