A NSW Stargazer’s Guide to the Galaxy

When I was a child, I was haunted and infuriated by a particular question in the kids’ edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit. The question was: “Where is the Sea of Tranquillity?” Answer: on the moon (and not a sea at all).

At the time, this felt like an outrageous trick question. Cut to decades later, and on a brutally freezing night in Wentworth Falls in the upper Blue Mountains, viewing the contours and crevices of this “sea” (also known as Mare Tranquillitatis, and just a flat lunar plain) becomes possible through the $7000 telescope owned by Blue Mountains Stargazing. This was a case of unfinished business – I need to look that sea in the eye, as it were.

I’m among about 25 people who have gathered on a clifftop that overlooks the actual Wentworth Falls for the 90-minute stargazing session. Against the roar of the waterfall below, the wind is biting but the night is clear. Our host is local astronomy expert (and engineering student) Tom Kirkpatrick – a scholar, historian and, it’s fair to say, philosopher of the night sky.

Using an impressive laser pointer (which might be thought of as a thin lightsaber that extends about 30 metres upwards), he guides us around the stars with his dizzying knowledge, pointing out celestial features such as the Alpha Centauri star system (the nearest star system to Earth), as well as such familiar formations as the Southern Cross, the Milky Way, Scorpius and the Dark Emu. At intervals, he invites us to queue for the telescope to get a closer view of clusters of stars – “fuzzy stuff in the sky” as he puts it – that are thousands of light years away.

Kirkpatrick encourages and responds to questions all evening, covering topics as diverse as the science of dying stars and supernovas, celestial navigation, the fascinating details of how early civilisations gave constellations their names, and even the administrative process of “buying” a star so you can name it yourself. He also talks about the issue of light pollution – although we’re surrounded by bush, a noticeable glow to the east signifies the lights of Sydney. But this, he reckons, is the perfect place for stargazing.

“This is a great spot because it’s away from the city lights, but is also accessible,” he tells Broadsheet. “The quality of night sky viewing depends greatly on the artificial light pollution from cities. While you can get further away from city lights in places like the Outback, the Blue Mountains are so easy to get to from Sydney, and they provide a fantastic compromise between sky conditions and accessibility for everyone.

“And I love winter for stargazing – it can be cold and windy, but the crispness of the sky is worth it, and we also get the best view of the Milky Way.”

Blue Mountains Stargazing was founded in 2020 by astro-physicist Dr Dimitri Douchin and Caroline Boulom, and the company also operates in Jervis Bay and Byron Bay. It fits neatly into the larger global movement of dark-sky tourism, which has boomed in recent years.

Australia is, of course, one of the best places in the world for this, as revealed by this enlightening (and addictive) online light pollution map displaying Nasa dark-sky data. Among the most popular domestic stargazing locations is the Warrumbungles National Park in north-central NSW, which became Australia’s first official Dark Sky Park in 2016. Certified by the not-for-profit body Dark Sky International, Dark Sky Parks are protected spaces known for the quality and clarity of their starry nights, and can be found across 22 countries and six continents.

An experience under the stars in Dark Sky Parks – or close by here on Darug and Gundungurra Country – offers the chance to contemplate time and space on a scale the human mind is probably not built to comprehend. It’s this sublime realisation of Earth’s infinitesimal insignificance in the expanding universe – known in some quarters as the “cosmic perspective” – that’s said to have mental health benefits for conditions such as anxiety and depression. The sun will swallow Earth up in about four billion years, Kirkpatrick says, something he attests is a comforting thought amid the increasingly daunting pressures of contemporary life.

It’s on this note of awe and humility that Kirkpatrick concludes our tour of the stars. It’s enough to make me forget the fact that, because the moon is in its waning gibbous phase tonight, and absent, I didn’t get to see the Sea of Tranquillity. This warrants a return trip when the moon is full, to banish that particular childhood ghost. But a full moon means fewer visible stars – and this evening they were dazzling theatre.

“I’ve shown you a lot of fuzzy stuff in the sky tonight,” says Kirkpatrick, “but that’s astronomy for you.”

The writer attended as a guest of Blue Mountains Stargazing. The company offers astronomy tours most nights at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains – roughly 90 minutes’ drive from Sydney. It also runs frequent events in Jervis Bay and Byron Bay.

This story is part of Broadsheet’s special Aussie Travel Issue, presented by Up, exploring uncommon escapes and remarkable stays close to home.