OUR STARGAZING GUIDE AND FAQS
While stargazing in southern Utah is some of the best in the world, most people don’t plan their trip in advance around the moon phases or which constellations are visible.
WHERE ARE DOES YOUR STARGAZING TAKE PLACE?
We are based in Torrey, Utah, outside of Capitol Reef National Park.
Please, please, please keep this in mind if you are not lodging in the Capitol Reef area. As our stargazing program finishes late, you’ll be driving back on windy mountain and desert roads when wildlife is most active and dangerous!
We can bring our tour to your location and lodging, however travel fees do apply and vary depending on where you are staying.
Park City and Salt Lake City are approximately three hours from Torrey, and are unfortunately too urban and mountainous to provide a good experience for a tour.
WHEN IS THE BEST TIME FOR STARGAZING? HOW WILL THE MOON AFFECT MY TRIP?
Plan your trip around a new moon phase for the best night sky for viewing the Milky Way and deep space objects in our telescope.
While we have practically zero light pollution in Capitol Reef National Park, the current moon phase has a major impact on visibility of the stars.
A full moon or first quarter moon are awesome to look at in our telescope, but the Milky Way won’t be visible and most deep space objects like galaxies and nebulas will be extremely hard to see in the telescope with how bright the Moon will be. A new moon phase allows for those extremely dark skies, the best conditions for viewing the Milky Way and deep space objects in our telescope. See our calendar for moon phases.
I'M NOT VISITING DURING A NEW MOON. WHAT WILL i SEE WHEN THE MOON IS OUT?
During a full moon, and even leading up to a first quarter moon phase, the Moon is so bright the Milky Way is not visible. However, we will still see more stars than in urban areas, including the major constellations. Our telescopes reveal incredible detail of the Moon and it’s craters. It’s so big and bright you’ll be able to snap a photo of it with your smartphone through the telescope, a unique souvenir to take home from your Southern Utah vacation.
One of our telescopes will still allow us to see amazing telescope objects during a full moon. Our Unistellar EVScope2 is designed for operating in high light areas. You’ll get an incredibly detailed and colorful look at deep space objects with this special digital telescope.
Just because you may not be able to see the Milky Way doesn’t mean stargazing you should miss our tour of the night sky! It’s still a fun time for the whole family and a great way to spend an evening learning the stars. We just want to let you know what to expect so you don’t show up expecting to see the Milky Way during a full moon.
On a moonless night will the Milky Way look like the pictures I see online?
On a moonless night, the Milky Way looks amazing! But our eyes aren’t made to take in as much light as a camera with a long exposure. Those images have also been edited and create unrealistic expectations for what you will see in real life. It will appear as a thick cloud (it’s made up of billions of stars!) and over 5,000 other individual stars will be visible. But don’t expect the color of the astrophotography you see.
WHAT TELESCOPES & EQUIPMENT DO YOU USE?
We typically bring two telescopes to all of our stargazing tours. One of these is a classic telescope, a Celestron 8SE, set up for either a close look at planets and deep space objects or for a wider field of view to view the Moon. We also use a new type of special telescope, a Unistellar EVScope 2. This digital telescope uses special software to reduce outside light sources and stacks the image over time. This means you’ll get a live look at colorful and detailed deep space images!
With larger group sizes or a variety of interesting objects we can bring up to 3-4 telescopes total.
WHAT WILL I SEE IN THE TELESCOPE?
Planets and deep space objects change monthly, some nights there might not be any planets out and other months we can see Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons. We also check out galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters in the telescope. What we can see in the telescope depends on the moonlight, wind, and atmospheric conditions like dust and smoke.
Even though Capitol Reef is a gold-tier International Dark Sky park, what you see through the telescope never compares to images you may have seen online. Our telescopes are great, but they are not the Hubble Space Telescope! Space telescopes are hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth, use enormous mirrors, and take long exposures for many hours if not days. Then they rely on extensive editing to bring out the color that our eyes cannot see.
WHAT TIME DOES YOUR STARGAZING TOUR START?
The earliest we can begin stargazing is an hour after sunset. In the summer months this means we are getting a pretty late start; keep this in mind when planning your travel schedule. We recommend staying in Torrey the night of your tour.
The start time changes weekly, you will see the approximate time when you book online and in the confirmation email.
Sometimes we need to push the start time back based on cloud and weather forecasts – we will confirm time and details the day of your tour by text message, so make sure you put your cell phone number in the booking and check your phone that day.
HOW WOULD CLOUDS AND WEATHER AFFECT STARGAZING? WHAT'S YOUR CANCELLATION POLICY?
We rely on several different forecasts to make our predictions, but the weather in Southern Utah is extremely localized and frequently unpredictable. We have often seen cloudy days turn into clear nights and clear forecasts turn into impenetrable clouds. We will make our best judgment call on iffy days when to try to proceed with the tour or when to cancel to give you as much notice as possible.
If you are in the Capitol Reef area for multiple nights, we recommend booking stargazing on your first day in case we have to cancel; this way we can possibly reschedule your tour for a different night.
The wettest time of the year is when the Southwestern Monsoons begin mid-July and peak in August. While these afternoon thunderstorms in frequently clear up once the sun sets, this time of year sees the most weather cancellations.
If we cancel your tour due to weather, we will give you a full refund. We offer full refunds with more than 24 hours cancellation notice for public stargazing tours. Please plan accordingly to meet us at our stargazing location on time. No shows are not refunded.
When planning your trip, keep in mind we are located in Torrey, Utah. We have had people drive several hours from Moab and Zion for our tours. Please be safe and smart driving at night in rural Utah. Stargazing tours start late in the summer, cancellations because someone is tired is not covered.
WHAT SHOULD I WEAR AND BRING?
We provide a hot drink station, chairs, and blankets. We have a small amount of red light flashlights for you to borrow, but if you have your own, we sure appreciate you bringing it!
Keep in mind, we are stargazing at almost 7,000 feet. The high desert gets VERY cold at night in Spring and Fall, especially when it’s windy. It even gets chilly during the summer at night. Without the sun and little physical activity, 60℉(15-21℃) temperatures feel much colder than most people expect. Please bring warm clothes so you don’t have to leave early! Please at least bring layers you can put on if you do start to feel cold. Even if you’re from frosty, northern climates, you won’t be comfortable in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. If you’re from a state like California or Florida, you will still feel very cold in mid-60s temperatures at night during the summer.
