TOURS

OUR TOUR

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO SEE

We are pleased to offer you a personalized and custom astronomy experience. Your tour includes an overview of the constellations in the night sky led by one of our professional astronomers using a high power laser pointer. We’ll tell you stories about how the ancient civilizations named the constellations and how they are used.

We then give you an up close view of a minimum of 6 celestial objects through one of our powerful telescopes. Our astronomers are exceptionally knowledgeable and provide you with an educational and entertaining experience.

We operate our tours all year long! For your comfort, we provide chairs, blankets and parka jackets so you can lean back and enjoy the expanse of the star filled Sedona sky. Each reservation POD of a maximum of six guests will have the use of their own C11 Celestron telescope. We now combine groups to a maximum of 6 guests. These exceptional telescopes are operated with a keypad and are as easy to use as sending a text.

We regularly view the following types and classes of objects: Star Clusters, Planets, Galaxies, Double Stars, Shooting Stars, Earth’s Moon, Satellite Passes, Space Station Passes, Red Super Giant Stars, Planetary Nebula and more. 
* Note: Not all objects are visible on every night.
Images on the website are professional or NASA images, and are for illustration purposes.
Our dark sky sites are just a 15-20 minute ride from uptown Sedona, Arizona. We will send you exact directions and address when you make a reservation.
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ORION NEBULA M42

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion’s Belt. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. Older texts frequently referred to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula. There are also supersonic “bullets” of gas piercing the dense hydrogen clouds of the Orion Nebula. Each bullet is ten times the diameter of Pluto’s orbit and tipped with iron atoms glowing bright blue. They were probably formed one thousand years ago from an unknown violent event.

The image is a hubble telescope image.

ANDROMEDA GALAXY M31

Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own, the Milky Way, but not the closest galaxy overall. As it is visible as a faint smudge on a moonless night, it is one of the farthest objects visible to the naked eye, and can be seen even from urban areas with binoculars. It gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the Andromeda constellation, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda. Andromeda is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which consists of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, Andromeda may not be the most massive, as recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and may be the most massive in the grouping. The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion stars, more than the number of stars in our own galaxy, which is estimated to be c. 200-400 billion.

While the 2006 estimates put the mass of the Milky Way to be ~80% of the mass of Andromeda, which is estimated to be 7.1 × 1011 solar masses, a 2009 study concluded that Andromeda and the Milky Way are about equal in mass.

At an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is notable for being one of the brightest Messier objects, making it easily visible to the naked eye even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. Although it appears more than six times as wide as the full Moon when photographed through a larger telescope, only the brighter central region is visible with the naked eye.

SATURN

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus (the Titan father of Zeus), the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn’s symbol represents the Roman god’s sickle.

Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant. Together, these four planets are sometimes referred to as the Jovian, meaning “Jupiter-like”, planets. Saturn has an average radius about 9 times larger than the Earth’s. While only 1/8 the average density of Earth, due to its larger volume, Saturn’s mass is just over 95 times greater than Earth’s.

Because of Saturn’s large mass and resulting gravitation, the conditions produced on Saturn are extreme if compared to Earth. The interior of Saturn is probably composed of a core of iron, nickel, silicon and oxygen compounds, surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium and finally, an outer gaseous layer. Electrical current within the metallic-hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn’s planetary magnetic field, which is slightly weaker than Earth’s magnetic field and approximately one-twentieth the strength of the field around Jupiter. The outer atmosphere is generally bland in appearance, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h, significantly faster than those on Jupiter.

Saturn has nine rings, consisting mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Sixty-two known moons orbit the planet; fifty-three are officially named. This is not counting hundreds of “moonlets” within the rings. Titan, Saturn’s largest and the Solar System’s second largest moon (after Jupiter’s Ganymede), is larger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the Solar System to possess a significant atmosphere.

CRAB NEBULA

The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. Corresponding to a bright supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054, the nebula was observed later by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. At an apparent magnitude of 8.4, comparable to that of the largest moon of Saturn, it is not visible to the naked eye but can be made out using binoculars under good conditions.

The nebula acts as a source of radiation for studying celestial bodies that occult it. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Sun’s corona was mapped from observations of the Crab’s radio waves passing through it, and in 2003, the thickness of the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan was measured as it blocked out X-rays from the nebula.

