Overview
Come with us on a cosmic journey, starting with the constellations and diving deep into the sky to view galaxies located millions of light years away! Our main observing site is conveniently nestled in the heart of Page Springs wine country, and from April through September we have access to observation sites on forest lands in Sedona's red rock country. All the tours we host on forest land are conducted under USFS permit.
The Tour
We begin with a guided tour of the constellations. Your guide will use a laser to trace the star patterns while sharing the mythological stories behind each constellation.
We begin with a tour of the constellations. Your guide will use a laser to trace out star patterns, and share the stories behind each constellation. Depending on what's up in the sky, you may also see bright planets, the Milky Way, passing artificial satellites, or even the International Space Station!
Next, we will reveal the wonders of the universe using our state-of-art telescopes. We use two kinds of observation on our astronomy tours. Like the earliest astronomers,, we use high quality eyepieces to allow you to directly look through our telescopes. This is the best technique for the Moon, planets, and bright deep space objects. However, many space objects are very dim and hard to see, even with a very large telescope. To observe such objects, we replace our eyepieces with very sensitive cameras that are specifically designed for astronomy. This allows us to stream live video of galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters to our portable 4k 42" OLED TV.
Our state-of-the-art video astronomy telescopes reveal the pinkish-red glow of hydrogen in stellar nurseries, dust lanes in distant galaxies, and the shimmering bluish veils of dust that surround certain star clusters like the Pleiades. The human eye could never see such details without this technique.
What We Will View
Not all sky objects are visible every night. Which stars, constellations, and deep sky objects are up varies according to season. Planets shift in position as they follow their orbits around the sun, so they aren't always up in the evening sky where we can see them. The visibility of the Moon varies according to its phase.. Every night brings a selection of interesting objects, but if you have your heart set on seeing something in particular, we recommend reaching out to us to ask what time of year it will be visible!
We regularly observe the following:
Notable stars and constellations
The Milky Way
Artificial satellites (including ISS passes)
The Moon
Planets (including Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn)
Star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies
Special sky events like meteor showers, comets, and aurora
Moon Phase and Tour Scheduling
We avoid scheduling tours in the time period from the half full Moon (what we call first quarter Moon) through the full Moon. As the Moon approaches full, it washes out all but the brightest stars, leaving you with very little to look at (and even less to observe through the telescope). By avoiding those "Mooned-out" nights, we make sure you will always have good observing conditions and a night sky full of stars.
What's Included
We provide a knowledgeable and enthusiastic astronomer, big telescopes, a 4k OLED TV for video astronomy, padded camp chairs, and blankets.
Highlights
- Find out "what's up" with the guidance of our enthusiastic astronomers
- Learn the mythic stories behind the constellations
- View the Moon, planets, and stars with our state of the art visual telescopes
- See the invisible with our electronic video astronomy telescopes
- Download the actual images our video astronomy rigs captured on your tour
Location
Sedona