Your Experience with Stargazing at Sea

[CeeCee59]

We will be doing a 15 day cruise to Hawaii from LA in April of 2019.  My DH is an avid amateur astronomer, so I am looking for anyone who has participated in the Stargazing program offered by Princess.  Does the person giving the presentation know what they're talking about?  Are there telescopes or binoculars available?  Since there are a total of 10 at sea days on this itinerary, I'm sure that at least one night will have favourable weather but of course no guarantees.  I was looking at the Princess Excursions and they are sooo expensive to go to the observatory in Hilo.  If anyone has done that excursion, I would appreciate your feedback.

[kim.elniski]

Hi.  We went on that tour.  Can definitely recommend it.  You are traveling so far that if there is something you would enjoy, do it.  You never know if you will be able to come back again!  

[beg3yrs]

We participated in Princess' Discovery Stargazing program on the Pacific Princess earlier this year. It was held on a night with no moon on deck 11 (top forward for the Pacific Princess) and arrangements were made with the bridge to turn off the deck lights during the event. We were given special bluetooth-type headphones to use so we could hear the cruise staff member's (Andrew the Canadian) talk. He used a very powerful green laser pointer to indicate which stars he was currently discussing. I had my doubts as to how helpful the laser would be but there's enough moisture in the sea air that you could see it's path across the sky very well. I felt that Andrew had "done his homework" and gave an accurate and informative talk although I'm not sure just how deep his knowledge was as not many people asked questions. We did not receive binoculars nor was there a telescope available. I'm pretty sure a telescope would be useless on a moving ship anyway. Overall, we enjoyed the experience. The bar staff was on scene with hot chocolate.

[Wavelet]

We did both when we cruised the South Pacific a couple years ago. I can definitely recommend the Hilo tour. We felt it was well worth the cost. It was pretty much an all day tour. We stopped a couple times en route and walked around a bit to acclimate ourselves to the altitude change. If we went back to Hilo we’d do it again. As far as the Stargazing at Sea goes it can be hit or miss. We’ve done it a few times on various cruises. I believe the captain gets special permission to turn off the upper deck lights for a period of time so you do get to see the stars better. As someone already said you are given headphones so you can hear the crew member giving the lecture. If the crew member is knowledgeable it can be informative. No binoculars or telescopes are available. I hope this helps.

[Aus Traveller]

If there is an astronomy Enrichment Lecturer on board, the night-time session will be run by someone knowledgeable. Otherwise one of the Cruise Staff will run a session from a pre-prepared text. They do their best. Sometimes the headphones are used (these are great), but if the CD expects a large group, they might use a public address system instead of the head phones.

We have done the Princess tour to the observatory from Hilo. It was interesting. Obviously it is a day-time visit so only the exteriors of the observatories can be seen plus a tour of one. Even though we had a lengthy stop to help acclimatize to the altitude, this is only partially successful.

[caribill]

On 10/17/2018 at 8:25 PM, CeeCee59 said:

My DH is an avid amateur astronomer, so I am looking for anyone who has participated in the Stargazing program offered by Princess.  Does the person giving the presentation know what they're talking about?

 

Chances are your DH (as an avid amateur astronomer) is more knowledgeable than the cruise staff person who gives the presentation.

 

On our cruise, the event was scheduled for one evening. If viewing conditions would not have been good enough I do not know if it would have been rescheduled to another evening.

[haggis]

My wife is an avid stargazer and has gone to this event on numerous ocaissions.  Some seem better than others, but most have been very good. The best one ever was conducted by a professor from the London School of Economics who arranged, as mentioned in a previous post, had all the upper deck lights switched off during the lecture and used a beam from a special lazer torch he provided to point out the stars he was talking about.She seems to enjoy these lectures but I would point out that it does get very cold up there, even in summer, so wrap up warm,

                                                                                                          Jimmy      

[matamanoa]

We did the stargazing in the southern hemisphere this past Feb and I wouldn't call it a fantastic experience.  We could see some stars and planets  but the laser pointer that the guide used didn't quite get far enough to pinpoint what she was showing us as the humidity in the air didn't make for a perfectly clear evening.  The guide was interesting to listen to and seemed to be knowledgeable but it would have helped had we had a perfectly clear night.  The stargazing was offered twice during our cruise but we didn't attend the second viewing after our experience on the first night.

[marden1970]

I did it last year and I really didn't enjoy it.  For some reason we couldn't do it in the front of the ship (we were on the Grand) so it was held aft on deck 15 just above the aft pool.  There were too many lights on and smoke or vapor from the stacks made seeing many stars difficult.  There was someone with a pointer but all info was pre-recorded and thru the headsets.

