HAVE SCOPE, WILL TRAVEL
With astro tourism soaring in popularity, here’s how to make the most of stargazing on holiday.
Astro tourism has exploded in recent years. Astronomer Will Gater goes globetrotting to QG WKH EHVW ZD\V IRU WKH VWDUJD]HU WR WUDYHO
The annals of science brim with tales of daring expeditions and arduous journeys undertaken by astronomers hoping to catch sight of eclipses, auroral displays and magnificent, starry night skies. But whereas a century or so ago, perhaps even less, it would have been only the privileged few who could embark on such exploits, nowadays astronomical adventures around the world are increasingly within the reach of more and more of us.
The snowballing popularity of ‘astro tourism’ – in the UK and abroad – has been striking in the last decade, as holiday companies, travel agencies and tourist organisations have all gradually realised the tremendous draw of trips with an astronomical theme. Today there are operators offering holidays to see specific celestial events, like meteor showers and total solar eclipses, while even big-name travel companies list Northern Lights breaks in their brochures. But it’s not just with package tours that amateur astronomers are now globetrotting in search of celestial splendours.
Thanks to budget airlines and accommodation websites, many UK stargazers are now organising their own trips to dark-sky locations in Europe with better weather prospects than here at home, as well as more exotic destinations such as the Arctic with its ‘bucket-list’ spectacle, the Northern Lights. For example, the airline Norwegian offers direct flights from London to Tromsø in northern Norway while easyJet flies to Reykjavik in Iceland and the stargazing Mecca of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.
Another thing that has made travelling for astro imaging and observing purposes much easier in recent years is the development of lightweight, portable tracking mounts and high-quality, compact refractors. Previously, if you weren’t able to take a bulky tracking mount to your destination, you’d almost certainly be limited to taking relatively wide images with either a static photo tripod – using short exposures, fast camera lenses and high ISOs – or a basic motorised mount.
Kit the road, Jack
Modern portable tracking mounts, though, have advanced tremendously and now allow imagers to shoot at longer focal lengths or achieve much deeper wide-field images with regular camera lenses; some even have the ability to receive commands from an auto-guiding system. Such capabilities are especially useful for capturing the kind of targets that UK-based astrophotographers might seek through travel, such as an exceptionally dark sky, the
southern hemisphere Milky Way or iconic objects like the Magellanic Clouds (see page 70).
Today, providing your equipment is all suitably protected and padded, it’s possible to fit a very capable portable mount – such as Sky-Watcher’s Star Adventurer or the Vixen Polarie – as well as a small scope and a DSLR camera into a typical, carry-on luggage bag. This has particularly opened up deep-sky DSLR astrophotography when you’re travelling abroad.
If you’re thinking of going on an astronomy holiday – either one arranged by yourself or with a professional tour company – it’s worth preparing carefully how you’re going to get your kit to your destination. Of course, you’ll want to check that your most sensitive equipment is secure and safely protected; for example, keep any scopes, lenses and cameras you take on flights abroad in a specially padded, carry-on-sized rucksack, so that you can keep an eye on them and put the bag gently into the overhead lockers yourself. If you do this, it’s worth double-checking the size and weight restrictions for your carry-on luggage for all flights on your trip, especially regional connecting flights, as sometimes these can vary across one journey and the last thing you want is to find your carry-on bag full of delicate kit has to go in the hold.
If you’re going by air to your destination another thing to be aware of, and abide by, are the restrictions and regulations on taking lithium-ion and lithium metal batteries on aircraft. These are very often found in the kind of equipment that travelling astronomers carry, including DSLR cameras and power-packs used for powering motorised mounts or charging mobile phones. It’s therefore highly recommended that, a good while prior to travelling, you check and familiarise yourself with the rules regarding these batteries for the airline that you are going to be flying with.
Consider clothing and comfort
Preparing for stargazing or imaging abroad isn’t just about dealing with kit logistics, however; there are many other elements that you need to consider for a successful, safe and enjoyable trip. For example, if you’re heading to the Arctic to see the Northern Lights you’ll obviously be taking a load of warm clothes. But in the daytime it can be really quite bright and sunny, and the air can be very dry too, so you might want to pack sun cream, sunglasses and a decent lip balm.
When chasing total solar eclipses, it’s often easy to focus on bringing the right astronomical kit and forget that – if your trip is successful – eclipse day itself will mean sitting in the sun for several hours. So think about what you’ll need to keep shaded and cool, in terms of clothing and hydration, and how to make yourself comfortable during that time, by packing a cushion or rug to sit on, for example. And for general stargazing remember that even in warm