Beneath dark skies and dancing auroras, William Gray finds perspective, wonder—and a whole new reason to travel as he explores the addictive universe of stargazing…
Midnight. South Iceland. A crescent moon hangs above the mountains in the east, bright enough to cast a faint silver glow on the East Ranga River flowing nearby. It’s only been a few minutes since I stepped outside. But turning my back on the warm lights of Hotel Ranga’s cosy lounge, I can already sense the cosmos swelling in intensity above me.
Astronomers call it ‘dark adaptation’. Something about the rods in your retina becoming more sensitive to light. But whatever the scientific cause, to me it feels simply like a spell – slow and silent – being cast over my head.
The longer I crane my neck and stare upwards, the more the cosmos reveals its secrets. Pinprick stars seem to multiply until I begin to make out the glittering arch of the Milky Way. There are other bright spots too – tiny patches of light that could be star clusters or nebulae. A satellite tracks through the constellations, drawing my gaze northwards where a faint green glow suggests the aurora borealis may be waiting in the wings.
Light show
There’s theatre in stargazing. Stepping out into a dark night, somewhere remote, somewhere far from light pollution, is every bit as captivating as a West End show. It has all the hushed anticipation; the special effects, the star performers. Your eyes are glued to the stage, straining to take it all in; not wanting to miss a single magical moment.
“Can you see Andromeda?” A soft voice in the darkness reminds me that I’m not alone. Suddenly, a fine green beam streaks across the heavens as Hotel Ranga’s local astronomer points his laser pen at a faint smudge of light. The Andromeda Galaxy. The Milky Way’s nearest neighbour.
Time travel
Stargazing always starts with a childlike sense of wonder. But with an expert on hand, it morphs into something deeper, more profound. Take Andromeda, for example. The astronomer tells me that the swirling spiral of stars is 2.5 million light years away. In other words, we’re seeing the galaxy as it was 2.5 million years ago. It’s taken the light from its glowing core that long to reach us across the inconceivable vastness of the Universe. When we stare up at the night sky, we are looking back in time. That’s Andromeda when woolly mammoths roamed the Earth. That’s Andromeda when Homo habilus – early humans – took their first steps on our planet.
I try to let that sink in. But my guide is already stretching my mind even further. There are galaxies, he says, that allow us to look back over 13 billion years – almost to the beginnings of the Universe itself.
Close encounters
It’s just a small hut, a few hundred metres from the lodge. But step inside Hotel Ranga’s observatory and you’ll find two large telescopes mounted on steel columns. The roof of the hut cranks open, revealing a rectangle of star-spattered sky for these high-powered instruments to peek through.
Stargazing with the naked eye is captivating. You can allow your natural field of vision to feast on the cosmos. No tech between you and the Universe. But believe me, once you’ve squinted into the eye piece of a 14-inch Celestron Edge HD Schmidt-Cassegrain Reflector Telescope you will never look at the stars in the same way again.
Where previously you thought there was just empty black space, the telescope has found more stars. Infinite stars. Countless galaxies. The night sky is suddenly transformed into a fuzz of light. It’s that moment – going beyond the naked eye – that takes stargazing from being a mesmerising experience to one where you feel utterly humbled.
Planet suite
My guide taps in a few commands into the telescope’s computer-controlled mount, and suddenly there’s Jupiter, so clear I can make out the ochre-coloured bands on the surface of our solar system’s largest planet. I feel like I could stretch out an arm and pluck it, like a marble, from the sky.
Years earlier, in New Zealand (another location renowned for its dark-night skies and superb stargazing) I remember seeing Saturn for the first time through a telescope. It was so surreal, so unexpected, to see that familiar shape – rings and all. Until then, only the moon had provided me with anything more than starlight.
I say ‘only the moon’, but actually when you turn a telescope on our familiar satellite, it reveals a level of detail – from craters to ‘lunar seas’ – that are every bit as transfixing as peering into the core of the Milky Way.
Star searching
Stargazing is addictive. You never lose that sense of wonder. I’m fortunate to live in a village in the Cotswolds with no street lighting. When I look up, I know where to find Orion and I always look to the top left of the constellation to find Betelguese. On particularly clear nights, the star has a pinkish tinge and I stare at it trying to fathom how that tiny glowing dot could actually be a red supergiant over 760 times bigger than our sun and more than 640 light years away from where I’m standing.
Once you’re hooked on stargazing, I’ve found it adds a whole new dimension – an extra layer of curiosity – to your travels. My ears prick up whenever I read that somewhere I’m visiting has an International Dark Sky Reserve (an area that offers exceptional starry nights due to its lack of light pollution). I will actively seek out places to stay that are deep in the wilds where I know that the cosmos will burn the brightest. Some, such as the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve in New Zealand, offer stargazing tours where local experts will open your eyes to night skies unfamiliar to those at home.
Just imagine a holiday where you added The Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri and the Jewel Box Cluster to your bucket list…
Whether you’re heading to the crystal-clear skies of the Canadian Rockies, the vast horizons of the Australian Outback or the heady latitudes of Lapland or Iceland, be sure to find some darkness, step outside and look up. You might just find it ignites a passion that takes you to some new and unexpected places.
Award-winning travel writer and photographer, William Gray has spent the last 35 years exploring the world’s wild places.
Planning your stargazing adventure
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