Where would you go to live if .....

It's finally happened, both my wife and I are retired and getting our home
ready for sale here in the SF Bay Area.
Last year we just took off in a new motorcoach to "unwind" and are now
looking at doing the same, but instead of just goofing off, we will be
traveling to a few places we want to check out to see if it suits our needs.
We plan to stay for at least a month in each season, in each of the areas we
are interested in, so it will be between 1 and 1-1/2 years until we buy or
build our next home after we have our current place sold.
Although we are both looking forward to building an observatory to house a
growing collection of scopes, we want to try to find a southwest location
that has dark steady skies, and in a place that is not too arid/hot in
summer (is somewhat forested and stays mostly below 90 in summer) nor too
cold ( stays mostly above 30 during the days) in the winter.
This may sound simple, but it really isn't (at least for us).
So far we are looking at the area just outside of Yosemite Ca., the area in
the Texas Hill Country by Marble Falls/Lake LBJ, the area just east of Zion
National Park.in Ut., and Sedona/ Prescott Az areas.
I would prefer a place that has 4 seasons with a winter having a max of 3
months of snow, and has an observing season that is reliably free of rain.
That just might nix Texas, but I'm not sure.
I'd very much appreciate hearing about any knowledge you may have about
these places, and would be interested in some other particulars of places
that you know might be a better fit for our needs.
TIA and best regards,

Gary and Maria Heath

Cloudcroft-Mayhill-Timberon-Hondo-Ruidoso New Mexico all has essentially
the climates, and sky conditions you seek. Mark

Gary Heath wrote:
It's finally happened, both my wife and I are retired and getting our home
ready for sale here in the SF Bay Area.
Last year we just took off in a new motorcoach to "unwind" and are now
looking at doing the same, but instead of just goofing off, we will be
traveling to a few places we want to check out to see if it suits our needs.
We plan to stay for at least a month in each season, in each of the areas we
are interested in, so it will be between 1 and 1-1/2 years until we buy or
build our next home after we have our current place sold.
Although we are both looking forward to building an observatory to house a
growing collection of scopes, we want to try to find a southwest location
that has dark steady skies, and in a place that is not too arid/hot in
summer (is somewhat forested and stays mostly below 90 in summer) nor too
cold ( stays mostly above 30 during the days) in the winter.
This may sound simple, but it really isn't (at least for us).
So far we are looking at the area just outside of Yosemite Ca., the area in
the Texas Hill Country by Marble Falls/Lake LBJ, the area just east of Zion
National Park.in Ut., and Sedona/ Prescott Az areas.
I would prefer a place that has 4 seasons with a winter having a max of 3
months of snow, and has an observing season that is reliably free of rain.
That just might nix Texas, but I'm not sure.
I'd very much appreciate hearing about any knowledge you may have about
these places, and would be interested in some other particulars of places
that you know might be a better fit for our needs.
TIA and best regards,

Flagstaff, AZ. Cooler than Sedona, but really close if you need you chi
vortexed or whatever ;-)
Where I live (for now) Salida, CO is good for most of your criteria, but
the seeing is crappy much of the time. The mountains that keep it
warm(er) and dry, and provide for great outdoor recreation, also trip up
the atmosphere quite a bit.

Shawn

Plus he's going to need to know if he's on the edge of or even in the
twister belt or amoung the T-Storm roadway too.

How about the 5,000ft mark above the Kona Cost of Hawaii? ;


--
The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond

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http://home.inreach.com/starlord
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www.sidewalkastronomy.info
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"Shawn" sdotherecurry@bresnannextdotnet wrote in message
. ..
Gary Heath wrote:
It's finally happened, both my wife and I are retired and getting our
home
ready for sale here in the SF Bay Area.
Last year we just took off in a new motorcoach to "unwind" and are now
looking at doing the same, but instead of just goofing off, we will be
traveling to a few places we want to check out to see if it suits our
needs.
We plan to stay for at least a month in each season, in each of the areas
we
are interested in, so it will be between 1 and 1-1/2 years until we buy
or
build our next home after we have our current place sold.
Although we are both looking forward to building an observatory to house
a
growing collection of scopes, we want to try to find a southwest location
that has dark steady skies, and in a place that is not too arid/hot in
summer (is somewhat forested and stays mostly below 90 in summer) nor too
cold ( stays mostly above 30 during the days) in the winter.
This may sound simple, but it really isn't (at least for us).
So far we are looking at the area just outside of Yosemite Ca., the area
in
the Texas Hill Country by Marble Falls/Lake LBJ, the area just east of
Zion
National Park.in Ut., and Sedona/ Prescott Az areas.
I would prefer a place that has 4 seasons with a winter having a max of 3
months of snow, and has an observing season that is reliably free of
rain.
That just might nix Texas, but I'm not sure.
I'd very much appreciate hearing about any knowledge you may have about
these places, and would be interested in some other particulars of places
that you know might be a better fit for our needs.
TIA and best regards,

Flagstaff, AZ. Cooler than Sedona, but really close if you need you chi
vortexed or whatever ;-)
Where I live (for now) Salida, CO is good for most of your criteria, but
the seeing is crappy much of the time. The mountains that keep it
warm(er) and dry, and provide for great outdoor recreation, also trip up
the atmosphere quite a bit.

Shawn

I'd say Yosemite has 6 months of winter. Nice skies from higher
elevations, though there may be 10 feet of snow on the ground.

I'd say parts of Arizona, lke Sedona. Flagstaff's nice, but maybe more
a real winter than you're looking for. Four corners region???

