Stargazing Tours

star-gaze-tour

Not your Usual Star Party

This is not your usual Star Party where you only look at the top 10 easy and bright deep space objects. We select a curated list of visually stunning space objects. You’ll see a stimulating variety of obscure and well known space curiosities designed to open your mind to the mystery and romance of astronomy.

Our equipment is beyond question, well maintained and performing at the optimum, limited only by atmospheric conditions. We ask you to focus the image for your personal eyesight. Unlike other stargazing experiences where only one eyepiece is used all night, we use a variety of high quality eyepiece optics to reveal delicate details and obscure overlooked aspects.

Novices and experienced stargazers will enjoy the high quality views, carefully selected list of objects and the star lore narrative on the history of Astronomy told by an experienced Astronomer.

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Seaside Stargazing

All our stargazing tours are done on coastline hotel properties in warm weather near all the amenities you enjoy. Join us at any of the following locations based on the spot or the day of the week that works best for you.

Notes on Standing

Our activity requires participants to stand for the entire hour, and we do not provide chairs. If you or others in your party need to sit during the hour, please bring a beach chair with you. Stargazers must stand in queues to look through our telescopes. We may have one to three telescopes depending on the number of reservations.

Weather Cancellation Policy

Westin Hapuna Beach Resort

Nightly

February 1 to March 31, 7:30 PM

April 1 to September 30, 8:00 PM

October 1 to January 30, 7:00 PM

Kohala Garden Parking Lot

Adults to 12 years: $75
Child 11 to 5 years: $30
Free Under 5 Years
Parking: Free

Subject to Cancellation for bad weather or low attendance by one hour before starting time. 6 Reservations minimum per session. Prices subject to change without prior notice.
 

AstroPhotography Session

Vaonis Stellina Robotic camera

Overview

Star Gaze Hawaii offers 2-hour astrophotography sessions featuring a Vaonis Stellina Robotic camera. The session’s goal is hands-on, acquiring pictures of many deep space objects.

Deep space objects are dim and require long exposures. We can most likely obtain just a handful of objects in two hours.

The Stellina is an 80 ED F/5 400mm refractor with a Sony CMOS sensor. Artificial Intelligence software will post-process the images in real-time as the customer watches on an iPad.

The client will control the telescope and camera exposures.  The images obtained will be sent to the customer’s email, airdropped, or SMS to their cellphone.

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Cost

Our Fee for an astrophotography session is $400.00 + 4.712% Tax = $418.85 (Credit Card or cash). Please get in touch with me if you want to book this, and I will send you a link to book and pay for it online.

Scheduling and Location

The Moon will prevent astrophotography of deep space objects – schedule for dates with minimal moonlight. We do these sessions at the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort.

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Private Stargazing Session

private-stargazing

We love being part of your small group event. We offer Private Stargazing Sessions at the amazingly dark (except for Star light and Moon light) Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, Kohala Garden Parking Lot. Unsurpassed Stargazing with pristine skies and wide-open vistas.

Private Sessions lasting from 1 to 2 hours for families or small groups.

One Hour Session

Guided tour of the sky with private access to the telescope for groups of up to 6 10 people.

Contact us for pricing.

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Two Hour Session

Guided Tour of the sky for groups of up to 15 people with private access to the telescope.

1 or 2 Telescopes Available. Contact us for pricing.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why stargaze at sea level when all the observatories are at high altitude?

The Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii has unique geographic topology that allows world class stargazing–sub-arc-second viewing–from Sea Level.  1 arc-second is 1/3,600 of one degree of angle.  In most places on this planet, due to turbulence in the air, stars will be 2-3 arc-seconds in diameter.  At Star Gaze Hawaii’s selected sites, we can attain ½ arc-second star images routinely, limited only by weather.

Additionally, high Altitude reduces oxygen levels in the air that your eyes need. Your eyes require oxygen to metabolize rhodopsin in order to see anything. Dim space objects require maximum oxygen to be realized at all. Mauna Kea Observatories (at 40% oxygen levels) are remote controlled telescopes where the astronomers are at low altitude.  Nobody views directly through any of the telescopes at the summit. Astronomers using the telescopes can be anywhere in the world as they operate over the internet.  If an Astronomer comes to Hawaii at all, they will be in a warm, low altitude environment while using the telescope.

Why should you go and freeze and suffer high altitude effects when no professional astronomer does that anymore? Instead, wear your aloha shirt and shorts (or Muumuu) in warm weather, close to hotel amenities at 100% oxygen levels and world-class arc-second viewing.

