Outback Astronomy - starry skies shine in Broken Hill

Outback Astronomy delivers personal, guided night sky experiences in Broken Hill

'Outback Astronomy' is a pilot business which began providing night sky astronomy shows in March 2014.

The inaugural night sky presentation was attended by students from the Mornington Peninsula.

Eager star gazers - image courtesy
Linda Nadge from Outback Astronomy's Facebook page

The feedback from the Year 11 and 12 students and their teachers was overwhelmingly positive.

Since then, night sky shows have been scheduled on a regular basis, and are advertised on the website www.outbackastronomy.com.au.

This pilot business seeks to develop astro-tourism in Broken Hill, featuring a variety of experiences and themed night sky shows.

At present, night sky viewing is done mostly with the naked eye. Yes, the sky is that dark that you can still see stars filling the vast outback skies!

Binocular assisted viewing is also pursued to demonstrate the contrast in observing. It’s terrific to see people visibly moved by the magnificence of what they see with just a little boost in magnifying power.

There are plans to add in powerful telescopes when a permanent observatory structure is built.

The viewing is conducted on the edge of Broken Hill at the race course. The business plans to build an observatory and other facilities at this sight. An architect is currently designing the facility.

"It’s terrific to see people visibly moved by

 the magnificence of what they see ..."

Eager star gazers - image
courtesy Linda Nadge from
Outback Astronomy's Facebook page

As the business owner, I am looking forward to implementing a broad business plan over the next several years.

The naked eye and binocular assisted sky viewing is therefore the pilot business which is designed to prove many of the underlying business assumptions.

Since the first paid guests attended our sky shows, the feedback has continued to be extremely positive.

A variety of sky shows have now been developed, including one that targets young children, from 5 years to 12 years.

The sky shows are designed for the night sky novice.

This article was written by -

Linda Nadge, owner - Outback Astronomy

Linda kindly accepted my offer to write a guest blog post.

This is the first guest post on www.ilovebrokenhill.com

Thanks very much Linda for writing this article and telling us about your very exciting new Broken Hill business that you are in the process of creating.

Cheers, Jane Deany