Dark sky site near Melbourne

[hawkeye]

I was wondering if anyone wanted to share the secret of a favourite dark sky observing spot that's within a bull's roar of Melbourne.
I have heard of Nagambie, but that is a bit of a drive. Has anyone looked at spots at places like Mt Donna Buang, Mornington Peninsula or similar?
The darkest skies I have seen in Victoria were in the high country near Delegate River, where you had to hang onto the ground in case you fell into the Milky Way.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Hawk,

There are plenty of dark spots up here in the west. If you don't mind travelling the darkest place in Victoria is supposedly Mt. Arapiles (pronounced: Arapp - ar - lees) I am in the dark here 1/2 hour west of Ballarat.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Hawkeye, take a look at this thread to get an idea of how far you need to go to get away from the lights .

http://www.iceinspace.com/forum/show...=&threadid=555

I know its not an easy thing to find a suitable dark sky site.
My little spot is off the side of a quiet dirt road about 10 min out of Cranbourne. Dark enough to spot galaxies, but the north western aspect still suffers sky brightness. You really need to be right away from Melbourne for dark skies.

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Hi Hawkeye,
I live on the mornington peninsula, plenty of darkish sky down here

Not fully dark due to melbourne in the north.

South is very dark

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Starkler, that link of yours is no good. Here is a working link. Scroll down to see the Victorian map.

Kyneton is good value. It's not the darkest place in Victoria, but at under 90km from Melbourne it's very good value. Motels are cheap too. I stayed at the Kyneton motel & they were very easy going about everything. Told them we'd be sleeping in (gotta make the most of your night out!) and late checkout was not a problem.

I drove about 10-15 kms north from Kyneton; it was pretty easy to find a spot to set up without hopping any fences.

[hawkeye]

Thanks for the info, people. Kyneton sounds an attractive spot, up in the spa country.
I think I might have to try some places and see how they go.