Starry Southern Skies

In an earlier post, I wrote about the "sky park" that tops the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore. In Tekapo, they are proposing to establish a World Heritage "Park in the Sky" or "Starlight Reserve" to preserve the amazing starry skies from the threat of light pollution. The world's southernmost observatory was established in Tekapo on Mount John in 1965, 1,031 metres/3,376 feet above sea level. Local company Earth & Sky run night sky tours to the observatory after the road up to the summit is closed to the public after sunset.

Just before 9.30pm, bus passes were handed out to participants at the Earth & Sky office in the village. They all had pictures of space-related or scientific characters on them. I was Marvin the Paranoid Android, and the guy next to me was Ernest Rutherford (the father of nuclear physics - I had to Google him afterwards). I overheard someone expressing discontent with the character on his pass, with one of the staff saying encouragingly: "I think we might have E.T. around somewhere instead if you like?" (He declined)

After a certain point on the road up Mount John, the Earth & Sky bus headlights had to be turned off to avoid "polluting" the night skies with "white light". Incidentally, the streetlights in the village are all shaded so that light is shed downwards only, and orange low-pressure sodium lighting is used as it is easy to filter out. We were banned from emitting any kind of white light whilst on the mountain, including any camera LCD screens or mobile phones, as the powerful telescopes which scan for light sources one millionth the size of what we're able to see with the naked eye might record them as a potential new planet or star - leading to much embarrassment the next morning!

We huddled around the dim outline of our enthusiastic guide Chris, who used a green laser pointer as he talked us through the different constellations that we could see with the naked eye: Orion (the Saucepan or the Shopping Trolley to the Aussies and Kiwis) with his 2 hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor (the latter being a constellation of just 2 stars - "Like a sausage dog!" said Chris - I thought of Winnie); the Southern Cross with its 2 pointer stars; and the nearest star to the Earth - Alpha Centauri, a mere 4.3 light years away. In comparison, Mars is just 5 light *minutes* away. 

Chris recalled a recent visitor from New York complaining about the "clouds" obscuring the night sky: "I told him that he was looking at the Milky Way. He didn't say much after that." Admittedly it isn't always that easy for a city dweller to distinguish a cloud from a galaxy. Two little wispy clouds turned out to be the Magellanic Clouds, some of the nearest galaxies to our own - a mind-boggling 160,000 light years away. My head began to ache trying to visualise the vastness of space.

Then came our chance to look through some of the telescopes. We peered through a 9.25 inch one at Alpha Centauri, and were surprised to see that it was actually 2 stars, which were extremely close together (Chris made my head ache again by telling us that the distance between them was about 4 billion km!).  Inside Orion's Nebula (nebulae are swirls of gas which are the birthing grounds of stars) were the 4 perfect little bright stars called the Trapezium. 

There was also the exotically named Jewel Box (with red and blue tinged stars - though I couldn't distinguish any colours myself). My favourite was The Wishing Well - a concentration of stars, as if looking down at all the silver coins thrown into a well. The stars looked like diamond shaped pieces of glitter - unbelievably beautiful.

As the wind picked up, I clutched my cup of complimentary hot chocolate a little more tightly and cautiously made my way along the white paint-edged path towards the shelter which housed the 16 inch telescope. We took turns in looking at Saturn (its rings a slight glow surrounding it) and then Mars, which flickered due to interference in the atmosphere. 

All too soon, the 2 hours were over and the bus made its way down the mountain, with Monty Python's Galaxy Song piped through the speakers. I was smiling as I made my way back to the hostel in near darkness (reduced light pollution does have some downsides!). A very special experience and highly recommended for anyone stopping over at Lake Tekapo!