Stargazing: our summer sky – 20 February

Our Summer Sky: Explore the Universe with Maropeng’s resident astronomer, Vincent Nettmann.

The Taurus-Orion region is one of the best “beginner” areas of the sky to start your astronomical journey. The Great Orion Nebula is a vast cloud of dust and gas, a “stellar nursery”, where recently four hot young stars were formed; the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades is an open cluster consisting of about 480 infant stars, Rigel is a huge young blue giant star burning its nuclear fuels at a very fast rate, Beetlejuice is a red giant star – 10 billion years old – coming to the end of its life.

Discover some amazing facts about the fascinating life-cycles of the stars as we take a last look at our summer skies for this season. Guests are encouraged to bring binoculars to participate on a beginners’ laser guided sky tour.

Subject to weather conditions, we will observe the summer sky objects, the Moon and then Mars later in the evening through our range of large aperture telescopes.

This event will be hosted by the Tumulus Restaurant, is a child friendly event and includes welcome drinks and a buffet dinner for R190 for adults and R90 for children.

The star-viewing evenings are weather dependent. Please bring your own binoculars.

Stargazers will be pleased to know that Maropeng is offering an accommodation special for the Friday and Saturday of each stargazing weekend. Prices are R770 per person sharing per night, or R1170 if you are spending the night on your own.

Please click here to make a booking.

Menu:

Starter

African garden salad
Chicken liver pate
Served with homemade breads
Penne pasta salad with basil roasted vegetables
Cape Malay Samoosas

Main

Thai chicken curry with coconut cream
Tempura Hake fillets with lemon butter sauce
Roasted Silverside of Beef with pepper sauce
Macaroni & three cheeses
Savory Rice
Roasted Rosemary potatoes
Creamy Spinach
Glazed Carrots

Desserts

Malva pudding & custard
Fresh fruit salad with ice cream
Chocolate mousse
Granadilla cheese cake