Christchurch Astro Tours are proud to introduce you to the southern night sky. Operating from Greenpark Memorial Community Centre, Lincoln a mere 30 minutes south of central Christchurch, we start our night with a short talk, before showcasing the highlights of the evening with a sky tour. After which you are free to observe the nights objects through our 12 Inch Dobsonian GOTO telescope (which uses high quality optics) and ask questions.
Our local dark sky tour guides are keen and experienced stargazers and can talk you through the various delights of the southern night sky. Depending on the experiences you have booked, you may view the moon in detail, or observe planets, or if conditions allow, see fascinating nebulae and galaxies. Please remember that this is an outdoor event which will involve you standing under clear skies for approximately 60 to 90 minutes. You will get cold, so please wrap up warm with suitable clothing and thick socks, especially in winter!
Our astronomy tours are aimed at delivering a personal service to small groups of visitors to Christchurch, locals and their families (Please note our tours are not suitable for those under 10 years of age). By its nature, your experience is largely weather dependent and unfortunately that's a factor we can't control. As a result, each of our tours operates on a fixed date basis, this means your event will go ahead on the specific date of your booking even if there is cloud cover. However it will take the format of an indoor informal presentation & seminar type talk with your questions answered. On any tour if the weather improves we will attempt to get you outside and visa versa if the weather closes in.
If you are not able to attend, you can request a refund up to 7 days before the event starts, but refunds or re-bookings are not available after this time. Any customer who cancels within 7 days of the event start will be charged a 50% cancellation fee. Any customer who cancels within 48 hours of the event start or who does not show on the day will be charged a 100% cancellation fee. If you are late for the event start, we reserve the right to refuse entry with no refund. If you need to contact us after you have purchased tickets, please use the contact organiser link in the email that contained your ticket information.
On a clear moonless night our skies have a Sky Quality Meter reading that exceeds 20.7 for the region of the sky we will be viewing, which means we view class 3-4 skies. A typical city night sky would be class 8-9.