MILKY WAY

The Milky Way Galaxy, commonly referred to as just the Milky Way, or sometimes simply as the Galaxy, is the home galaxy of the Solar System, and of Earth. It is agreed that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, with observations suggesting that it is a barred spiral galaxy. It contains 200-400 billion stars and is estimated to have at least 50 billion planets, 500 million of which could be located in the habitable zone of their parent star. New data suggests there may be up to twice as many free-floating planets in the Milky Way as there are stars. The Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies and is one of around 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

The Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy around two thirds of the way out from the center, on the inner edge of the Orion–Cygnus Arm. The Sun orbits around the center of the galaxy in a galactic year—once every 225-250 million Earth years.

The “Milky Way” is a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn translated from the Greek Γαλαξίας (Galaxias), referring to the pale band of light formed by stars in the galactic plane as seen from Earth.

PLEIADES STAR CLUSTER

The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is one of the brightest star clusters visible in the northern hemisphere. It consists of many bright, hot, young stars that were all formed at the same time around 100 million years ago within a large cloud of interstellar dust and gas. 

The cluster contains hundreds of stars, of which only a handful are commonly visible to the unaided eye. The blue haze that accompanies them is due to very fine dust which still remains and preferentially reflects the blue light from the stars.

This star cluster lie some 425 light years away in the constellation of Taurus. (Text adapted from Astronomy Picture of the Day)

DOUBLE STAR GAMMA ANDROMEDAE

Gamma Andromedae is the third brightest star in the constellation of Andromeda. It is also known by the traditional name Almach.

In 1778, Johann Tobias Mayer discovered that Andromedae was a double star. When examined in a small telescope, it appears to be a bright, golden yellow star next to a dimmer, indigo blue star, separated by approximately 10 arcseconds. It is considered by stargazers to be a beautiful double star with a striking contrast of color.

It was later discovered that Andromedae is itself a triple star system. What appears as a single star to the naked eye is thus a quadruple star system, approximately 350 light-years from the Earth.

PRICING

PER ADULT


$117

PER CHILD


$76

12 years old and under.

PRIVATE TOUR


$989

Up to 6 people.

EARTH'S MOON

The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural satellite of a planet in the Solar System relative to the size of its primary, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1⁄81 its mass (Charon is proportionally larger in comparison to Pluto, but Pluto has been reclassified as a dwarf planet). The Moon is the second densest satellite after Io. It is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face; the near side is marked with dark volcanic maria among the bright ancient crustal highlands and prominent impact craters. It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun, although its surface is actually very dark, with a similar reflectance to coal. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of phases have since ancient times made the Moon an important cultural influence on language, calendars, art and mythology. The Moon’s gravitational influence produces the ocean tides and the minute lengthening of the day. The Moon’s current orbital distance, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth, causes it to appear almost the same size in the sky as the Sun, allowing it to cover the Sun nearly precisely in total solar eclipses.

The Moon is the only celestial body on which humans have landed. While the Soviet Union’s Luna programme was the first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft in 1959, the United States’ NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned lunar orbiting mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972—the first being Apollo 11. These missions returned over 380 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop a detailed geological understanding of the Moon’s origins (it is thought to have formed some 4.5 billion years ago in a giant impact event involving Earth), the formation of its internal structure, and its subsequent history.

After the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by unmanned spacecraft, notably by the final Soviet Lunokhod rover. Since 2004, Japan, China, India, the United States, and the European Space Agency have each sent lunar orbiters. These spacecraft have contributed to confirming the discovery of lunar water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles and bound into the lunar regolith. Future manned missions to the Moon have been planned, including government as well as privately funded efforts. The Moon remains, under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for peaceful purposes.

DOUBLE CLUSTER IN PERSEUS

The Double Cluster is more formally known as h and Chi Persei, or NGC 884 and NGC 869. It resides in the northern part of the constellation Perseus, quite close to the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen.

The Double Cluster has to rate as one of the most magnificient deep-sky objects NOT to have been listed in the famous Messier catalogue. Of course, Charles Messier (1730-1817) was only interested in cataloguing deep-sky objects that could be mistaken for comets. Apparently, he thought nobody would see this pair of glittery clusters as a comet in the sky.

