Episode 11 : In Search of Dark Skies, Cue.

This is the video that almost did not get made. We decided to take a trip north to get out of weeks of cloudy, windy, rainy weather. This might just be 'winter' to some people to here in Perth you normally get a break every week or ten days but this year it has been unrelenting. Going north to the semi arid Murchison region is likely at this time of year to give clearer skies. Checked the weather and it looked promising but when we arrived the weather had other ideas.
To cut a long story short I did get a short 3 hour astrophotography session in to test the light pollution levels using NGC6188 as the target. Results were promising. I didn't bother to try to find a dark site out of town, just set up in the the Caravan Park behind the camper. There are lights around so you can walk around at night without a torch but the sky was very clear and the target was high.
We spent four nights in Cue and did some other side trips during the day such as visiting an old ghost town, one of the best aboriginal rock art galleries to be found and some mineral fossicking. I've put a longer video on my travel channel at
• Cue, Western Australia...
I have plans for a longer trip to this region next 'Galaxy Season'. There is a town about 600km away to the north east that looks to have an even smaller light pollution footprint than Cue. No mines nearby, a decent caravan park with the pub next door. Keep an eye out for a video from there about next July or August. I will pump out some more videos before then but the Travel channel has my attention at the moment. I have lots and lots of catching up to do there.