Discovery at Sea - Star Gazing

Hi all,

I have Star Gazing advertised but it wasn't offered on any of my Princess cruises. I am due to go on the Crown in a couple of weeks.

Does anyone know if it is offered on the Crown?

Anyone attended - how was it?

Some times it is run by a member of the cruise staff and other times by an astronomy guest lecturer. The latter one is by far the best but you would not know ahead of time if your cruise will have a qualified astronomer as a lecturer. A night-time session is held on deck and usually nearby lights are turned out making it surprisingly dark. Some ships have an audio system where participants have headphones linked into the presenter's microphone. This is a great system.

Sorry that I cannot tell you what will happen in your cruise on the Crown.

When it is offered, it will be part of the daily schedule listed in the Patter.

Being only about two or three lines in the schedule, it is easy to overlook on the day it is offered.

You may want to ask one of the Cruise Director's staff about when it will be offered.

When it is offered, it will be part of the daily schedule listed in the Patter.

 

Being only about two or three lines in the schedule, it is easy to overlook on the day it is offered.

 

You may want to ask one of the Cruise Director's staff about when it will be offered.

That's great information!! I hope we have this on the Emerald in August! Would be fantastic!

Maybe the Grand, April 2018!!! 😁:cool:

Thanks for your comments, I will be sure to ask about it.

I've enjoyed the official star-gazing on several Princess ships. The staff member who does it has star maps on their phone so they can point out relevant constellations. Living in a large city suburban area where the sky is never truly dark, it's an amazing experience (albeit windy) at sea where there's virtually no ambient light!

I'll have to remember to look for this. Sounds great.

Just read, the Grand has this. :p

Weather permitting. Sign up on board. :cool:

We did this on the Regal this year. One of the Cruise director staff did the narration. As others have stated, were up top near the putting green. The nearby lights were turned down and the audio narration was provided by headsets. The narrator used her phone app to locate the constellations in the sky.

Unfortunately, the night was partly cloudy and the ships exhaust was directly overhead so the viewing was not that great. On an ideal night I bet it is spectacular though.

. . .Unfortunately, the night was partly cloudy and the ships exhaust was directly overhead so the viewing was not that great. On an ideal night I bet it is spectacular though.

That's too bad-- the times I've done it we've met on one of the high forward "mini" decks.

We recently did this on the Island Princess on a Panama Canal cruise. It was in the Patter. (I believe it was done twice.) The discussion was led by one of the cruise director's staff, who had her iPhone set with the star gazing program. The ship extinguished a great many lights. The ship provided headphones. There was no interference from ship smoke.

Unfortunately, it was (a) very windy and thus noisy, and (b) slightly overcast, so it was not quite as good as it might be. If you are interested, check Patter daily and go to the presentation.