Star Safari — Local services in North Island

About 10 years ago I started watching the International Space Station as it came into our New Zealand sky. Amazingly on the first occasion it crossed directly through our Southern Cross. When I heard about a dark sky experience in our district I took the opportunity as I wanted to learn about what I had been looking at for 74 years. Just one night with Sam and Hari on top of their Ponatahi Hill has led me down a path of discovery, which, like the universe, is never ending. I have learned about our unique and rare goldilocks planet, the effects of gravity and tides, the big bang, galaxies, nebulae and early civilisations. Thank you Sam and Hari, you have created an extraordinary place of learning. Hari once said ‘we are all made of stardust’ and I know...

One of my favourite experiences for all of 2023! We managed to sneak in to the later session very last minute and it was just the 3 of us. It was such a personal and incredible experience, and Sam and Hari were wonderful tour guides to the night sky. We saw so many treasures that took my breath away (much more than I expected) and some were so vivid and beautiful that I was a bit teary-eyed. As an astronomy and star-gazing enthusiast this was a dream! I can't wait to do it again! Practical considerations were taken care of too! We were supplied very warm coats so we never got cold, there were 3 telescopes so plenty to look at it and little waiting, and the hot chocolate after it...

Amazing experience, despite the weather…

We spent some time outside talking about the various telescopes and surveyed the horizon to understand the stars and planet positions in the Southern Hemisphere (it was great prep for what was to come later…).

Once inside we got warm with hot chocolate and settled in for a truly out of this world experience.

Through VR we joined astronauts on the ISS for a space walk and stunning views of Earth.

But the main event was a real-time view of the sky we discussed earlier outside…stars, planets, galaxies …. We enjoyed them all as they moved across the sky.

Easily one of the best experiences during...