How does Star Gaze Hawaii differ from the Mauna Kea tours?

Star Gaze Hawaii concentrates on observing the sky. We look at interesting and many obscure objects not on any top 10 lists in Astronomy. We seek to stimulate the mind as well as the eyes of the participant. The principal astronomer has been doing this since 1962 and he knows a lot of history of Astronomy as well as the physics of the objects viewed. He keeps current with the news in Astronomy and has a unique ability to explain physics in plain language. Astronomy brought down to Earth. We use visual aids such as Green Laser Pointers and Original photographs taken of the objects viewed in the telescope.

What will happen if it is cloudy at sea level?

We do not control the weather.  Even professional astronomers have that same problem.  We call it “Astronomy in the Trenches”.  We bring the telescope and our expertise and deal with Mother Nature on her terms.  If the weather is a lost cause by 5 PM, we will cancel the session.  If there is hope or if it is clear at 7 PM, we will proceed and deal with clouds as they will do whatever they will.  We offer extensive historical accounts of Astronomy in the trenches when that happens.  We demo our equipment and make equipment reviews and recommendations.  In 1991, the Total Solar eclipse in Hawaii was encumbered by cloudy weather.  The astronomers and general public that made the investment to come to Hawaii were frustrated by the cloudy weather.  But, some people got partial data and photographs through breaks in the clouds.  This is Astronomy in the trenches.

The Kohala Coast has unique weather patterns that no weather forecast covers. It can be cloudy at 6 PM and clear up completely by 8 PM. We have been doing this since 1992 and we can predict the weather fairly well. Due to the high mountains to the East and South East, we get a Venturi effect from the winds funneling through the mountain valleys. If the trade winds are out of the North East, we can depend on clear weather by 8 PM. If it comes out of the East or South East, then we have a wind shadow effect and clouds may linger a bit longer, beyond our time frame for stargazing, but it will eventually clear. If we have Westerly winds, the clouds will pile up against the mountains and we can have clear skies overhead. If it comes out of the South, bad weather can persist all night.

How do weather cancellations work?

Hard Cut off at 5 PM for reservations. We will send out email and (optional) text messages to confirm or cancel stargazing just after 5 PM. We are based over an hour away from the stargazing venues and with travel and setup times, we are unable to respond to changes in weather after 5 PM.

If the weather is poor at 5 PM we will cancel stargazing and send out email and (optional) text messages.

If it turns bad after 5 PM we will inform you around 7 PM of a cancellation in the same manner.

Check your email before you travel to the stargazing location. During Hurricane season, June 1 to November 30, having any storm in the vicinity can make weather highly unpredictable and rapidly subject to change.

Is VOG (Volcanic haze) a problem for stargazing?

In general, no. VOG indicates calm steady air free of turbulence. Strong winds and clear air go together and result in blurry views from moving turbulent air. With VOG, Planetary views are greatly improved as they will be sharp and finer details can be viewed. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Moon are very bright. In our telescopes, they are so bright that your eye will be saturated and see no color, just white. The dimming due to the VOG can improve the colors and finely detailed views of these bright objects. Galaxies will be impacted negatively by dimming. But, Galaxies are commonly called “Dim Fuzzies”, best photographed rather than viewed by eye. Galaxies are always hazy and nebulous in small telescopes. Edwin Hubble required the 100” Mount Wilson telescope to be able to see individual stars in the Andromeda Galaxy a mere 2.54 million light years away. Galaxies offer intellectual stimulation of actually seeing ancient photons from millions of years ago as dim fuzzy patches. To see spiral arms, photography is the best method.

Can we see a Black Hole?

Visual light telescopes such as the ones that we use cannot “see” a Black Hole.  By definition, Black Holes emit no visual light.  As matter falls into a Black Hole, it can form an accretion disk that emits infrared and x-ray radiation.  The Infrared is from friction and compression of material falling into the strong gravity field.  The X-Ray is from ionized plasma that is accelerated to the speed of light as it falls into the event horizon around a Black Hole.  Visible light will be obscured by the accretion disk in all directions.  What can be seen in visual light are an artifact of a Black Hole: the jets of ejected matter from the poles of the spinning accretion disk.   We have a different name for those: Quasars.  Quasars are the incandescent glow from matter that is ejected out along the poles as jets of high speed material.  It is not a view of the actual Black Hole.  Unfortunately, most of these are very dim and billions of light years away.  There are no active Black Holes nearby with jets of ejected material.

