After months of planning and over a year and a half waiting, we finally arrived at Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm in Namibia. It took some 27 hours over 2 flights and almost a full day in Johannesburg’s airport and 2 hours driving, half of that off road to arrive at our home for the next 11 nights.
On arrival we driven to our respective homes and unloaded we started the holiday with a well earned celebratory beer.
The round houses were exceptional. Much like staying on an impressive nature reserve lodge, the accommodation was very comfortable, clean and smart.
Although my room was pretty messy as I started to setup al the equipment I brought with me.
Our 3 scopes were setup facing South with excellent horizons all round for the first night of imaging.
The air was clear and no acclimatisation was needed really even given the new altitude.
Then sunset by the observatory’s was upon us for the night ahead.
The Helix was one of my first objects to start imaging with the Sky-Watcher 100 Esprit EDX.
We stayed up most nights until just before dawn and sometime until dawn, night after night gathering data such as this mosaic of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) from my 100 Esprit.
We also rented a 25 Obsession dobsonian during the trip for 4 nights. We planned each evening and throughout the night on what to look at with Lawrence’s trusty star atlas’s he brought with him.
Using the Dob was fantastic fun. The views of the Tarantula and Omega Centauri were just stunning.
The nights were long, cold and clear as can be seen by this Milky Way shot from the Seestar S30 Pro.
By the end of the night, dawn always approached sometimes with a Moon and sometimes without leaving my lonely Seestar S30 Pro by itself
After some well earned sleep breakfast and then coffee and cake would come and go until it was time to settle down for dinner with our new friends.
Occasionally we would wonder over to the observatory’s including the fantastic Sculptor Observatory that I hired.
Inside, the nightly ASA 600 sat waiting for me which at night was stunning.
The view outside was spectacular too.
And the images it took were just divine!
We had such a good time we have booked for 2028 and 2029 to come back ❤️