Our core business is the guided astronomical tours immediately behind our house in a spacious and gently sloping lawn area. There are positions usually for two but up to three telescopes which are computer controlled and lit by dim red lighting. The duration of the tour is about ninety minutes. We like to limit the size of our groups to a maximum of eight people.
This is a gentle and low risk activity that does not require a high level of physical fitness. Although we do recommend that customers bring warm clothing like that worn on a walk in a forest. Families are welcome although the experiences are probably better suited to children who are over eight years of age. The guided tours are designed for people with between none to a lot of astronomical knowledge. Tea, coffee, and hot chocolate are available for free as part of the tour.
The guided astronomical tour is initiated with a health and safety briefing and description of the different telescopes and what we will be seeing in the sky. This time allows everybody’s eyes to adjust to the darkness and see the milky way while the briefings occur. Many people will find that their night vision and what they see in the sky will improve during the sessions.
The group will be familiarised with the location of telescopes and weather station. We will then direct and focus the telescopes for you and allow you to observe objects while talking about what you are seeing and answer any questions. Please do not grab the telescopes as this can misalign or even damage the equipment. We have a step ladder which smaller people can stand and hang on to look through our telescopes.
Different telescopes do different jobs. All our telescopes can find and track objects in the sky using database with tens of thousands of objects. We have a twelve-inch Dobsonian which is a large telescope of a design best suited to lower magnification observation of dimmer Deep Space Objects (DSO’s) outside of our solar system. DSO’s include nebula, globular clusters, and galaxies. Although the moon and planets also look good because as this telescope is quite large higher magnifications can also be achieved.
We also have an eight-inch Classic Cassegrain telescopes which is designed to perform especially well at higher magnifications. Classic Cassegrain telescopes perform best when observing the moon and small but bright objects like planets revealing details such as the Cassini Division in the rings of Saturn and weather bands on Jupiter. These telescopes also excel at magnifying binary stars and revealing details in brighter DSO’s like the Orion and Carena Nebulas as well as the brighter globular clusters. Bright moonlight will obscure the DSO’s and the Milky Way especially several days either side of the full moon.
Around the time full moon we will open a shorter tour that has a focus on the moon. This tour is better for younger children particularly leading up to the full moon as the moon rises earlier. We talk about what the moon is made of, how the moon is lit, the phases of the moon, the tides, and features on the moon, and the sites of the Apollo Moon Landings. The tour will include views of the moon through telescopes. The moon tours start at about the time the moon rises which varies daily. Please click here to see when the moon rises.
Our telescopes can be remotely controlled by planetarium software showing real time maps of the sky above. This software also contains good information about the objects we are observing.
We recommend both the Stellarium and Sky Safari planetarium apps which can be downloaded to a cell phone for free. There are also paid versions with one off purchase prices offering more features including telescope control. Both apps can be used anywhere in the world to give real time live sky charts which you can use to find your way around the sky.