Texas Hill Country astronomy, any good?

Anyone have any input on the Texas Hill Country area around Marble Falls
being good, bad, or ugly for astronomy?
Is Enchanted Rock the closest "Clear Sky Clock" to that area?
We are considering the area for our retirement home, and am seeking advice
about this area, especially for astronomy.
TIA,

Gary

Gary Heath wrote:
Anyone have any input on the Texas Hill Country area around Marble
Falls
being good, bad, or ugly for astronomy?
Is Enchanted Rock the closest "Clear Sky Clock" to that area?
We are considering the area for our retirement home, and am seeking
advice
about this area, especially for astronomy.
TIA,

Gary

Hi:

The Texas Hill country can be good. Away from population centers like
San Antonio, it can be very dark. Problems? Humidity and clouds. Ask
anybody who attended the 1997 TSP. ;-) This area is more like Houston
than Fort Davis. ;-)

Peace,
Rod

these sites may be helpful:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Marble-Falls-Texas.html
http://www.darksky.org/~ida/darksky/index.html

Peace,
Jon

"Gary Heath" Marvin wrote in message
...
Anyone have any input on the Texas Hill Country area around Marble Falls
being good, bad, or ugly for astronomy?
Is Enchanted Rock the closest "Clear Sky Clock" to that area?
We are considering the area for our retirement home, and am seeking advice
about this area, especially for astronomy.
TIA,

Gary

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 13:22:05 -0500, Gary Heath wrote
(in article ):

Anyone have any input on the Texas Hill Country area around Marble Falls
being good, bad, or ugly for astronomy?
Is Enchanted Rock the closest "Clear Sky Clock" to that area?
We are considering the area for our retirement home, and am seeking advice
about this area, especially for astronomy.
TIA,

Gary


The Austin Astronomical Society has their observatory in the hill country a
bit north of Burnet at the north end of Lake Buchanan. Many of out members
are buying property near LLano (also in the hill country) which has very dark
skies.

You can get darker heading further west, but this is pretty good. You can
find 6.5-7.0 LM skies in the areas west of LLano. Seeing is generally
passable in this area of the country. Commonly it is 5/10 or 6/10 on the
Pickering scale.

You might check the Light Pollution Map associated with the Clear Sky Clock
for C Bar Ranch to get an idea of the skies in the area.
http://cleardarksky.com/c/CBarRchTXkey.html?1

Feel free to email me privately if you want to discuss this further.

RMOLLISE:
The Texas Hill country can be good. Away from population centers like
San Antonio, it can be very dark. Problems? Humidity and clouds. Ask
anybody who attended the 1997 TSP. ;-) This area is more like Houston
than Fort Davis. ;-)

When I lived in West Texas in the 1960's the problem with the Hill
Country was that it was too dry and dusty. Clouds were not a problem at
that time. I haven't been in the Hill Country for a long time, but
visits to San Angelo, Austin, and San Antonio confirm that the climate
has changed.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

There are some places in the hill country that have pretty tollerably
dark skies*. Our group uses a place right near Pedernales St Pk. We
still have some skyglow from Austin and San Antonio, but in the last 5
years, Johnson city. Marble Falls, and even Blanco have started to
cause their own skyglow. Still we get mag 6.3 skies when the air is dry
and the atmosphere is cooperating, the the horizon is somewhat of a
mess.

For retirement dark skies in the hill country, I suggest looking just
west of Johnson city, significantly east of Fredricksburg and south of
H290 as the best bet optimizing land cost, current skyglow, and
projected skyglow; with reasonable travel time to a reasonable sized
city (Fredricksburg). Luckenbach comes to mind.

Now if you are free/willing to live in more remote areas, I can suggest
Ft Davis Texas and vicinity, and/or near Cloudcroft NM.
[*] however, not as good as they were 5 years ago, or 10 years ago.

Gary Heath wrote:

Anyone have any input on the Texas Hill Country area around Marble Falls
being good, bad, or ugly for astronomy?
Is Enchanted Rock the closest "Clear Sky Clock" to that area?
We are considering the area for our retirement home, and am seeking advice
about this area, especially for astronomy.
TIA,

Gary

I'd worry that the area west of Austin will slowly fill in and light up
over the coming decades. You might consider locations a little farther
west, like between Menard or Eldorado, up towards Christoval, or even
better, south of Sonora or Junction. We're looking at getting some land
south of Christoval - lots of small 5-10 acre lots out that way. Very
dark.
Mike

"Mike Jones" wrote in message
...

lots of small 5-10 acre lots out that way.

:-)

Thanks for all the help guys!
I just bought a new motorcoach that I will be picking up form the factory in
Oregon in the next few weeks.
The plan is to check out 3, maybe 4 areas we are interested in, and them
spend the next 18 months or so, going back and forth between these areas,
staying in each for a month or more during each season, to be sure it's what
we want.
I'm looking at the area between Prescott and Flagstaff Az., around Angle
Fire Nm., and in either the Hill country, or around Alpine in the Davis
mountains, of Texas.
I had never been to the Tx. Hill country and wanted to get some input so we
can plan on places to reserve for the coach.
I may be a bit spoiled by the steady skies we get in central northern
California, but am willing to take a trade off for darker skies and less
hectic living.
I'm hoping these areas will yield decent astronomy ... and still be in line
with my wife's requirements. ;-)
Your information is well received and once again, thank you all so very
much!
Best regards,

Gary

Gary,

We find the skies in NW Llano county to be the best we can
get within a two hour drive from Austin. There seems to be
a "dry line" between Austin and Burnet where the sky is often
clearer to the northwest.

If astronomy is your main desire after retirement, the hill
country west of Burnet is sweet, and I don't think it will
fill in with bright metro sprawl any time soon. As for things
like emergency services go, it's a long way from help.
And it gets hot in the summer, with a SE breeze that does
bring some gulf humidity in.

Dark sky acreage availability generally starts at around 15
acres minimum. I can personally recommend a realtor that
helped us find our little sweet spot, Joyce is familiar with
the bizarre requirements we astro types have:
http://www.fortmasonrealestate.com/

Jim



On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 11:22:05 -0700, "Gary Heath" Marvin
wrote:

Anyone have any input on the Texas Hill Country area around Marble Falls
being good, bad, or ugly for astronomy?
Is Enchanted Rock the closest "Clear Sky Clock" to that area?
We are considering the area for our retirement home, and am seeking advice
about this area, especially for astronomy.
TIA,

Gary