Moving/New Location (Equipment Care Considerations)

[GC - South Aus]

G'day Everyone

My wife and I are presently considering moving from the ACT, at this stage there are a couple of options.

1. Hervey Bay
2. North West Tasmania
3. Country NSW
4. Back to South Australia

Whilst this decision process has been a quandary in itself, my main query relates to my wife's number one chosen place (Hervey Bay).

Whilst I have visited many parts of QLD with work/holidays, I have never actually lived there! I am curious what considerations I need to make in relation to the care and maintenance of astronomical instruments (plus camera equipment) in such humidity?

Having generally lived in more dry conditions, I have never really had to contend with such environmental issues.

Any advice from people living more to the North would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

GC

[croweater (Richard)]

Hi GC, You seem to have all options covered.
1. Hervey Bay. Warm, idealic.
2. NW Tasmania. Cold, wet and windy.
3. Country NSW. Hot and drought stricken.
4. South Australia. Hot dry summer. Windy winter.
I think your wife is just about on the money.
Cheers, Richard.

[Sunfish (Ray)]

I lived in Hobart , Tasmania for many years and it is actually very dry , clear air and cool.

So perhaps ideal for astronomy. Half the rainfall of here.

I have a family in Noosa , and a sister in Bribie and spend a lot of time there and it is very wet and humid although lovely in the winter. I love the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. Places like Maleny cool in the summer and yet very close to all that beautiful coast.

Originally Posted by croweater

Hi GC, You seem to have all options covered.
1. Hervey Bay. Warm, idealic.
2. NW Tasmania. Cold, wet and windy.
3. Country NSW. Hot and drought stricken.
4. South Australia. Hot dry summer. Windy winter.
I think your wife is just about on the money.
Cheers, Richard.

[Outcast (Carlton)]

Hi GC,

I live considerably north of Hervey Bay (Cairns) & perhaps battle with even more extremes of heat & humidity than you will have to deal with.

I have lots & I mean lots of rechargeable dessicant bags scattered through my telescope, eyepiece & camera cases & I check them regularly. They are easy to make up yourself, buy bulk rechargeable dessicant on eBay & get the small ziplock bags & get busy with a pin... there are commercial versions in the form of plastic boxes you can plug into a USB to recharge but, they are bulky....

In each visual back of the scopes I own there is either an old film cannister with holes drilled in the base (1.25" VB) or a 2" plastic cylinder for the 2" VBs with a bag of rechargeable dessicant in them. Again, you can buy commercial cannisters but, they are pricey & these work just fine...

After a night's viewing, my scopes & EP's come back inside & are left out with the optics open & a ceiling fan operating to circulate air. I don't pack either my eyepieces or my scopes away until I am certain they are dry. When packing them away, I double check the dessicant bags & swap out the dessicant if required...

My DSLR & lenses are stored similarly, in their bags with a rechargeable dessicant bag popped in to keep them dry. I know some of the more dedicated photographers up here use a dry cupboard for their gear but, what I am doing seems to work just fine.

So, yes, bit of a challenge to keep your gear dry & potentially mould free but, thus far, I have had no major problems as such & we've been in Cairns for close to 15 years now.

I did have one issue with the inside of a corrector plate on a Meade SCT I used to own & to this day I'm still not sure if they were the beginnings of a mould bloom or something else. I noticed them very quickly & was able to remove the corrector plate & clean it, leaving no trace whatsoever of the offending whatever it was... I became even more anally retentive about liberal use of dessicant packs & drying my gear out after a session as a result.

Hope this experience is of some value to you in your decision making process although, if your family is like mine, I suspect the decision may already be made...

[croweater (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Sunfish

I lived in Hobart , Tasmania for many years and it is actually very dry , clear air and cool.

So perhaps ideal for astronomy. Half the rainfall of here.

I have a family in Noosa , and a sister in Bribie and spend a lot of time there and it is very wet and humid although lovely in the winter. I love the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. Places like Maleny cool in the summer and yet very close to all that beautiful coast.

Yeah Ray I love Hobart but I think from memory it is a fair bit wetter and windier NW .
Cheers Richard

[astroron (Ron)]

Harvey Bay is good all year round,as it has wonderful sea breezes,even in the Summer time,that's why it is a great place to retire.
It's one of the main retirement cool spots of South East Queensland
I don't think you can do much wrong by going there.
Of course being by the sea may have some salty air to deal with,all depends how close you are.
Cheers

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Hervey Bay is a lovely spot, seems like it has had more prosperous days, but if you lived a little bit out of town you'd escape most of the LP.

As Ron says, close to the coast gives you the coastal breezes that take the edge off, and when summer is too much to bear, there is always air conditioning

It's very different from Canberra... we don't get 40 degree heat up here, nor below freezing temps

I often use an SCT and find dew tends to be more of a problem in winter, when the temperature can drop quite substantially, rather than the humid summer, when the temperature doesn't feel like it drops much at all.

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Yes the extreme Northwest is just like here, 1200 mm rain or more, where the NE coast is like Hobart, half that at 600mm. Don’t even think about the rest of the West coast which is the heart of darkness.

Originally Posted by croweater

Yeah Ray I love Hobart but I think from memory it is a fair bit wetter and windier NW .
Cheers Richard

[croweater (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Sunfish

Yes the extreme Northwest is just like here, 1200 mm rain or more, where the NE coast is like Hobart, half that at 600mm. Don’t even think about the rest of the West coast which is the heart of darkness.

Was intending to travel down "the heart of darkness" this October during my holidays but I guess that's not happening now.

[Rainmaker (Matt)]

Hervey Bay would be my last pick of those 4 options, I just cannot stand the humidity/heat combo......

If you do end up there a humidity controlled cabinet for all your scopes and camera optics is a must, mould loves optics.....
After 12 years in Mooloolaba on Sunshine Coast I had to send all my Nikon lenses to be cleaned by Nikon (and they had been stored in Pelican cases with fresh desiccant pack fitted each week.....

North East Tasmania would be a nice option but with lots of Mexi-bournians having moved to Tas, the price s have gone up markedly. Along the top there a nice places like Sulphur Ck, Penguin...

[Sunfish (Ray)]

You never know . That is several months away and the Tasmanian's might be letting mainlanders in by then. Very wild and beautiful despite the constant rain.

Originally Posted by croweater

Was intending to travel down "the heart of darkness" this October during my holidays but I guess that's not happening now.

[GrahamL]

The heat /humidity of SE/Q can be brutal if your not used it and the summer rain can be never ending at times.
Tassie I've been to a couple of times weather seems pleasant enough very
changeable though more so in the west from memory summer to winter and back again in the blink of an eye.