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Warwick Archers – Location & Facilities

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Ford Road, Rosenthal Heights, Warwick:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ca91xUHiw9crQom77

At the invitation of the Warwick and District Archers (WDA), BAS has been added to the 50ha site lease the WDA has with the land owner, Southern Downs Regional Council.  BAS can now utilise the archer’s Ford Road site and facilities for astronomy nights.  This also allows BAS to proceed with developing facilities to support astronomy and our visiting members.

The site is a 15-minute drive south-west of Warwick.  Driving the New England Highway heading south to Stanthorpe, turn right onto Glen Road at the Warwick Hospital, after about 7km, turn left onto Ford Road.   Or access from the New England Highway via Kingsleigh Road, about a 5minute drive further south along the highway from the Glen Road/hospital intersection.

Google Maps suggests about a 2hour drive time from Indooroopilly to the WDA site if peak hour traffic is avoided.  (As a bonus, the Warwick Mobil petrol station on Wood Street is known for substantially cheaper fuel than Brisbane.)

Google maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ca91xUHiw9crQom77

The Global Light Pollution Map https://rb.gy/64141  classifies the Warwick Archers site as Bortle Class 2 with artificial light incidence of 16.0 μcd/m2.  Our other main observing site at Calvert Aeromodellers is assessed as Class 3 with artificial light of 39.8 μcd/m2.  The Maleny Golf Club site is Class 4 with artificial light of 64.7 μcd/m2. 

There is a very tolerable bubble of light to the east over Warwick, however the sky to the south, west, and even north towards Toowoomba, is very dark.  The site is excellent for visual astronomy and astrophotography.

Due to the significant driving distance from Brisbane, BAS will aim to conduct multi-night weekends at the site, covering Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.  BAS members are encouraged to utilise these opportunities for some multi-night astronomy.  Leaving your own camping gear in the on-site 20-foot shipping container between visits can make Warwick visits an easy option.

Warwick Archers – Global Light Pollution Map https://rb.gy/64141

The WDA entrance is on Ford Road at the southern end of the WDA block and adjacent to the Kingsleigh Road intersection with Ford Road.  The gate has a coded padlock installed by WDA.  BAS is provided with the code.  Contact the BAS President president@bas.asn.au for the current code.

The WDA site is a large scrubby block with WDA main shed, tank water, kitchen, toilet, shower, and camping area facilities at the southern end.  The camping area is a large mown grassed area just below the main archer’s facilities.  There is plenty of room there for a dozen, or more, campers. 

From April 8th 2025 the WDA facilities will be connected to 240V power.  This means the main facility will have – lighting for the main shed and toilets/showers; multiple 240v outlets for battery charging; refrigerator to store food and drink; microwave oven; two 240V power boxes with multiple outlets in the camping ground adjacent to the main facilities.  WDA has also made a 20’ shipping container available to BAS.  Members may store camping gear.  However, it is probably too hot to store delicate astronomy equipment.

The WDA facilities are located at the southern end of the site while BAS telescope pads are at the northern end.

The WDA main shed.  The northern half is lock-up and has the refrigerator and microwave etc.

The Archers main shed is available to BAS.  Members may setup overnight beds in this facility if they wish.

Warwick Archers have slashed a large area, suitable for telescope setup, towards the northern end of the block.  BAS has created about 12 gravelled and levelled telescope setup pads.  Seven of the pads have tennis court matting material to make telescope setup and use more comfortable.    

Levelled telescope setup pads with matting

Warwick Archers have also made available to BAS a 20-foot shipping container and two single beds.  Members may leave their own camping gear in the container rather than transport for each visit.  Members may also choose to sleep in the container on cold nights, or even in the kitchen pavilion area, or the large camp ground area.

BAS has booked specific New Moon weekend dates with Warwick Archers.  However, our members may utilise the site on any day of the year, provided it does not clash with a larger archery event.  Email the BAS President for permission to visit the site on non-BAS event dates.

The gate to the facility is normally locked.  The access code can be provided upon request.

One of two single beds made available to BAS by Warwick Archers

BAS Twitter/X Account

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BAS has a Twitter/X account. This might be a useful inter-member communications channel. Members may message each other using some specific BAS #tags. This may make make it easier for members to see if other members also plan to attend specific BAS events.

The name of the BAS account is: @BrisAstronomy

A few hash-tags #tags have been created for the main events BAS conducts:

Mount Coot-tha Public Nights = #BASCootha
Maleny Observatory Nights = #BASMaleny
Calvert Model Aero Nights = #BASCalvert
Cunningham Lookout Nights = #BASCunningham
Warwick Archers Nights = #BASWarwick
School Nights = #BASSchool

By posting on Twitter/X using a tag such as #BASMaleny, and saying you plan on attending a Maleny Observatory evening, other Twitter/X users can search for the #BASMaleny tag and see the messages left by members, and add to the converation. This may make planning attendance at an evening a bit more transparent.

2022 Queensland Astrofest

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Queensland Astrofest 2022 is on.

It will take place at Camp Duckadang from Friday 22nd July through to Sunday 31st July 2022.

Event details are available, and accommodation bookings are now being accepted, at the Queensland Astrofest website: https://qldastriofest.org.au

The Queensland Astrofest was first held in 1993 and has been held every subsequent year up to 2019. The world then went on pause as we all focused on the health and well-being of communities at large; gatherings of people were restricted. Perhaps only when something is halted, do we fully appreciate its importance, and this is certainly true for this iconic astronomical event; an event which plays such a powerful role in popularising astronomy across all people in our communities, young and old alike.

It is difficult to concisely encapsulate what Astrofest means to the thousands of people that have attended the event over the past 29 years, from its humble beginnings in 1993 to the well-known and much-loved occasion it has become, run under the auspices of several Queensland Astronomical societies. The event brings together people from all different paths in life to enjoy a shared experience, to both teach and to learn from others and to pass on their passion to the next generation.

Brisbane Astronomical Society is especially proud of the role it played in that early genesis of an event that would go on to become one of the most enduring Astro Camps in the world today. We encourage all our members to indulge themselves and attend one or more nights to appreciate how special the event is.

We would also very much like to acknowledge the extremely generous support we have received from our sponsors over the years and they have really stepped up this year to make the return of Astrofest better than ever.

Sponsors for 2022 include:
Astro Anarchy
BINTEL
Celestron
Palmway Optical
SailPoint
Skywatcher
Testar
UNIFY Solutions

Full details of all our sponsors and the prizes they have donated this year, along with registration can be found on the Astrofest website, https://qldastriofest.org.au.

We look forward to seeing Brisbane Astronomical Society strongly represented amongst those attending.

What Telescope Should I Buy?

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What telescope should I buy?  This is a very common question and perplexing for many adults wanting to get started in astronomy, or parents wanting to purchase a telescope for a child.

To cut directly to an answer, Brisbane Astronomical Society suggests a Dobsonian telescope is often the best choice, for multiple reasons.   We hope the attached PDF document will help you make the right purchase decision.

Universe

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Author: Nicolas Cheetham

This beautiful book leads us into a celestial panorama that extends for 130 billion trillion kilometres (80 billion trillion miles) in every direction, and allows us to explore nearly 200 of the most extraordinary astronomical views ever uncovered. Complementing these up-to-date and spectacular images are enlightening descriptions of the planets, stars, nebulae, white dwarfs, supernovae, black holes and other exotica that populate our universe.