looking for people for VIC get-together new year's new Moon weekend

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Next new Moon is Friday 30 Dec 2005, so the new year's weekend should be perfect for deep sky observing if the weather cooperates. It is also a chance to say goodbye to Mars before it soon disappears for a couple of years, and to catch Saturn and Jupiter as they are coming around. And most of us are lucky enough to get a bit of time off work which we might as well put to some good use.

So I am hoping there will be some fellow Iceinspacers who would join me for a new years' weekend under dark skies. I am getting more and more into galaxy observing so I would ideally like to see some very dark skies, but still within several hours drive from Melbourne.

I still have to check what days I'll have off work over the xmas-new-year period, but in the least I'm thinking to leave Friday Fri 30 Dec 2005, and come back Mon 2 Jan 2006: potential for at least 3 nights of observing (weather permitting ).

I picked out seven possible locations, and marked them on the light pollution map from http://www.lightpollution.it (where each successive colour represents a 3-fold increase in light pollution level):

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jano...best-sites.png

Here they are, in order of my preference:

A: Bright / Mt Hotham / Mt Beauty / Falls Creek
A very low light pollution region and it is at high altitude (by Aussie standards at least), which should make for good seeing. Also lots to see and enjoy during daylight hours.

B: The Grampians
Very dark location and also within driving distance for some SA people. Beautiful place.

C: Moonlight Head, Cape Otway (Great Ocean Rd)
Very low light pollution, but it is a coastal site, which means likelyhood of bad seeing in my unqualified opinion.

D: Mt Buller / Mt Stirling
Another high altitude site. Compromise between A and F in terms of light pollution / distance from Melbourne.

E: Wilsons Prom
Very low light pollution, but it is coastal and a very popular holiday destination. Probably all booked out. Plus the DSE likes to light big bushfires down there, which makes for very poor seeing and transparency.

F & G: These are the quasi-consumerist options , within about 100km from Melbourne, and I'd much rather go with one of A-E. But if people are not willing to travel farther for darker skies, then these might be a fair compromise:

F: Lake Mountain
It has altitude for better seeing and it is far enough out of Melbourne to get rid of the worst of the light pollution.

G: Heathcote-Graytown national park
Main problem with this location is that Melbourne skyglow is to the south, in some of the best parts of the sky. Still beats a suburban back yard!

At this stage I am just trying to get an idea of how many people would be interested and what your preferences might be for location.

I can take one passenger who travels light in the 'rolla.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Sorry Steve, but I'm booked out. New Years Eve party and the ancillary silly stuff. Being New Years weekend it might make it hard for a lot of people who go to the obligatory 'New Years Eve' Fireworks/Party/Get-together/Booze-up/Family thing.

Sounds excellent, just bad timing for me. I hope you get some attendees and have a great time.

Don't forget to take some High Mag pics of the 'Fireworks Nebula' and the 'Sky-rocket Meteors'

[xstream (John)]

Steve,
There are 7 of us going to Mount Buffalo on Saturday 28th Jan for the night. Camping at Lake Catani camping ground and observing round at Tatra. Your more than welcome to join us and any other members if you wish.
If you would like more details PM me.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Thanks John, That sounds good. I'll send you a PM.

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Not for me Steve.
I spend Xmas and new year with the family

Enjoy your time. Catching up with John would be good.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Dave, I have very few family members in Oz and I'd rather not ruin my xmas break by spending it with them.

I realise most people have plans already. I might have to spend new year's with non-astronomers, i.e. convertees , or by myself if they won't come to the star party.

[Argonavis (William)]

Love the map and your zeal to use every available dark sky weekend. Now if only I could dispense with the family...mmmm.

Do you know if there is a genuine difference between the grey areas on the map and the black areas in terms of limiting magnitude?

Interestingly, the map would indicate that the best areas are in the Grampians and the high country around Bright (which is why I picked it for my first honeymoon, little did she know...then, ah well). The map would indicate that places like Heathcote and the central plains are not optimal (if the grey areas mean anything) for light pollution. They are not optimal for seeing either, with packets of hot air rising all night from these areas.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Originally Posted by Argonavis

Love the map and your zeal to use every available dark sky weekend. Now if only I could dispense with the family...mmmm.

Thanks! I plan to visit all the red labelled locations eventually... with my scope of course

Do you know if there is a genuine difference between the grey areas on the map and the black areas in terms of limiting magnitude?

