When is the last time you sat down at night & took a moment to have a look up?
It’s not really something we find ourselves doing anymore but that can mean we’re missing out. Let’s talke about this underrated camping activities ; Stargazing! This is one of those activities to help switch off in the evening & have a quiet moment before heading off to sleep.
Location Location Location
If you want to do some stargazing, you need to do it in the right place. Large cities produce a huge amount of light pollution which makes it extremely difficult to see. To avoid this, it calls for traveling out & away from cities. Local mountain ranges, national parks & more remote townships often prove the best places to catch some great sights.
If you’re up for a road trip, some top listed places to visit in different states are:
- Swan Reach, SA
- Warrumbungle National Park, NSW
- Kakadu National Park, NT
- Kings Canyon, NT
- Bickley, WA
- Cape Range National Park, WA
- Murray-Sunset National Park, VIC
- Grampians National Park, VIC
- Lake Eildon, VIC
Getting the Little ones involved
Stargazing can be an easy way to calm down after a long, exciting day, not just for you but also for the little ones. It’s a nice bonding moment to lay out a picnic rug & take a look at what’s above with your kids, will you look for constellations? Can you find the Southern Cross tonight? Or maybe Orion’s belt? Better yet, make up a few of your own constellations just for fun.
Sometimes you can even catch a satellite & watch it move across the sky. A great resource to check for any satellites going past you is the Spot the Station website from NASA, Click Here to have a look.
Take it to the next level
If the stars have taken your heart & sparked your interest of that of your little ones, you can grow that knowledge & passions through visiting an observatory or Planetaria centre. There are quite a few all-around Australia where you can see some amazing deep space imagery & see new sights.
Australian Astronomy has a great list for where you can find some of these observatories, Click Here to see it.