Our trip to the Observatory, on last Saturday, the 8th of July, turned out to be a very interesting and informative night out. Who would have thought that little old Whangarei had such a wonderful piece of scientific equipment. We came to know so much about the night sky, planets and constellations! The fact that the clouds came in and covered the sky did not detract from the stories and fun facts Peter shared with us inside the Planetarium. Because of the cloud cover we weren't able to use the telescopes or see the stars in the sky but we were graciously offered to come back another time and they would allow us to look through the telescope then.

Our heartful thanks to the event organisers – Sarah Pollard and Deirdre Nicholls and also the host, Peter, who was extremely knowledgeable and made the evening very interesting.

Here is what our attendees have to say about the visit:

Thank you so much for organising the visit to the Observatory on Saturday evening. Bill and I have been planning to go for the last year, as we have a telescope and wanted to understand the night skies in the Southern Hemisphere. Well, now we have some idea of where to look!! The explanation and history of stars for navigation, agriculture and even 'Fish and Tea', was so interesting. We could have sat for longer learning about the skies. We will go again to see the real stars through their telescopes.

Could we do this again at a different time of year??

It was a good experience and I’m pleased Glenn and I went. It was interesting to learn new facts about the stars and especially about Matariki.

Thanks for organising!

Thanks for a lovely time at the planetarium. I was quite surprised that Whangarei had such a great asset. Always good to get out and enjoy a different view of life .