As Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain return to our screens for another series of Stargazing Live on BBC2, we pick our a few of our favourite stargazing holidays around the world.

While Cox and O Briain study the night skies above Britain from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire – exploring mindblowing concepts such as finding black holes, tides being pulled by the moon, and communicating with aliens – these trips take participants to more far-flung destinations, from the desert to the snowscapes of the far north.

Trips range from sleeping-under-the-stars experiences in luxury resorts to cosmic holidays where budding astronomers can learn about the wonders of the night skies.

In Africa, travellers can combine stargazing and safari. Sanctuary Kusini is a luxury tented lodge in Tanzania with a viewing platform and an expert on the constellations to enlighten guests at night, while in the daytime the platform looks right out across the Serengeti.

At Loisaba Wilderness in Kenya, guests can sleep under African skies in Star Beds, four-poster beds cantilevered over a river or overlooking a waterhole, with net canopies through which the stars are clearly visible.

Soneva Kiri in Thailand has its own observatory. On idyllic Koh Kood, in the Gulf of Siam, the super-luxurious Six Senses property offers evening astronomy sessions as well as the usual lessons in diving or Thai cooking.

Dr John Mason is an astronomer, a regular expert on The Sky at Night and a ‘Galactic Ranger’, leading several Explorers Astronomy Tours.
His first expedition this year is an eight-day Northern Lights trip in February 2012. Scheduled around the new moon to ensure optimum viewing of the lights, a group of travellers will go to the Lake Myvatn region in northern Iceland, just south of the Arctic Circle, where Dr Mason will explain the science behind aurora borealis, and point out the just-visible planets.

He also leads the Active Cappadocia astronomy tour to Turkey in July, a family-friendly trip where children learn about the night skies among the surreal rock formations (pictured) of Central Anatolia.

And in November, a rare solar eclipse will take place over the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. As the moon slides in front of the sun on the morning of 14 December 2012, an eerie darkness will descend and the stars will be visible; a ‘diamond ring’ then appears as the first rays of sunshine appear from behind the moon.

Probably the world’s most sought-after spot to see the stars – due to zero precipitation and humidity – is the Atacama Desert in Chile. A two-week tour take guests into the Andes, up to altitudes of more than2,440 metres, from where the skies of San Pedro are a deep blue. Here, the ALMA Observatory is the largest astronomical project in existence; guests also visit three more world-class observatories in Chile.

Other tours include Morocco, in the Atlas Mountains and northern reaches of the Sahara Desert, where the skies, far from any pollution, are incredibly clear, and guests are supplied with telescopes so they can get a better look at the constellations. Similarly on the Jordan expedition this August, guests experience life in a Bedouin Camp in the Wadi Rum desert, and can sleep under the stars. The trip also includes a visit to the lost world of Petra, and snorkelling in the Red Sea at Aqaba.

And the Galactic Safari South Africa will take astronomy enthusiasts to the beautiful Garden Route. Here they can experience a live planetarium show through the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. Measuring more than nine metres across and made up of 91 hexagonal mirrors, it gives participants an unrivalled view of the clear skies over the Great Karoo.

Source: cntraveller.com

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