Miranda

On our trip to the Red Centre in August, I'm excited about seeing the magnificent night skies, which I hear are quite spectacular thanks to no light pollution. And I hope to see the Southern Cross! I'm wondering --- do we really need to take a tour of some kind to enjoy those skies (such as the Sounds of Silence dinner or the Observatory tour) or can we just step outside our hotel, walk a short distance, and be under a beautiful canopy of stars that we can easily enjoy by ourselves? Maybe this sounds like a stupid question, I mean obviously the stars are there for anyone to look at, but I'm wondering if the tours that are available really add value to the experience. If so, we'll do one, but if not, we're getting a bit booked up with tours as it is.

Pumblechook

Miranda, Ask a tour operator and they'll say "yes" but my personal answer would be "no". The red centre is a very very big empty space. The sky will blow you away even if you're standing on the balcony of your hotel room.

ALF

I would recommend the low-cost tour to the Ayers Rock Observatory. It simply involves taking a bus to the 'observatory' which is a small house. You sit outside and listen to a sky talk, then look through the 2 or 3 portable telescopes set up to view specific objects. I felt that this was very worthwhile - we learned a lot about local Aboriginal legends associated with the constellations, and the telescopes (Meade 10" Schmidt-Cassegrains) allowed everyone to see some really fine detail in the Milky Way, star clusters, and nebulae.

Of course you do not need anyone to look at the night sky, but it helped having a talk and the telescopes. I know something about astronomy (teach it at a community college), but was quite ignorant about aboriginal sky mythology; and, coming from the northern hemisphere, everything was turned around for me and hard to find. For example, in the southern hemisphere, folks refer to Ursa Major (we call it the Big Dipper) as 'the bucket' because its orientation is upside down, compared to what northerners see.

At the very least, I would buy a southern hemisphere sky chart.

kimmyg

I dont agree. The sounds of silence was a once in a lifetime experience. We will remember it forever.. The food was bad, but the presentation and the setting was unbelievable! The also have telescopes so we were able to see saturns rings and jupiters planets. You would not see that by just stepping outside. Do it! YOu will not regret it!

Heimdall

Kimmyg, how I envy you. When I was at Uluru, the Sounds of Silence dinner was fully booked. I took another tour which included an evening barbie and star gazing, but no telescopes, and the guide was not a trained astronomer. I enjoyed it nevertheless, but was disappointed to miss that "once in a lifetime experience."

While at Uluru recommend you also take one of the Aboriginal Cultural Tours, led by guides from the Anangu tribe, who are actually the owners of the rock and surrounding territory. You will learn many fascinating things about aboriginal hunting and gathering, and maybe even get a chance to throw a spear. For me that was another once in a lifetime experience.