Southern Nights

Book excerpt: Meet the night sky, down under From eclipses to aurorae, comets to constellations, this is the story of the night sky above Aotearoa New Zealand. It looks at what is special about our southern skies, which have only been explored very recently compared to those in the northern hemisphere. It showcases our 'family of light', the major stars and objects of our sky and their associated meanings, history and cultural importance, explains Polynesian celestial navigation, which brought the first people here, and Maori astronomy or tatai arorangi, which helped people live here once they arrived. Finally, it delves into modern astronomy, covering some of New Zealand's amateur and professional scientific astronomers and their research, and looks at our observatories and the increasing popularity of dark sky tourism.