[BarbinMich]

I've done the stargazing opportunity on several cruises and agree with comments made above.  Usually it's led by one of the cruise staff, most/all of whom have no educational background in astronomy.  Don't know what, if any, training they get from Princess.  The last time I went the young man did a fairly good job--he had an I-Pad to help him out with a sky chart (I'm assuming)--not sure how deep his personal knowledge was on the subject.  I've been a night-sky observer for a long time and know the most well-known constellations and what planets may be visible at home so I don't need a lot of guidance, plus I "subscribe" to the free earthsky.org website which sends out daily emails on the night sky for the US.  It's nice to sky-gaze it at sea because there aren't trees blocking a wide view of the sky as there are in our yard.

Edited October 19, 2018 by BarbinMich

[waltd]

If Princess turns off enough lights then it might be worth it.    The one time we did it there were still a few lights left on around the pool  and it really limited what you could see.   Hopefully your experience will be better.  

[Optotronics]

I've been an amateur astronomer for going on 35 years, even tried to schedule our cruises to coincide with the new moon for the few cruises we've done on the regal & royal.

I tried to attend the stargazing at sea on each cruise, but never worked out. 1st and 2nd time was because of weather, 3rd time was scheduled, but it didn't happen....weather was ok at the scheduled time.

i tried on my own both from the top aft and from our balcony midship.

my opinion is that if you're already into astronomy at some level, then I think you're wasting your time.

you will already know what being talked about as they are for "beginners/non-astronomers.

what I was really hoping for was a turn off of the lights for a short time to see that night sky light up with a bright Milky Way.

 

another problem is that because they are usually held at the aft and while the ship is moving, all the smoke messes it all up.

 

i found the best view from our balcony and blocking ships light as best we could... much better than on the top aft.

 

of course if your neighbor leaves the balcony light on.....oh that's another thread:)

[CeeCee59]

19 minutes ago, Optotronics said:

I've been an amateur astronomer for going on 35 years, even tried to schedule our cruises to coincide with the new moon for the few cruises we've done on the regal & royal.

I tried to attend the stargazing at sea on each cruise, but never worked out. 1st and 2nd time was because of weather, 3rd time was scheduled, but it didn't happen....weather was ok at the scheduled time.

i tried on my own both from the top aft and from our balcony midship.

my opinion is that if you're already into astronomy at some level, then I think you're wasting your time.

you will already know what being talked about as they are for "beginners/non-astronomers.

what I was really hoping for was a turn off of the lights for a short time to see that night sky light up with a bright Milky Way.

 

another problem is that because they are usually held at the aft and while the ship is moving, all the smoke messes it all up.

 

i found the best view from our balcony and blocking ships light as best we could... much better than on the top aft.

 

of course if your neighbor leaves the balcony light on.....oh that's another thread:)

That's what I was expecting, but since we will be further south than either of us has ever been, I was hoping that we would be able to just recognize or have pointed out (to me, not the DH haha) some constellations that we have never seen before.  Chances are the DH could give the talk!

[justafem]

We attempted this one time.  They couldn't get the headsets to work and only the aft lights were turned off.  The staff member running it, didn't seem knowledgeable, but it was free.

 

Daughter and I said, we had a better view from our backyard.  Granted, we live in the country, with little light pollution.

 

For

[BarbinMich]

22 hours ago, Optotronics said:

. . .

another problem is that because they are usually held at the aft and while the ship is moving, all the smoke messes it all up.

. . .

On the Royal, stargazing was held on the highest point, several decks above and a bit aft of the Sanctuary.  We took the forward elevator up as far as it goes and then took stairs (one or two flights) to get higher up.  Since we've only done this in the Caribbean, the constellations are the same as we see in Michigan just at a different position (Orion, Ursa Major, etc) and slightly different time.  We've never cruised to Hawaii (always fly), but stargazing in such a different location would be fun.

[Thrak]

On 10/19/2018 at 11:08 AM, waltd said:

If Princess turns off enough lights then it might be worth it.    The one time we did it there were still a few lights left on around the pool  and it really limited what you could see.   Hopefully your experience will be better.  

 

When we did it the bridge kept turning the lights back on. We were forward on a high deck and the person doing the activity called the bridge to turn the lights off. They were off for maybe a couple of minutes and then came back on. She couldn't get them to turn the darn lights off for us. I was on Lido deck shortly thereafter and they were saying the lights in the pool area had been turned off and didn't know what the heck was happening. It was a total screw up. I felt sorry for the poor person who had been trying to run the activity.

[BarbinMich]

Sounds like Princess has as much trouble doing Stargazing as CC is having with their changeover. 

[antsp]

Now the change over is complete I don’t know what the issue is

[fascination1]

This is old,  February 2016 LA  7 days Mexico on Ruby. Really nice, for those in LA that see moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Big Dipper.....so, this was good! Princess guy was good, & tag teamed with astronomer on board. Really good, but like others have said, lights on board, no matter how low detract from experience. Yet...if there is stargazing at sea on your cruise....go for it! Nothing to lose.