What are the cloud cover stats for Alice Springs?
What is the best place in Australia?
According to BOM data I could find, the Karratha area is the best place in Australia, with over 3700 hours of sun annually, which is a daily average of over 10 hours. However, Sunshine data is very sparse in that region, so in all likelyhood there are probably places in the area with even higher sunshine levels.
By comparison, Failbourne gets around 2100 hours, Sydney 2600 hours and Perf 3100 hours. Not 100% sure about Alice Springs but it's around 3500-3600 IIRC.
Karratha huh...? Hmmm I'm thinking that when it is cloudy there though it is likely to be a Cyclone ...bye bye observatory
...maybe moving inland 50km or so would help?
Yeah, sunniest place I can find in the BOM achives. The problem is, there are very few places which have average sunshine listed, but I'd imagine inland might be a bit sunnier. You'd want somewhere that escapes the summer monsoon but also cold fronts from the south. The Pilbara fits the bill nicely.
i am dareing to hope ... the weather people say tonight shall be clear although there is could atm i dare to hope... want to try out my new Baddar coma corrector
You'd want somewhere that escapes the summer monsoon but also cold fronts from the south. The Pilbara fits the bill nicely.
As a reliable dry and cloud free observing location, the Pilbara does not extend
far enough inland and is too far north to be a candidate. The rain at times
absolutely dumps down there and the tracks become impassable due to flooding.
Even the Great Sandy Desert, which is further inland still, can receive
quite a lot of rain during the Wet.
Even in very dry locations, like around Woomera and elsewhere deep in
the interior of SA, you can never completely escape the occassional
downpour and when it rains, the mud becomes so thick that one's boots start to
weigh one down like lead diving boots.
I was in Birdsville in SW Qld one day when we recorded the temperature at
50C and they put on soup with ice cubes in it in the pub for dinner. But even that
night it absolutely bucketed down, testimony to the land of extremes we live in.
Funnily enough though, one day at work, one of my crew ran into the office screaming that there was a UFO outside. ( Midday )
We all went outside and it was just a cloud, ( but the first we had seen in about a week ). Kept us amused for a few mins
As a reliable dry and cloud free observing location, the Pilbara does not extend
far enough inland and is too far north to be a candidate. The rain at times
absolutely dumps down there and the tracks become impassable due to flooding.
Even the Great Sandy Desert, which is further inland still, can receive
quite a lot of rain during the Wet.
Even in very dry locations, like around Woomera and elsewhere deep in
the interior of SA, you can never completely escape the occassional
downpour and when it rains, the mud becomes so thick that one's boots start to
weigh one down like lead diving boots.
I was in Birdsville in SW Qld one day when we recorded the temperature at
50C and they put on soup with ice cubes in it in the pub for dinner. But even that
night it absolutely bucketed down, testimony to the land of extremes we live in.
This argument could be made for anywhere in the country though. In the NW deserts, it's the exception rather than the rule. Overall, the Pilbara is still the sunniest place in the nation and most rainfall falls from shortlived storm cells, rather than cloud laden frontal systems and monsoon troughs. Ofcourse, the Pilbara will have their days of overcast when the monsoon trough links with a southern frontal system or the occasional cyclone, but the difference is the associated cloudiness in a given spot, rarely lasts more than a small handful of days at a time, unlike in the tropics or down here.
i think i am going to cry the clouds have broken the scope is out and i am manically looking at the western horizon (location of appearing clouds as i call it)
...bye bye observatory 
