Im thinking about emigrating.. which Country??

[Mick UK]

If you had the chance to move to another country, which would you chose as a Astronomer, bearing in mind you have to take the missus with you and keep her happy altho fortunately, mine is very easy to please;) (no kids tho)..is there such a thing as a "top ten" list?

or is there one country that stands out above all others?

Basicaly somewhere were its not to expense to live and cheap(ish) property prices, and of course excellent viewing conditions!

Do you have a personal favourite?

[brianb]

For Me, it would have to be New Zealand - not too hot, good skies, something approximating to English spoken, shortage of dangerous wild animals ...

[Glider]

Canada

[twotter]

Plenty of space in Canada for a nice house, big garage, bigger observatory and (I would imagine) dark skies

[Astronut]

British Columbia interior (the wine valley region) has some great skies and better weather than coastal BC.

New Zealand's a good choice too and not only for those awesome southern skies.

[pvaz]

If you are retired you can probably live fairly well in either south Portugal, Spain or Greece since they (we) have a lower average cost of life.

On Portugal, specifically you have some remote villages by the coast in Algarve and the plains in Alentejo. The weather in the planes can go to near zero on the winter and near 40º C in the summer but you get the most clear skies nights in the country as well as very low light pollution. It's easy to buy a "monte alentejano" which is a house, usually from old farms a couple of miles from anything.

I'm sure Spain and Greece have great places too but I'm don't know them enough to recommend.

PS-> Since they are in the EU no trouble in getting in or opening a small (or big) business or whatever you want.

[sgazer]

I am going to Perth in Oz, but having only been there once before, it'll be a while before I know if I can recommend it!

However, I think they have less cloud and rain than Blighty.

[Astro_Baby]

I hope to retire to a Greek island - nice climate, cheap to live, reasonably clear skies.

[MishMich]

I'm going to NZ, but not for Astro reasons. Don't forget what Aotearoa means 'Land of the Long White Cloud'. The South Island is probably less light polluted than the North, but with a population of 4 million, it will be better than many places. On the other hand, Australia has some very dark places (apparently).

M.

[Macavity]

France - or rather Francophone Switzerland would do me nicely. A lakeside vista, snow capped mountains in the background... A few Gothic novels, for company? LOL. I no longer smoke, but a culture where occasional over-indugence in food or wine is still allowable...

[Mick UK]

Im getting quite excited just reading all of these place to live in!

Checking out some of the house prices for these countries, i must say Portugal looks Very tempting! Thank you Pvaz:)

I quite fancy the idea of a small farm growing our own food etc (not to mention making wine!) and only a few hours flight time if i want to pop back to England to visit...AND...Clear skies as well!..sounds like heaven.....whats the catch?..theres always a catch!

Funnily enough, a friend of mine mentioned portugal, altho he has never looked through a telescope in his life, he commented on how clear the skies were...another friend is planning on living there sometime soon as well...Thanks for the replies everyone:)

[pvaz]

The land in Alentejo (plains) is a bit dry, sometimes it rains only 2/3 days in an entire summer, and those temperatures are considered extremes here. Vineyards go very well there, they produce excellent red wine on par with many French wines IMHO, but less famous.

Try browsing online. Search for "monte alentejano".

You can get them starting at 40.000€ with maybe 2.000 m2 or one like this:

Monte Alentejano Venda em Cuba - Casa.Sapo - Portal Nacional de imobiliário

Haves 80.000m2 with over 50.000m2 of licensed vineyards but costs nearly 400.000€. There is lots of choice in between for any wallet.

Some people rent them for tourists, maybe you should rent one for a couple of months and see if it's the kind of life you want before committing to it.

[Merlin66]

If you're going to go anywhere.... go to Australia!!

I was born in Scotland and travelled the world; I could have stopped and stayed almost anywhere, but for climate, friendly people, cost of living, stability; "I still call Australia home"

You'll never never know, if you never never go.......

Ken

[Mick UK]

Pvaz, i could happily live on that farm, altho i dont think i quite need so much land..looks like a full time job with all them grape vines!

Perhaps more on the house and a smaller plot of land would be nice, perhaps an acre or 2 would be ok:p

Ken, i have a family member that went to live in Oz, a place called yellowrock or something like that, not that far fron Sydney, he came over to visit a couple of years ago, he intended on staying for 4 weeks, but after 2 weeks he went back "home", he said he just yearned to get back there, and felt he no longer had any feelings for the UK.

Another one for my list i guess!

[brianb]

If you're going to go anywhere.... go to Australia!!

Too hot (with the possible exception of Tasmania), full of snakes, scorpions, crocodiles and other biting critters.

[Merlin66]

Brian,

Those things only eat American Tourists!!

I've been in Australia on and off for thirty years, I have seven kids and neither me or them have ever been bitten or eaten by anything... well if you exclude the Mozzies!!!!

[The Warthog]

If I were forced to move to another country, I would forever want to return to Canada. Reasonable prices and great social benefits, and 90% of Canada is under dark skies. If you don't have to live in a large city, you can get a place in Central Ontario with mag 6 skies in your back yard, and frequent aurorae. It is cold in winter, but you could build an observatory with a warming hut next to it with your computers and stuff in. In summer temperatures are mild, with excellent fishing, hunting and golf. You gotta love it, eh?

[Merlin66]

Two winters in Muskoka sort of put me off a little....

-40 degrees; my eyelid froze to the eyepiece and the grease in the mount froze up solid. And the tires on the car had frozen flats on the bottom every morning that took a few miles for them to warm up and go back to round again!! Sump heaters that you ALWAYS forgot to dis-connect!!

Then, when the snow went... along came those May flies!!!!!!

( BS aside... I'd love to go back: they were friendly people, lots of Scots and Skidoo's in winter.... loved every minute of it!!)

Ken

[The Warthog]

I just dont' observe if it's below -15, but then, I don't have a warming hut, yet. And you didn't get the black flies and mosquitos? Are you sure you were in Muskoka, where the mosquitos are so big they carry you off and hang you in a tree to finish off later? Mayflies don't bite; they're kinda cute.

And it's Scotch! Learn to spell.

[Merlin66]

Scotch is what you drink! Scots are the good guys!

( It's always been said that the best Scottish engineers left the home country to build the rest of the world!!)

[Mick UK]

Warthog, one thing i certainly dont need, is to be anywhere near a city!

Not sure i could convince the missus -40 is not much difference to what we get in the UK mind:p other than that, it sounds perfect.

One thing that concerns me about Portugal, with it been a fairly warm country, would'nt this affect the viewing and astrophotography as the heat from the ground rose during the night?

[aussi skywatcher]

There is only one answer to this question - Australia - nice cold beer and the stars are so close they almost touch the top of your telescope - dont need red lights - the starlight is bright enough to read by. Of course the downside is the dust!!! but then nowhere is perfect.

[vlebo]

I hope to retire to a Greek island - nice climate, cheap to live, reasonably clear skies.

Me too , last year in Kefalonia I could see the Milky Way from my hotel car park.

[MoonNut]

Australia, Hobart Tazmania to be exact. I was there in Auguat 04 and it was middle of winter but still very pleasant by UK standards. The people are great, the countryside is stunning and the skies are good!

The best (dark and clear) skies I have ever seen were in Uluru (Ayres Rock to give it the English name) followed by Perth WA (along the coast away from the LP of course).

Forget the Tropics, too cloudy and too many mozzies!

[nicnac]

me and the wife have only two places in mind, Alaska or Canada.