Astro Tours | Wiki Australia

Blowing your mind is the intention of Astro Tours. Have you ever looked up into our glorious night skies and wondered what it is all about? Astro Tours takes advantage of some of the best skies on the planet to run a two hour Astronomy Experience most nights of summer on Rottnest Island and the rest of the year in Broome.

Greg Quicke’s intimate knowledge of the Earth’s environment comes from half a lifetime living under the sky watching the motions of the planets, the stars, the Sun and the moon. Working as a Broome pearl diver started the journey for Greg with a need to understand the moon’s influence on the tides. Working the Kimberley station country as a mechanic and for many years sleeping in a swag, helped to fine tune the experience.

Summer on Rottnest Island has the famous Southern Cross beginning the night low down in the southeast, climbing up and around the south celestial pole (that point of rotation in the sky that the Earth turns around). Orion the Hunter dominates up high, playing second fiddle only to Sirius, the brightest and most dominating star in our local region of space.

Winter skies are best seen from the north of Western Australia where Broome provides one blue-sky-day after another and the nights are consistently balmy and clear. Stargazing in the tropics also has the advantage in being so far up around the curve of the Earth that most of the northern hemisphere sky is visible too.

Greg’s easy manner and homespun insights are so straightforward, they will easily trigger a few of your own as you become familiar with some of the brighter stars, constellations and planets. Big telescopes, lazers and a healthy dose of fun help to round out an educational and entertaining evening.