Private Telescope Viewing Session

Similar to the Premium Session but for 1 person or your own family or group of people.

Session goes for 90 minutes.

The session is run on most nights excluding nights around Full Moon, long weekends, & school holidays.

Cost is $165 per person + credit card fee if paying by card.

There is no age limit in this session as long as children are strictly supervised.

August Times: 10:30pm 1st to 12th, 25th to 31st

September Times: 10:30pm 1st to 13th, 23rd to 25th

October times: 12am (midnight) 22nd to 31st

November to February is not available

Expert guided view of the Night Sky

View stars, nebulae, & galaxies through our telescopes. If there are any planets visible, we will show you those as well.

Astronomy presentation.

Use of a pair of binoculars and a tour of the night sky for groups of 6 people or smaller.

Live view of distant galaxies using a CCD camera on our largest telescope.

If you bring a compatible DSLR camera or compatible mirrorless camera, we can take images of nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters through the telescope.

Compatible cameras are Canon or Nikon DSLR cameras. Sony mirrorless. Canon mirrorless if you have an adaptor to fit DSLR lenses.

Alternatively you can use our Canon RA (modified for astronomy if you purchase an SD card here).

You must know the settings on your camera, manual, ISO, exposure time, ability to zoom in on the back screen with live view, bulb setting if you bring a remote shutter release.

6″ x 4″ picture of an object we have taken through our telescope. 1 per person. (10:30pm session only)

Tickets are purchased by emailing the observatory at [email protected] or call 0488 425 940

You can cancel by only emailing me at [email protected] 3 days notice is required for you to receive a refund excluding the small booking fee. If less than 3 days notice is given, a refund is only given if we can resell the tickets.

If you wish to move your ticket to another date, the same rules apply as above for cancellations.

We may cancel the show if the sky is overcast or it is raining.

The show may also be cancelled if there is an equipment failure or the guide is sick.

If we cancel the show, a refund is issued.

What you see depends on the time of night and time of year.

Planets are not always visible as this changes through the night and time of year, and that varies in different years.

It will also depend on how bright the sky is. This depends on if the Moon is visible during the show and what phase it is. The fainter objects like nebulae and galaxies are generally not visible around Full Moon and impacted on phases greater than First Quarter.

It also depends on the amount of cloud cover. The clearer the sky is the more objects we see.

Astrophotographs dont work when the Moon is at phases between 1st Quarter and 3rd Quarter Moon.

A list of objects we plan to show for this month are listed below. This is for 11:30am. If the show is brought forward, the list would change.