Although considered a deep-sky jewel, the Double Cluster is visible to the unaided eye in a dark country sky. If you zoom in on these rather feeble-looking stellar blobs with binoculars or a wide view telescope, they all of a sudden turn into two glorious star clusters.

SPECTRUM OF BETELGEUSE

Betelgeuse is a star nearing the end of its life. Because it is creating heavier and heavier elements in its core that could be used for stars after it dies, a NASA story once dubbed the red giant a workaholic.

The star is a famous one among amateur astronomers not only for its size and brightness, but also because it is part of Orion, a bright winter constellation in the Northern Hemisphere.

Professional astronomers also keep a close eye on the star, as it is notoriously variable: its diameter changes from anywhere between 550 to 920 times the sun’s diameter. In 2013, astronomers said Betelgeuse is likely to crash into a “cosmic wall” of interstellar dust in a few thousand years.

Ancient astronomers would have easily spotted Betelgeuse because of its size and relatively close distance from Earth: it is about 600 light-years away. It is the 12th brightest star in the night sky.

ALCOR AND MIZAR

Mizar (ζ UMa, ζ Ursae Majoris) is a quadruple system of two binary stars in the constellation Ursa Major and is the second star from the end of the Big Dipper’s handle. Its apparent magnitude is 2.23 and its spectral class is A1V. Mizar’s name comes from the Arabic مئزر mīzar, meaning a waistband or girdle.)

With normal eyesight one can make out a faint companion just to the east, named Alcor or 80 Ursae Majoris. Alcor is of magnitude 3.99 and spectral class A5V.

Mizar and Alcor together are sometimes called the “Horse and Rider,” and the ability to resolve the two stars with the naked eye is often quoted as a test of eyesight, although even people with quite poor eyesight can see the two stars. Arabic literature says that only those with the sharpest eyesight can see the companion of Mizar. Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has suggested that this in fact refers to another star which lies visually between Mizar and Alcor. The name the Arabs used for Alcor was سها (suha), meaning either the ‘forgotten’ or ‘neglected’ one.
As of 2007, the best estimates of Mizar and Alcor’s respective distances place them 1.1 light-years apart, and though their proper motions show they move together (they are both members of the Ursa Major Moving Group), it was long believed that they did not form a true binary star system, but simply a double star. However, in 2009, it was independently reported by two groups of astronomers (Eric Mamajek et al, and Zimmerman et al) that Alcor actually is itself a binary, consisting of Alcor A and Alcor B, and that this binary system is most likely gravitationally bound to Mizar, bringing the full count of stars in this complex system to six.[1][2] These studies also demonstrated that the Alcor binary and Mizar quadruple are somewhat closer together than previously thought: approximately 74,000 ± 39,000 astronomical units or 0.5-1.5 light years.[3]
The whole six-star system lies about 83 light-years away from Earth. The components are all members of the Ursa Major moving group, a mostly dispersed group of stars sharing a common birth, as determined by proper motion. The other stars of the Big Dipper, except Dubhe and Alkaid, belong to this group as well.

M81 AND M82 GALAXIES

M81 is an outstanding Sb spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. Although its magnitude of 7 makes it bright enough to be visible in 7×50 binoculars in suburban skies, M81 it is pretty hard to find because it is located far from any handy reference stars.

To find M81, start with a line drawn from Phecda to Dubhe, two bright stars in Ursa Major. Extend that line past Dubhe for the same distance you just traversed, this route passes to within a degree of M81. Watch for 24 Ursae Majoris lying at the right angle of a small triangle. The triangle points southeast and almost directly to M81, just two degrees away.

M81 is an example of a starburst galaxy undergoing a period of rapid star formation. Even in a small telescope it looks disturbed, and in larger instruments it is highly mottled with several bright knots visible.

Found within the same low-power eyepiece field as M81 is M82, a peculiar edge-on galaxy. Although it is a magnitude fainter than its neighbor, M82 offers more structural detail. The most prominent feature is a rift of darkness across its center. Several other dark filaments can be spotted throughout M82, but you need a large telescope for that.

PRICING

PER ADULT


$117

PER CHILD


$76

12 years old and under.

PRIVATE TOUR


$989

Up to 6 people.
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