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Has anyone done Stargazing Discovery at Sea?


Napagirl
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I saw this on the Princess website, but can't tell if it's offered yet. I LOVE stargazing!! Wondering if there might be a guide, a telescope, and what exactly is offered.

 

We participated in the stargazing event this past Sept. while on the Royal Princess.

It was hosted by a couple of the cruise staff. One had an iPad with star charts and the other read from a prepared script.

However, he kept turning on a flashlight to read it, which ruined our night vision. Told him he could to cover the light with red cellophane.

The stargazing was held on deck 19 (lawn court), with the lights turned off.

It was well attended (probably about 25 people) and informative in layman's terms.

There were passengers there who were amateur astronomers who provided further insight.

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I saw this on the Princess website, but can't tell if it's offered yet. I LOVE stargazing!! Wondering if there might be a guide, a telescope, and what exactly is offered.

 

Great Question! I have been looking to do this as well.. I cannot for the life of me figure out which cruises offer this.. :confused:

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I believe it's only available on the Regal. This is from Princess' website about the program:

 

Pick out the glittering constellations and the majestic sweep of the Milky Way galaxy. Study the moon and find a planet or two. Search for comets and meteors. Your experience will be heightened by insights from experts about celestial bodies and the earthly legends our ancestors created to explain them. This fascinating program was designed to inspire all ages. It’s yet another reason why a Caribbean cruise on Regal Princess can be a truly stellar experience.*

 

*Debuting during the Winter 2015 Regal Princess Caribbean season. Contingent upon weather and light conditions.

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Went to it on our 15 day Ruby cruise to Hawaii. We gathered on the putt putt course on top of Skywalkers where an ass't cruise director called the bridge and had many of the lights turned off. He basically used a tablet app and a script. It was kind of neat to be in topside with the lights off. Too bad so many people were around :rolleyes: as we were on our anniversary cruise.

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They did it one night on the Ruby last month on our Hawaiian Island cruise. It was at 9pm on Saturday night after we left Kauai. We were going to go but decided against it as we were tired and we needed to get up early to grab a tender the next day (Lahaina, Maui).

Edited by ar1950
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*Debuting during the Winter 2015 Regal Princess Caribbean season. Contingent upon weather and light conditions.

 

Since it talks about "debuting," maybe it has expanded by now to other ships. I have been wondering about it myself.

Edited by shredie
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It was offered twice on our Golden cruise to the South Pacific in October - both were during sea days. The first one got postponed due to clouds and the second one almost got cancelled due to clouds too.

 

The Assistant Cruise Director hosted it and he used an iPad app which I have had for a few years. It was held in the children's pool area and only part of the lights were turned off. It wasn't dark enough and clouds came in and out.

 

I wasn't impressed. He had minimal knowledge of astronomy. If you got the app, you could probably do it at home (with a much darker and clearer sky if you live away from big cities). The app is called Star Walk 2.

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Went to this in 2014 on Sea Princess to PNG. It was hosted by a guest lecturer who knew his stuff but couldn't communicate it to his large audience. Just spoke in a normal voice no projection and wouldn't use a microphone so difficult to hear if you weren't right beside him. It was held in the Sanctuary and the bridge turned off most of the lights. Lovely clear night, you could see lots. celebrity was running one in 2011 on way to Antarctica but it was canc led due to bad weather.

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I saw this on the Princess website, but can't tell if it's offered yet. I LOVE stargazing!! Wondering if there might be a guide, a telescope, and what exactly is offered.

Telescopes are not much good on a ship because of the movement, even the vibration from the motors. Binoculars are good because they are hand-held and any small vibration is damped down by the body holding the device.

 

Princess has had some information compiled and the programme is run by members of the cruise staff. They try hard, but without a basic knowledge of astronomy, it is limited what they can do in a session. If you are lucky, there would be an amateur astronomer in the group who could expand on what the cruise staff member has in his/her prepared text. :)

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Thanks to all for the feedback!

 

Fifteen minutes with the lights off is really not enough time for the eyes to adjust. And it sounds like sometimes not all the lights are off.

 

Well, if they offer it on our cruise (Grand in April) I'll probably go check it out just because I love astronomy.

 

Thanks for the tip about binoculars! I'll pack ours and hope for the best. :)

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It was offered on Star on our cruise around South America. DH went one night but too cloudy to see. They had a fabulous guest astronomy lecturer on board--Shelley Bonus. This seems like a great idea but sounds like execution needs to be improved.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

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It was offered on Star on our cruise around South America. DH went one night but too cloudy to see. They had a fabulous guest astronomy lecturer on board--Shelley Bonus. This seems like a great idea but sounds like execution needs to be improved.

Astronomy guest lecturers can do a fabulous job, but the subject is so vast that Cruise staff can only touch the edges of the topic.:)

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They had it on CB last June. I had been looking forward to it until I saw that it was programmed for an evening time that was earlier than sunset as shown in that day's Patter! Went up a few minutes after the scheduled time just out of interest to see what they would do. Found the Cruise Director turning everyone away apologetically because it wasn't dark. As it hadn't been anywhere near dark that time the previous evening, you wonder how on earth he could have thought it would be possible. We were not impressed.

