An Evening Filled With The Best Views On The Planet

And M42 Was The Pinnacle Of Them All

For Jeremy’s birthday Rachel had searched long and hard for the ideal gift that would provide a night under the stars to remember. Honeysuckles Astronomy Tours provided the perfect fit: a night of serious observing through a large telescope, in a getaway location that itself would have been a superb gift. The Melbourne couple arrived mid-afternoon relaxing by the beach in our large garden setting and were setting themselves for a glorious night ahead hoping to see some remarkable sights. They were not disappointed.

Clear conditions  made way for a night to remember. New to telescope observing, time was not a concern and they were guided through the techniques of looking through a telescope eyepiece and proper focusing to get the best out of their views. And those views were stunning. It was a lengthy tour session and a host of the very best cosmic marvels were carefully studied – some with different eyepieces to provide different views. The largest barred spiral galaxy known whose light hit Rachel and Jeremy’s eye as they looked through the eyepiece had left the galaxy when dinosaurs were ruling planet Earth: that’s 65 million years ago! … We explored the Large Magellanic Cloud – a neighbouring galaxy looking at distant nebulae withing the galaxy itself, finally targeting the Tarantula Nebula, one of the great nebula regions inside the Cloud.

But both guests were silenced by the beauty of the magnificent and majestic Great Orion Nebula (M42) only 1,300 light years distant. This object has to be seen to be believed. It is a creation of exquisite texture and form. When beholding it, one can be at a loss to find words to describe it. Seeing M42 well is one of life’s pleasures and from November to March is the time to view it with Honeysuckles Astronomy Tours.

“We had such an incredible experience!! I purchased this as a birthday gift and we were not disappointed. Thank you Bruce for facilitating such a once in a lifetime experience, it’s hard to pick our favourite part of the tour but Saturn, Tarantula Nebula and Orion were absolutely mesmerizing! We appreciate you taking the time to show us so many objects (with multiple lenses) and a tour that saw us see the early hours of the next day. You really took the time to ensure that we saw all we wanted to. No words but thank you and if in doubt, book yourself in for a tour!  🙂 ”   …. Rachel and Jeremy    Google