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A few words on this project, if I may .
How did this come about ?
Quite simply, every time I sat under the stars in those mountains I wished I could share this with more people.
Its not only what you can see through a telescope or binoculars, its the whole thing.Its being up there.
There are very few places on earth where you can get this close to the stars.All kinds of strange stuff happens at that altitude.Your sense of perspective gets completely thrown and needs recalibrating, its so clear that distant objects appear to be much closer than they are.
The stars reach right down to the horizon. The moon rises with hardly a glow,it suddenly pops up with an incredible brightness.You can see the earth move with the naked eye.
Its dark half an hour after sunset.
The Milky Way appears as a perfectly three dimensional object.I remember the first time I understood what I was looking at.Something in my visual cortex went click and there it was. The earth under my feet shrank to tiny proportions because the spatial relationship, the physical place of our planet within the galaxy had suddenly become clear.The penny dropped.
I read Al Naglers account today of how he had a similar experience at Ayers Rock in 1986. He went there to see Halley.There is something really special about places that offer extraordinary seeing conditions.Most of us live in an environment that is always unnaturally bright.We cant stop light pollution but we can get away from it.
I saw Halley in 86 from Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal.
It was so big it was almost scary.
Now the naked eye views were fantastic but telescopic observation was not that great. Air is pretty dense stuff.
At 15.000 feet you have left more than three miles of the most dense layer of the atmosphere below you.If on top of that the air is also very dry like it is in Tibet you better have a telescope with you or there is no peace of mind for a stargazer.
It has bothered me for years and when I got in touch with Bob Royce he was so kind to hear me out and make a telescope available. Jakob Urban joined us and so this venture was born.
After going through all the practicalities we decided that we would try and see if we could get enough people for this year, very short notice but no harm in trying.
I wish we could offer this tour at a better price.The reality is that the logistics cost money and we don't want to cut any corners.
We had some very positive feedback,please get in touch with us whenever you like or leave your thoughts here if this venture has caught your imagination.
Thanks.
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