Looking awesome Mike, and that is a serious driveway!
Have fun building your obs, I'm sure you will soon be happily imaging from your new site.
It's interesting to compare limiting magnitudes. I can just glimpse magnitude 5.6 stars near the zenith from where I am (15km from Auckland CDB), so if you can see that in the glow from Canberra then I guess your overall limiting magnitude must be 6 or deeper?
No need for this,
but more of this and thisand this
Awesome Mike!
Have fun!
Bartman
Yep two right there Bartman, been doing that for too long now, will be so awewseom to just have the gear in my own yard!!
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Originally Posted by SkyViking
Looking awesome Mike, and that is a serious driveway!
Yep 1.5km long
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Have fun building your obs, I'm sure you will soon be happily imaging from your new site.
Only renting so building anything sustantial will be out of the question, but having more control over my sessions and under a dark sky will be great.
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It's interesting to compare limiting magnitudes. I can just glimpse magnitude 5.6 stars near the zenith from where I am (15km from Auckland CDB), so if you can see that in the glow from Canberra then I guess your overall limiting magnitude must be 6 or deeper?
My eyesight is the main limiting factor, I need glasses to correct mostly astigmatism but a small amount of short sightedness too, it doesn't worry my day life but it would likely be enough to blur out the faintest stars at night ...but that means my new skies must be even a little better than they appear
Wind could be a real problem though with your big tube scope acting like a wind sail.
I was unable to use my 12.5 inch RCOS on many a trip to my dark site observatory with 2.3m high walls due to wind. It only has to stick out above the wall by a small amount to be pushed around.
Also some wind will swirl down into the observatory. Not usually much of a problem for sleek refractors but big tubed scopes it is.
If you made a wind break perhaps an angled sheet that moved the air up and away from your observatory rather than at 90 degrees where it could create a low pressure behind the screen and cause its own swirls.
Also mounting your scope a bit lower inside. So your pier height, if you make a pier, should be lower. Seeing as we only really image when an object is higher than about 30 degrees it should be able to sit down inside protected but still see that 60 degrees of useable imaging angle.
My dark site can be windy and is a side effect of wide open spaces or being elevated with hills channelling the wind through the area.
Wind could be a real problem though with your big tube scope acting like a wind sail.
I was unable to use my 12.5 inch RCOS on many a trip to my dark site observatory with 2.3m high walls due to wind. It only has to stick out above the wall by a small amount to be pushed around.
Also some wind will swirl down into the observatory. Not usually much of a problem for sleek refractors but big tubed scopes it is.
If you made a wind break perhaps an angled sheet that moved the air up and away from your observatory rather than at 90 degrees where it could create a low pressure behind the screen and cause its own swirls.
Also mounting your scope a bit lower inside. So your pier height, if you make a pier, should be lower. Seeing as we only really image when an object is higher than about 30 degrees it should be able to sit down inside protected but still see that 60 degrees of useable imaging angle.
My dark site can be windy and is a side effect of wide open spaces or being elevated with hills channelling the wind through the area.
Greg.
Greg.
Totally agree Greg, I wanted to position myself in a spot that wouldn't be affected by family turning on lights inside (nothing worse than a paranoid astroimager yelling at everyone who turns on a light ). If it were my property I would be putting in something like this again in that spot.....
In the meantime ...I will need to try and mitigate the breezes as you say, particularly since I am now considering a 12" or 14" ODK which will sit up higher
Looks like a great site Mike. To have the perfect site means great distances are involved between you and civilization and that may not be ideal for everyone .. I know I wouldnt mind it it but then I think of the handiness of living closer to the places that sell stuff too. So it looks like a great compromise to me considering the reality of it all that there are many other "observatory using" limiting factors as well.
Look forward to the build photos and of course a plethora of those unmistakable Sidonio's. No one does blue stars quite like you.
It looks like its going to be freezing in winter and very warm in summer from the photos.
And those new neighbours .. they are the BEST neighbours around.
Looks like a great site Mike. To have the perfect site means great distances are involved between you and civilization and that may not be ideal for everyone .. I know I wouldnt mind it it but then I think of the handiness of living closer to the places that sell stuff too. So it looks like a great compromise to me considering the reality of it all that there are many other "observatory using" limiting factors as well.
Look forward to the build photos and of course a plethora of those unmistakable Sidonio's. No one does blue stars quite like you.
It looks like its going to be freezing in winter and very warm in summer from the photos.
And those new neighbours .. they are the BEST neighbours around.
Enjoy your new home
Ha ha Cheers Jeff
You're right it's all about compromise in the end and this is pretty well that. Currently trying to sort the best way to mitigate the winds in the exposed spot I have chosen to work from without building a full observatory (it's a rental property).
re the blue stars, Rolf (SkyViking) did a shot of M7 recently that killed me in the blue star department (nice photo though Rolf).
4 posts concreted into the ground with tarps tied on to them. That will be a minimal amount to pull out later and provide the wind break you need.
Measured the sky at my place a couple of weeks ago with grus right over head and it came up at 21.8 twice and 21.76 twice. With any luck your place will be as dark.
4 posts concreted into the ground with tarps tied on to them. That will be a minimal amount to pull out later and provide the wind break you need.
Measured the sky at my place a couple of weeks ago with grus right over head and it came up at 21.8 twice and 21.76 twice. With any luck your place will be as dark.
Yes that is an option and more robust than the folded partition design...
They are good figures Paul, you are very lucky to have two sites. Can't imagine my skies are that good, they are quite dark and all I have though, soooo... tis what it tis
My Mum lives in Canberra and about once a year I drive up...so will be going by your place. For the bin the only way is hook it to the tow ball on the car and drive.
Matt
My Mum lives in Canberra and about once a year I drive up...so will be going by your place. For the bin the only way is hook it to the tow ball on the car and drive.
Matt
We'll just leave the bin at the front gate and take rubbish to it when ever we go out ....hopefully wild animals don't tip it over...?
Gutsy move, which I've considered many times with my better half. (attached building-block view still not out of the question...but sea-spray is eventually fatal for optics! ..sigh..)
To date I've decided to stay put, plus my superannuation would not be looking so super if the missus' grew *really* tired of my Asto-imaging and being stuck in the 'boonies.
Thankfully solar-imaging does not require dark skies!
Gutsy move, which I've considered many times with my better half. (attached building-block view still not out of the question...but sea-spray is eventually fatal for optics! ..sigh..)
To date I've decided to stay put, plus my superannuation would not be looking so super if the missus' grew *really* tired of my Asto-imaging and being stuck in the 'boonies.
Thankfully solar-imaging does not require dark skies!
Good luck with the relocation.
That's the key, we aren't stuck in the boonies, it was a great compomise far enough out to have dark skies but close enough to be 30min from major shops and excellent restaurants etc this outcome is very doable around Canberra because it is an isolated city, suburbia has a very defined edge and once you leave it the skies get dark very quickly.
Good luck Tuesday night too
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 26-08-2012 at 08:27 AM.
That's the key, we aren't stuck in the boonies, it was a great compomise far enough out to have dark skies but close enough to be 30min from major shops and excellent restaurants etc this outcome is very doable around Canberra because it is an isolated city, suburbia has a very defined edge and once you leave it the skies get dark very quickly.
Mike
So true Mike
In fact the only time I can see something that resembles a light dome from Canberra in the west is when there is 100% cloud cover and the light is reflected of the cloud layer.
, 
and this
and this
...but that means my new skies must be even a little better than they appear 
.....
and more robust than the folded partition design...
..sigh..) 