Can we see Saturn’s Rings?

Yes, even a 60mm (2.4”) telescope can do that. We use 11” or 280mm telescopes and we normally magnify Saturn 200x. We can get up to 550x but that would cut off the Moons orbiting Saturn. We get fabulous views of Saturn’s rings, Moons and delicate banding in the atmosphere.

Show us the Milky Way.

All of the stars you can see in the sky at night are part of the Milky Way galaxy that we occupy. During the summer months, Sagittarius and Scorpius are high in the sky and the core of our galaxy is in that area. The Milky Way is the bright band of hazy light running through that area. In the winter, we are looking out towards the rim of the Milky Way and the hazy band is much dimmer running through Cassiopeia and Perseus.

Why are the pictures from NASA and in Magazines so vivid and the telescope views so dim and hazy?

The Human eye is very different than a camera. Cameras can store light over time and build up an image from multiple exposures. Essentially, Photoshop and image manipulation software is used to highly enhance the images through adding together many dim hazy exposures. The human eye has to work with the light it can sense through the telescope and what we show is the truth about the sky. Only a camera can get those magazine views of deep space objects. Planets are actually subdued in color and details are fleeting and hard to see. The atmosphere blurs out fine details except for short periods of time when it is stable. We extract this fine detail in images via video methods that average together many frames of video and build up the details from averaged data. Very often, we like to use 2,000 video frames to produce a decent image of Jupiter, Mars or Saturn. The human eye cannot do this type of processing. The Human Eye is very insensitive to red light. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the Universe emits a deep red color in nebulae. Most people see that as blue or green since the rods in our eyes are most sensitive to dim light and they are monochrome. The Cones in our eyes need lots of light to see the red.

Have Star Gaze Hawaii staff used the telescopes on Mauna Kea?

Yes, we have been to the mountain many times, but to use the telescopes, you do not go up there. 95% of the time, there is no astronomers on the mountain. Only telescope operators who live at the 9,000 foot Hale Pohaku dorms actually go up to the summit at night. The astronomer goes to Waimea or Hilo where the main control panel is located. All of the telescopes are remote controlled robots. The staff at the summit are there to fix things that break or jam. The folks calling the shots are at low altitude and warm. The summit is at 40% oxygen levels and people need to acclimatize to that to work there. There is no good reason for astronomers to do that. Remote operations can be done from anywhere in the world over the internet. Star Gaze Hawaii has participated in observing sessions for the Keck Telescopes. Some of our staff work part time for us and full time for the Keck Observatory.

Will the views through the 11-inch telescope be similar to the pictures on this website?

The short answer is no. Telescopic views of astronomical objects are dim and faded to the human eye. The vast distances (thousands to millions of light-years) to the objects dim the view due to the inverse square law of light – twice the distance, one-fourth the brightness. Our eyes evolved to adapt to bright sunlit vistas on Earth. Space is a new frontier where we need to develop tools to extend our vision into an alien Universe. Some people are disappointed with the telescopic view of deep space objects. Others expand their view of the vastness of space and our situation among the stars. Star Gaze Hawaii gives one a first-hand experience sensing the actual photons from a deep space object. Then we show you our processed images which reveal it further to your minds’ eye.

An analogy in paleontology is the discovery of a fossil bone millions of years old, which we interpret into a dinosaur. Telescopes look far into the past at light, which left stars, Nebulae, and Galaxies thousands to millions of years ago. Per my paleontology analogy, I show you a bone in the telescope and try to reveal the entire dinosaur.

I show pictures of the actual object as it would be up close. Science aware people will perceive the physics of the object by its appearance. Star Gaze Hawaii will explain in plain language what is going on in an image. Looking through a telescope with the human eye will not be comparable to a long exposure image. Astronomers use instruments such as spectrometers, CCD Cameras, multi-spectral sensors, and filters to seek out what processes are present. Knowing this data, I photograph and process my images to be a good representation of an object.

Time exposures with a camera accumulate the colors for beautiful images. If we could be closer to the objects, those colors would be visible. The vivid colors in Nebulae originate from ionized gasses excited by ultraviolet light from stars. Many of my images are 1-hour or longer exposures. Amateur astronomers learn to use averted vision to see dim details directly, with little or no color. Colors depend on each individuals’ threshold of color, which is dependent on genetics and eye health. Still, colors in Nebulae are very subjective at these distances.