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 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, on occasions we may need to cancel the outside events, even at short notice (due to weather). If this happens, you will receive an email between 7 and 8pm notifying you of a weather transfer, we will move you to the next available date of a similar experience (where booking spaces allow). Towards the end of the season our options to do this become limited, so we may move you to another date where the program is different. If it is not possible to accommodate you, a full refund will be issued.
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, unless the event has been cancelled by weather. 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.
If you are travelling to Christchurch and need your experience to be held on a specific date, then please use a FIXED NIGHT ticket option when booking. Your booking will go ahead whatever the weather, however it will take the format of an informal indoor presentation & talk with a question and answer session.
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.