Astronomy in Northland

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Welcome 2024

Evening Tours Resume

February sees the return of our popular evening tours, with a perfect view of the Orion hunting scene with Matariki (Pleadies) leading the way west.

Telescopes are offers after the planetarium tour if weather permits. Where possible we will target the planets, nebula, globular clusters and nearby galaxies.


Kiwi North Live Day - Feb 18th 

Do you have younger astronomers in the family. Our juniors can enjoy the planetarium, observatory and various activities on the next Live Day. 

Admission is $2 per head, no bookings required.

International Guest Lecturer

Dr Lisa Kaltenegger is a world leading astronomer, director of the Carl Sagan institute and will be presenting a special lecture in Whangarei on April 5.

Public events are below. If you would like a private booking for your school, community group or business at another time please contact us.

Should I still book if cloudy?

Absolutely, telescopes are offered at the end of the planetarium tour as a bonus however even on a perfect night we can only show you a few celestial features before the cold makes you uncomfortable.  

When does the tour start?

7pm sharp, late admission is not possible!  The planetarium is artificially darkened for you to see the full celestial sphere above, arriving late means you will not be dark adapted like the other visitors, and it will disturb their viewing.

Is Parking available?

Yes, enter at Gate 1 and use the carpark for the Kiwi North / Whangarei Museum. A short walk up past the Native Bird Recovery Centre will bring you to the planetarium and observatory.  Please keep torches low and turn off as you get to our facility to protect the night sky for those viewing the stars.

Cancellations and Postponing

If you need to postpone or cancel your booking please contact us by 1pm on the tour date. 

We aim for a minimum of 6 persons per public tour, maximum capacity is 24.  If there are insufficient bookings, staff illness or miserable weather on a given night we may cancel the tour before 3pm. 

Note, often cloud comes and goes and while it might impact the optional telescopes this isn't causing interruption to our main planetarium programme.


Guidelines

We have updated our conditions of entry for the evening public program for everyone's safety and enjoyment, namely

  • Maximum 24 passengers per tour.  We have 24 seats, nobody on the floor.
  • Recommended age 8+, no pre-school or infants during public tours*
  • Bookings essential, event cancellation policy is below
  • No light-up shoes or white flashlights in the planetarium or observatory, thanks.

* Unfortunately our experience of running planetarium tours for over 10 years is that the evening program is not suitable to under 5s. We are happy to accommodate junior groups and in 2023 we plan to run a special juniors event on the same day as the Heritage Park mini-trains (3rd Sundays). 


Our facility includes the Planetarium, club room and Observatory where we can host groups of up to 100 people. Only the observatory with our professional telescopes is weather dependent, everything else we offer in our tours can function even when the Sun is out or the clouds are about.