Country VIC - flying evening trip

[trav]

Hi all,

Wow, first post time. Hope I get this right...

I've had the idea for a while of taking a few people and some equiptment to a country location for a one night only viewing. Trick is that I'm a pilot and my idea is to jump in a plane at Essendon after work or early afternoon on a weekend and head out to a smallish airport somewhere north of the range and set up at the airport. Most airports are not lit unless a plane turns them on and they're also usually a fair distance from whatever town they're near. Also, most have horizion to horizon views as a bonus.

Typically I can get about 130-140nm (240-260km) in an hour in the plane and this costs about $220 each way. Between 4 people thats about $110. Not cheap I know, but you get to leave late afternoon and come back whenever you want (2-3am?).

Equiptment would be limited to SCT's, refractors and smaller reflectors due to space / weight limits in the plane, but the sky's be dark and the trip short...

Would anyone be interested in coming with me one night in the new year?


Cheers,

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Trav.

to the forum. I did get your email, sorry I didn't get a chance to reply. But you've done the right thing and posted it here for general comment

How did you hear about us?

[trav]

Cheers,

Found you eventually in AS&T from your article. I'd been looking for ages for a decent Australian based site.

[xstream (John)]

Pick somewhere like Mt Hotham Trav and you'll even get in altitude viewing.

Oh, and welcome to the house of horrors.

[fringe_dweller]

wow your actually going live my astro fantasy! except it was a helicopter not a plane in my dream

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Don't bother using Ballarat Airport. Too many lights aroung coz it's only about 2k out of the town.

[trav]

Mt Hotham is on my list of possible sites, so yeah the height advantage can be acheived:-)

At this stage the most likley candidate sites are:
Hamilton in western Vic (6km from town but it's over a rise, no nearby highway (like Shepparton) either. No lights for about 5km and only a small town then;
Echuca;
Mt Hotham, but the landing fees are high and I think they run 24x7 security lighting;
Anywhere north of Bendigo ;

[xstream (John)]

Corowa, would be worth a thought.
Reasonable skies there also.