Photo by Charlie Strivens and posted with permission. Last weekend most of Aotearoa was able to see a magnificent aurora — unusual because it’s normally only visible from the South Island. Many at Waikawa Beach enjoyed the show. On Saturday 11 May 2024, Charlie Strivens posted on Facebook: So glad we made the call to go to the beach to check out the Aurora tonight! Light and smoke pollution affected the photos near the village but away from the village down at the beach it was magic!
Starry Time tonight! Meet on the beach by the Manga Pirau Street entrance at 7 pm. Dress warm. Bring binoculars if you have them, but you don’t need them, red torch (or put red cellophane over an ordinary torch), and maybe your phone to try taking photos. Cloud keeps coming over then going away. Who knows if it’ll be clear at 7! We’ll meet up then anyway and hope we can see stars!
Night sky September 2023 (partial view). All welcome! On Friday 15 September 2023, if the weather suits, we should have a good evening for looking at the night sky. Backup days (if it’s cloudy or rainy) are the Saturday and Sunday. Meet on the beach by the Manga Pirau Street entrance at 7 pm. Dress warm. Bring binoculars if you have them, but you don’t need them, red torch (or put red cellophane over an ordinary torch), and maybe your phone to try taking photos.
Starry Time: a casual hour of looking at stars with the naked eye or binoculars. All welcome. Come and join in! I hope we can look at Mars, Venus, Large & Small Clouds of Magellan, Southern Cross, Milky Way, Arcturus, Canopus. This is a very casual gathering to enjoy and learn a little about the night sky. You're welcome if you know nothing about the stars, and also if you do.
A few weeks ago I asked on Facebook if anyone was interested in looking up at the stars with me. Several folks said yes. Looks like Friday 24 March 2023 would be our best bet weather-wise. Sunset these days is around 7.30 pm and we’ll want it to be a bit darker than that. It’d be useful to have a good view to the North. I suggest we meet up at the beach access on Manga Pirau Street and then go down onto the beach for a clear view.
Step outside on any dark clear night then look up and south. You should be able to see the Clouds of Magellan, two galaxies that orbit our Milky Way galaxy. Magellanic Clouds. Photo by European Southern Observatory (ESO). These and all the other stars we can see from Waikawa Beach are a treasure not available to many people on this planet. For a start, the Clouds of Magellan are only visible from the southern hemisphere.
Who here enjoys looking up at the stars occasionally? Thinking of organising a little casual stargazing hour for maybe around Friday 24 or Saturday 25 March (just after equinox). Probably around 8.30 pm when it’s actually dark. Naked eye or binoculars. Anyone interested? Email admin@wow-waikawa.nz if you want to make sure to be updated on date, time and where to meet.
Map showing Waikawa Beach has Class 2 dark sky. Thanks to the global Light pollution map I now know the sky at Waikawa Beach is almost as dark as it can get, at Class 2. On a clear night we can see the Clouds of Magellan with the naked eye.
Wellington, OTOH, comes in at Class 6: bad.
Screenshot of Wellington data showing Class 6. Our dark sky is a taonga we need to protect assiduously.
Let’s hope for clear skies on 08 November 2022 as we’ll be able to watch a Total Lunar Eclipse:
Partial begins: Nov 8 at 10:09:12 pm
Full begins: 8 Nov at 11:16:39 pm Maximum: 8 Nov at 11:59:11 pm
In the southern hemisphere we miss out on a lot of the meteor showers, but we do have a chance over the next few mornings to see the Eta Aquariids. Before dawn dress warmly and look for the lineup of planets in the eastern sky then hang around and watch for a while. In the hour before dawn, you could easily see 20 to 30 meteors per hour. Luckily, with our dark skies, we've got a good chance to see some bright shooting stars.
Screenshot from Stellarium showing Jupiter and Venus next to one another. You may have been watching the evolving pre-dawn line up of planets in the eastern sky. I mentioned them at 4 Planets and the crescent Moon and When planets align. On 01 May 2022, just before dawn, there’s a special treat when Jupiter and Venus will be so close together it may be hard to tell them apart. Stellarium screenshot that seems to only show Venus.
The pre-dawn sky is delightful at the moment. Look east to see Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn. On the 24th the Moon will join in. Check Stellarium Web Online Star Map for IDs of things you see in the sky. Screenshot from 24 April 2022 at Waikawa Beach (with Māori names added).
It pays to keep an eye on the sky at Waikawa Beach. For one thing, there’s a low-flying zone just off Strathnaver Drive. For another, probably because Ohakea Air base is only 60 Km away as the plane flies, we see a lot of military aircraft. Today’s flypast was a bit special though: Air Force marks 85 years of service to New Zealand: Saturday, 2 April 2022 … C–130H(NZ) Hercules aircraft … Leaving Dunedin approx 1100 and heading North over … Picton and Hokio.
Crescent Moon beside Jupiter. At 0644 on 31 March 2022 the Eastern sky brought us an unusual sight: low in the sky a crescent Moon, right beside mighty Jupiter. Arrayed above them, Venus, Saturn and Mars. My photos don’t do them justice.
To keep an eye on the sky, you might find Stellarium Web Online Star Map very useful. Set your location in the bottom left corner (search for Waikawa Beach) and set the time in the bottom right corner.
Map showing Waikawa Beach may not have cloud cover at 4am on 29 March 2022. From MetService: Early risers tomorrow morning might see something neat above the eastern horizon. Venus, Saturn and Mars are all going to be clustered together. Unless of course cloud obscures your view! Here’s a cloud cover forecast for the morning. Looks like we might just be in luck!