We left Timaru this morning for Lake Tekapo and the Mount John Observatory. The drive was not that far and most of it was through very lush farmland as we were headed inland. It was a pleasant drive without too much traffic and the rain was holding off. As we got closer to Lake Tekapo the foothills for the Southern Alps came into view.
Once we arrived in Lake Tekapo we headed for the I Site to inquire about their Night Tours to the Observatory. They run two tours weather permitting. One goes at 10:30PM and the second at 11:45PM. We signed up for the 10:30PM and then decided to drive up to the observatory to enjoy the view in the daytime.
The day was very overcast and somewhat misty but it was not raining. However, in spite of the weather, the view was spectacular.
Shortly after leaving the Observatory we headed back to the campsite to rest up for our late night vigil. Alas, the weather did not co-operate and the tour did not go. There is not much point in going to look at stars when none are visible.
We really wanted to go on this tour so we decided to stay over for another night and hoped we would get lucky. We got up the next morning it looked like the sun gods were smiling on us as there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The 10:30PM tour was fully booked but we were able to get on the 11:45PM tour.
We thought it would be a good idea to go and have another look from the observatory when the sun was shining. Two different days, two different sets of photos.
I think I like the photos from the cloudy day.
While we were at the observatory we could see the top of Mount Cook hiding behind a couple of peaks.
As Lake Tekapo was on the highway to Mount Cook and a perfect view of the mountain was only 40 kilometers away it was an easy decision to make the drive. This was our last chance for one last look at this fabulous mountain. We were not disappointed.
It was now time for our trip to the Observatory. We could not have had a better night as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. An added bonus was that there was no wind which there usually is. No wind also made it quite comfortable temperature wise.
The staff was exceptional, very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. The first thing you noticed was the number and clarity of the stars. In addition to billions of stars we saw falling stars, satellites, constellations and other galaxies. Two of the galaxies were the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds that were named by Ferdinand Magellan. The small cloud is 210,000 light years from us and the larger one is 179,000 light years away.
There were two highlights of the evening. One was that the 24 inch telescope was not being used for study purposes so we were allowed to have a look. It brought to life just how big the telescope was when we had to climb a ladder to be able to reach the viewfinder. They had it pointed at Saturn and we got a very clear look at the planet and the rings around it. The other highlight and the one I enjoyed the most was that they had an Astrophotographer on site to help us take pictures. As there were only two of us with SLR Cameras we got to set up and take 5 pictures. The amazing thing is that the length of shutter time was five minutes. Press the button and 5 minutes later the camera goes click. Pretty amazing.
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| Southern Cross |
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| The Milky Way |
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| Large Magellanic Cloud |
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| Small Magellanic Cloud |
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| Unknown Constellation |
It was a pretty special evening and we were very happy that we stayed over.
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