Greg

Don't Be Evil wrote:
I'd say Yosemite has 6 months of winter. Nice skies from higher
elevations, though there may be 10 feet of snow on the ground.

I'd say parts of Arizona, lke Sedona. Flagstaff's nice, but maybe more
a real winter than you're looking for. Four corners region???

Greg


One of the darkest skies, not the best seeing, and likely to stay
dark for a while is Portal AZ. (eastern AZ near the NM border) They have
a small astronomy village with a community observatory last time i checked.

d.

Gary Heath wrote:

Although we are both looking forward to building an observatory to house a
growing collection of scopes, we want to try to find a southwest location
that has dark steady skies, and in a place that is not too arid/hot in
summer (is somewhat forested and stays mostly below 90 in summer) nor too
cold ( stays mostly above 30 during the days) in the winter.
This may sound simple, but it really isn't (at least for us).
So far we are looking at the area just outside of Yosemite Ca., the area in
the Texas Hill Country by Marble Falls/Lake LBJ, the area just east of Zion
National Park.in Ut., and Sedona/ Prescott Az areas.
I would prefer a place that has 4 seasons with a winter having a max of 3
months of snow, and has an observing season that is reliably free of rain.
That just might nix Texas, but I'm not sure.



I drove through Marble Falls today, matter of fact, on a family outing
up to Cooper's in Llano, which has the absolute best BBQ in the entire
effing world.

Living so close to Cooper's would be a big plus, and we have quite a few
nights of very steady seeing (though this spring has been unusually
poor). It's also dark up there - the Austin Astronomy club has its star
parties not far from there in a place called Canyon of Eagles on Lake
Buchanon. Their site has good electrical hookups, too. Doesn't rain that
much at any time of the year.

The Hill Country has a peculiar kind of beauty, also, though most of TX
is pretty grim.

But central TX is HOT. Like HOT. In the summer it is very common to
sweat while observing as the mosquitos buzz around you - that's a
serious drag. And in the winter it never gets really cold. There are
occasional ice storms, but daytime highs in January are typically in the
70s. It snows very rarely. The winters are OK, but I have a hard time
facing the summer here.

And I'm moving in a couple of months to upstate NY - aka Frostbite
Falls. No real BBQ anywhere in the vicinity, Summer highs in the 70s.
It'll be like moving to Bizzarro World after 7 years in Austin. I may be
dying to sweat by the end of the year.

Best of luck in your decision - Chris

starburst wrote:
Gary Heath wrote:

Although we are both looking forward to building an observatory to
house a
growing collection of scopes, we want to try to find a southwest location
that has dark steady skies, and in a place that is not too arid/hot in
summer (is somewhat forested and stays mostly below 90 in summer) nor too
cold ( stays mostly above 30 during the days) in the winter.
This may sound simple, but it really isn't (at least for us).
So far we are looking at the area just outside of Yosemite Ca., the
area in
the Texas Hill Country by Marble Falls/Lake LBJ, the area just east of
Zion
National Park.in Ut., and Sedona/ Prescott Az areas.
I would prefer a place that has 4 seasons with a winter having a max of 3
months of snow, and has an observing season that is reliably free of
rain.
That just might nix Texas, but I'm not sure.



I drove through Marble Falls today, matter of fact, on a family outing
up to Cooper's in Llano, which has the absolute best BBQ in the entire
effing world.

Living so close to Cooper's would be a big plus, and we have quite a few
nights of very steady seeing (though this spring has been unusually
poor). It's also dark up there - the Austin Astronomy club has its star
parties not far from there in a place called Canyon of Eagles on Lake
Buchanon. Their site has good electrical hookups, too. Doesn't rain that
much at any time of the year.

The Hill Country has a peculiar kind of beauty, also, though most of TX
is pretty grim.

But central TX is HOT. Like HOT. In the summer it is very common to
sweat while observing as the mosquitos buzz around you - that's a
serious drag. And in the winter it never gets really cold. There are
occasional ice storms, but daytime highs in January are typically in the
70s. It snows very rarely. The winters are OK, but I have a hard time
facing the summer here.

And I'm moving in a couple of months to upstate NY - aka Frostbite
Falls. No real BBQ anywhere in the vicinity, Summer highs in the 70s.
It'll be like moving to Bizzarro World after 7 years in Austin. I may be
dying to sweat by the end of the year.

Best of luck in your decision - Chris

The Northeast US is definitely a challenge to the observer. It's hard to
get motivated to go out when it's below the freezing point of water, by
varying margins.

The 40's and 50's (F) are very nice for observing in Spring and Fall
though, if you don't mind also waiting for a clear sky at the same time.

Over about 55F on summer nights you get flying, biting insects.

You certainly won't be going out to observe at will. Instead, you take
the nights when you can get them, and keep your evenings wide open for
the opportunities to do so.

Be forewarned that Murphy's law applies to scheduling. If you plan to
observe on a Wednesday night, it will be cloudy. If you plan to have
dinner and catch a movie with the wife, it will be crystal clear and
50F. ;-)

First places that I'd look at are the places where scopes already are.
Cloudcroft with it's hotel catering to observers is one choice, Flagstaff
and the areas around it is another. There are places around Mt. Palomar
that are nice as well as Mt. Laguna here in southern Calif.
Also, don't forget about Chiefland in Fla. with it's retirement community
devoted to astronomy.

--
Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Maui.

Drive that POS RV over to Maui for a month or so, you'll be sold.

rat
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