Private Guided Stargazing Tours - Let us show you around the Southern Night Sky
One of Queenstown's greatest attractions is the night sky. Have you ever wanted to stare right into the centre of our galaxy with your naked eye and be able to see the structure and colour held within it? This is your chance, and we’re here to help you capture that moment in a set of breathtaking professional travel photographs.
We love the night sky. Our Starry Nights Tours are our way of sharing what we see and experience exploring the Wakatipu Basin at night. Why not come and share this incredible experience with us?
Deep in Simon’s past lies a BSc(hons) Physics with Astrophysics, so like our Land Rovers, astro is in our blood. We’ll take you on a tour of the heavens, pointing out some of the main stars, planets and constellations. As your eyes adjust, we’ll tell you stories - old and new, allowing you to see and understand our universe in a whole new way.
When you stand under a dark night sky for the first time, it’s so often life changing. It offers you the most incredible perspective of who we are and how we fit into a Universe which is so incredibly vast and ancient.
We’re always learning and improving ouur Starry Night Adventures. Simon attended the first ever Aotearoa Astrotourism Academy and, this is the really great one, we’re now the proud owners of a Unistellar Equinox telescope. It is the perfect way for you to get a close up view of the night sky.
Different technologies allow us to view the stars, planets and galaxies in different ways. Using a licensed laser pointer we can help identify celestial bodies, many of which are just incredible to view with your naked eye. If you want to get a little closer then our binoculars offer stunning viewing of the Moon and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, for example.
Our Unistellar Equinox telescope will allow you to see so much more. What appears to be a relatively bright star turns out to be Jupiter, which on a good clear night shows off it’s red hues and moons. The rings of Saturn are mind blowing. Then we can go on a search for other nebulae and galaxies.
We will also put our astrophotography skills to great use for you. The camera allows us to collect very dim and feint light that we just can’t pick up with our eyes alone. These images will help you see the night sky like you’ve never seen it before. We’ll also make sure that we capture some wide field photographs of you under the heavens to make the most amazing souvenir.
If you feel you’d like that little extra to the experience, why not add on another hour so we can extend our night time adventure. We can either spend longer looking through the telescope, or we can visit a different location to capture some different photographs. Our DOC concessions allow us access to many mind blowing vistas relatively close together, when you know where to go.
As we mentioned, we drive Land Rovers. Part of our professional travel photography service is that we transport you in luxury and safety from your accommodation to our locations and back again. Our vehicles are certified to carry passengers, insured in all the correct ways and of course we have our current passenger endorsements on our drivers licenses.
The AuthenticAs Starry Night Adventures take stargazing to a whole new level.
Our Unistellar eVscope is incredibly portable, this allows us to guide you to serene quiet places and you get amazing photographs of the stars, nebulae and galaxies that we look at
Aurora Australis Hunting in Central Otago
When is the best time?
Have you wondered when the best time to go star gazing is? We don’t think there is a definitive answer to this question, aside from the obvious, at night time when there aren’t so many clouds in the sky.
Something that we’ve noticed, that has really surprised us is that the darkest nights aren’t always the best. What we mean by this is that the phase of the moon changes how much light there is at night time. It’s a wee bit like a dimmer switch. Full moon is very bright and you can easily walk around without a torch, and new moon is very dark, to the degree of not being able to see your feet dark.
The darkest nights around the new moon allow so many feint stars to be easily seen with your naked eye, that it’s often very difficult to spot constellations, plus it’s like really really dark. If you’ve never experienced this, be warned, it will blow your mind just how many stars are out there.
On the flip side, the full moon means that we can see less stars, but constellations and brighter stellar objects are way easier to spot. It’s also really simple to move around with so much ambient light.
For the other days in between, these conditions vary as the fullness of the moon and rise and set times change.
The nights are longer in winter than summer, and typically tens of degrees colder. So whilst star gazing can be done at more social-able hours in winter you really do have to wrap up warm.
We really understand this and we will work with you to plan the best possible time for you to come with us on your personalised Starry Nights astro tour. You tell us when you be visiting the Southern Lakes and we’ll give you an idea of what we will be able to see and create.
We’ve lived here for years, so we completely understand how fast the weather can change, so we’ll be working alongside you to find the best weather window closer to the time of your visit for us to go out and capture beautiful photographs for you and yours under this beautiful clear night sky.
Our 2015 Land Rover Defender - Classic and rugged on the outside, yet modern and plush on the inside
The Aurora Australis
The Southern Lights are incredible sight to behold, and we know of a few great locations in and around Queenstown where they can be viewed from. Sometimes they look like a feint bright glow to the naked eye, other times, bright greens and magentas can easily be seen dancing around the Southern horizon.
If only working out when the Aurora will pay us a visit was as easy.
We keep our eyes on the forecast and if it looks like there may be a chance to see the Aurora when you’ve booked your tour, we’ll give you the option to go Aurora hunting.
We’ve put together some more in depth advice about Aurora Hunting here
Will you get lucky on your AuthenticAs Starry Night Adventure like Jakob & Tarryn?
Let us help you create wedding photographs for you under the night sky
Kōaka (Spring) has well and truly sprung. Without a doubt this is one of the most beautiful times of the astronomical year.