Star Sense: Find Your Way by the Stars (Masterclass)

Star Sense: Find Your Way by the Stars (Masterclass)
Ab NZD 135,00 NZ$
  • Dauer: 150 Minuten (ca.)
  • Ort: Carterton, Wairarapa
  • Produkt-Code: StarSense

Star Sense: Find Your Way by the Stars


At Star Safari, we reveal what’s in the sky and help you recognise it for yourself. This experience is an explorer’s introduction to the night sky — a guided journey through celestial patterns, seasonal movements, and cultural perspectives that have helped humanity find direction, meaning, and belonging for thousands of years.


Under Wairarapa’s internationally celebrated dark skies — recognised by Lonely Planet as one of the world’s most extraordinary stargazing locations — you’ll learn to read the heavens with confidence: finding orientation, identifying constellations, tracing the Milky Way, locating the South Celestial Pole, and recognising the bright stars and planetary markers that guide night travellers.


We focus on unaided stargazing: understanding the sky as a living map. Through practical guidance, you’ll learn the geometry of the southern sky, how explorers used the heavens for navigation, and how different cultures interpret the same star fields. We also share the principles of dark-sky stewardship — preserving the brilliance of the cosmos for future generations of observers.


You will learn:

– Orientation and south-finding using the Cross and stellar geometry

– Foundational constellations of the southern summer sky

– Milky Way structure, star clouds and dust lanes

– Seasonal star patterns and how the sky changes over time

– Planet vs star identification

– Unaided “star-hopping” techniques

– Comparative cultural lenses on the southern sky

– Dark-sky ethics and why night-friendly lighting matters

–  How to use asterisms as wayfinding anchors

– Recognising celestial motion and the rhythm of the sky


This is star-literacy training, and by the end of the session, you’ll be able to step outside at night, understand what you’re seeing, and use the sky as a guide anywhere on Earth where the stars are visible. This is about reclaiming an ancient skill: reading the universe with your own eyes.

Your instructor

Your instructor for the evening is Hari Mogoșanu — the creator of the planetarium film Ngā Tohunga Whakatere, a TEDx speaker (Christchurch 2013, We Are Made of Stars), and a former NASA intern. Hari has spent over a decade teaching astrobiology, star navigation, and night-sky literacy throughout Aotearoa and internationally.

Included: guided instruction, star-maps, orientation techniques, constellation recognition, navigation principles, sky-ethics discussions, and Q&A.


Recommended age: 10+

Duration: 150 minutes

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Find Your Way by the Stars — with Hari.