Each successive colour in the contour plot represents a 3-fold decrease in light pollution background, which would corresponds 1.2 mag increase in limiting magnitude. Which checks out, because that's about 5 magnitudes difference between near the central part of Melbourne and somewhere like Lake Mountain.

Of course the 1.2 mag increase in limiting magnitude is not when you step across the line from the grey into the black but when you go from say blue-grey boundary to grey-black boundary. In the black areas, presumably the best places are likely to be those furthest from any grey areas.

[danielsun]

Sorry Steve, any other time for me would be good but im having a family do at home on new years, plus got brother in law down from QLD.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

I'm actually thinking about going to a location not marked on the map for the days following Xmas: the Murray-Sunset National Park in the NW corner of the state. Pretty far from Melbourne at 550km, closer to Adelaide at 400km. I am trying to get away from this cursed weather! But I'll see how it's looking in a day or two...

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Had a couple of really good nights at Raspberry Hill Camping Ground, 15km from Falls Creek. Had a few interested fellow campers check out the scope and some of the showpiece objects. I'll be at the same site tonight and maybe tomorrow (NYE Saturday) night, if the weather is good and all is well at home. I'm in Omeo at the post office, in front of an old PC with 640x480 monitor.

Best wishes for the new year everyone.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

I just got back. Falls Creek was not as dark a site as I'd hoped. Not any better than Lake Mountain just 100 or so km from Melbourne. Much better skies near Seaspray and at Snake Valley. Wondered what it was, maybe stupid skiing alpine villages have some lights pointed skywards I thought... So I went to Dartmouth for one night on top of Mt Benambra. The culprit was obvious from there: Albury-Wodonga. Big ball of skyglow emanating from there. But how it travels so far (Falls Creek is about 100km away) I donno...

Still had lots of fun, especially showing other campers around the sky. And once they had all gone to bed, I had the whole sky to myself for a couple of nights.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Have scope will travel! Onya Steve!!!

Hows the Post Office going? Happy New Year mate.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Haha! I just posted the above message to you thinking you are still at Omeo Post Office and while I was typing it you come in and say you are home!

Pity about the light pollution Steve.
But good that you enjoyed your time!

I have marked Snake Valley with a pink circle on your map so you can see where it is in relation to the light pollution scale.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Thanks Ken. You can't trust that map! I was at "A" and it was the same as "F". I think you are a bit closer to Melbourne too than the pink circle. I just saw your Saturn pic. Impressive. Sounds like Snake Valley was ideal.

The Omeo Post office puter was a nightmare. The only message I managed to get out was the one above. It had a "Power" key where you normally have "Delete". And it reset the puter as soon as you hit it! I tried to write emails, but I never made it through a single message without hitting that stupid key. I walked away before acting on the urge to smash the keyboard over the manager's head.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

LOL! Must be a very modern up-to-date Post Office!

Ours doesn't even have a pooter! Come to think of it, ours doesn't have much of anything!

I marked Snake Valley from memory. It's probably not dead accurate. It's somewhere near there.

Yeah, the night I took that Saturn pic was absolutely magic. I can't remember a night like it for many years. And now we have cloud again! Typical. The light pollution map differs on different nights too. I can see sky glow from Melbourne when there is high cloud to the east. It reflects back down off the clouds. When there is no cloud at all anywhere I can't see it!

When there is high cloud in the west I get sky glow from Ararat. So it's not always dark in the dark spots!

[xstream (John)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

Albury-Wodonga. Big ball of skyglow emanating from there. But how it travels so far (Falls Creek is about 100km away) I donno...

The way the crow fly's you're only about 80-90 odd klm's away.

I read somewhere once, for true dark skies you need to be a minimum of 140 klm's away from the nearest large light source.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Wow John, not too many places 140k+ away from a large light source. As you move away from one there is always another looming on the horizon.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

The light pollution map differs on different nights too. I can see sky glow from Melbourne when there is high cloud to the east. It reflects back down off the clouds. When there is no cloud at all anywhere I can't see it!

I think you hit the nail on the head Ken. In the Oz Alps I could see thick dense "cloud" along the horizon at sunset and poor visibility during the day even on clear days. Makes sense that it would carry light pollution further. Lake Mountain is about the same distance from Melbourne as Falls Creek is from Wodonga, but on 4 occasions I've been to L.M., the skies were at least as good as if not better than at F.C.