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Thanks to all for the feedback!

 

Fifteen minutes with the lights off is really not enough time for the eyes to adjust. And it sounds like sometimes not all the lights are off.

 

Well, if they offer it on our cruise (Grand in April) I'll probably go check it out just because I love astronomy.

 

Thanks for the tip about binoculars! I'll pack ours and hope for the best. :)

 

It was offered on the Grand last month.

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They had it on CB last June. I had been looking forward to it until I saw that it was programmed for an evening time that was earlier than sunset as shown in that day's Patter! Went up a few minutes after the scheduled time just out of interest to see what they would do. Found the Cruise Director turning everyone away apologetically because it wasn't dark. As it hadn't been anywhere near dark that time the previous evening, you wonder how on earth he could have thought it would be possible. We were not impressed.

 

Would this have been on an Alaskan cruise? It would be nice to see this on our June cruise but a late sunset would probably prohibit this from happening. Too bad as we just invested in a pair of Celestron binoculars! :(

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We went to it on the Royal in October and were told it was the first time it had been offered so our experience may not be the norm. There was a mix up on locations and the mic didn't work, so there was about a 20 minute delay getting started. It ended up being held on the mini golf course and the lights above were turned off but there were still lights on aft. There were probably about 50 people waiting and the crowd thinned a little while the issues were being sorted out. When we finally got going one of the members of the cruise director staff read from an iPad and used a laser pointer but got mixed up at times, pointing to wrong stars. We didn't stay for the whole time because it was pretty clear that the staff member was in over his head, but again, it was the first time so this hopefully what we encountered isn't representative.

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I eagerly anticipated our stargazing on our Mexican Riviera Ruby cruise, especially because of the association with Discovery. It was a bitter disappointment. We got up there early along with a lot of other people, but there was no place to sit. A member of the crew staff came up there a few minutes after the scheduled time and started off with a disclaimer that he was not an astronomer. He had a cheat sheet that he used and a megaphone (which he didn't use), but unless you were right up next to him, you could not hear him very well. His laser pointer was not strong enough to really see where he was pointing. Turning out some of the ship's lights helped, but you really couldn't see that much. After about 10 minutes, a lot of people gave up and left (us included). He was standing in the middle of the deck, and since there was no where to sit, it was hard to keep your balance with the sway of the seas that night. We tried going toward the middle where there was a railing to hold onto, but then we really couldn't hear anything at all. I don't think I would ever attend one again unless I was assured that they actually had a knowledgeable person onboard and at least a few deck chairs to sit on.

Edited by love2relax
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My in-laws had a great experience with this on a California Coastal cruise - they said it was one of the first time Princess had offered it and it was presented by someone from the Discovery Channel. It was offered in a secluded and dark part of the ship (Sky deck?) and they were asked not to leave once the presentation started in order to maintain everyone's night vision. They thought it was fantastic!

 

A couple of months later, we were on a California Coastal on the Star and saw that it was offered, but what a disappointment!! It was someone from the entertainment staff who did the presentation, using an Ipad and a laser pointer. It was held on an open deck on the front of the ship, so it was difficult to see and it was very very windy...

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We were on the Royal in early November last year and I was very much looking forward to the stargazing program. First of all I adore the two people from the cruise staff who were leading this event but the presentation was very poor and disappointing. I believe they did the best they could but one reading from an iPad while the other tried to find in the sky what was being read about did not work well. Stargazing needs to have someone who has a working knowledge of astronomy leading it or at least a passion for it......amateurs can be extremely knowledgeable. Some lights were turned off on the ship but unfortunately not enough so there was still light pollution as well as smoke from the ship's stacks which interfered with viewing the sky. (It also would have helped to have chairs to sit on. Safer and easier on the neck. LOL!) Totally understand that it could be a safety and security issue to have all the lights off and one can't stop the ship from emitting smoke. As another poster commented, I also have Sky Walk and Sky View on my iPad and find them both very helpful in learning what one is looking at.

 

While I did find the presentation lacking, did see two exciting events. The second night of our cruise, we were on our balcony and a bright shooting star streaked across the night sky. Very exciting to see. The morning that we returned to Ft. Lauderdale, dawn was about to break when I saw three planets beautifully lined up - Venus, Jupiter and Mars. Again, very exciting to see.

 

I would very much recommend downloading free apps on your iPad or smart phone and enjoy looking up to see what you can discover. It is amazing. Will never forget looking thru our son's birding scope years back and could see the rings on Saturn. It just blew me away especially when you realize that what you are looking at is in the past.

 

I think the concept of stargazing on the ship is one that Princess should try to improve. However, even if the presentation isn't perfect, if you learned something you didn't know before it was worth it.

 

Happy stargazing!

 

Sandy :)

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