Important Information

Warm clothing is essential for stargazing and not just in the winter.

The clearest nights are often the coldest ones for stargazing and even in the summer, temperatures can drop making it feel like winter again. The warmer you are dressed, the more comfortable you will be to enjoy your night under the stars.

Keep Warm Checklist:

• Boots or wellies 
• 2-3 Pairs of thick socks (thicker the better) - THIS IS A MUST!
• Thermal undergarments
• Thick coat
• Thin layered tops/jumpers
• Scarf/gloves/hat/ear muffs
• Hot water bottle
• Flask with a delicious hot drink of choice
• A mat to stand on 
• Hand warmers

Looking for "stargazing near me"? 

Great! Although our home base is Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, we are able to run your stargazing experience in your home county across the UK.  

In the price of each experience we include the cost of travel 'up to 20 miles from Stratford' - ZONE A. This covers Warwickshire and parts of other counties such as Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire , Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and the West Midlands. 

We often travel across England and Wales for any one of our stargazing experiences so our customers can be closer to home. Previous customers have found this more convenient to be able to fit an experience around their busy lives. We do require additional travel costs which apply outside of ZONE A. 

Night owl or early riser? 

We've got you covered.

We operate all year round! Every single month from sunset to sunrise, whenever the skies are relatively clear. 

Some objects are visible all night and others rise and set, so anytime it's dark is a great time to explore the Universe. 

When you book your experience you can choose a time to suit you and times for your chosen date will only be limited by hours of darkness and clear skies available (or if your booking involves observing specific objects). 

(Please let us know if you have something in particular you want to observe and we will advise on the best time of year).  

Welcome to the late nights and early mornings of an Astronomer.

• REFUND POLICY: Gift experiences are NON-REFUNDABLE and expire 12 months from the time you receive the gift card in the post. 
• REFUND POLICY:Direct bookings (non-gift card related) NOVA will only offer a refund once at least 6 attempts have been made to complete your stargazing experience as it does typically take 1-6 attempts to complete an experience due to the weather. After your 6th unsuccessful attempt has been made, if you’d like a full refund then please contact us directly. 

• We require 15-20 mins either side of your booking  for equipment set-up . This doesn't impede on the time allocated for your experience. You will still get the total amount of time booked.

• Included in the price of each booking is the cost of travel up to 50 miles from our base in Stratford-Upon-Avon. If you are looking to do your experience beyond 50 miles then additional travel costs will apply.

• Full payment is required upon receipt of the invoice and this secures your booking. You will receive a booking confirmation shortly after the invoice is settled. Spread the cost terms will be sent via e-mail. For bookings, payments are only fully refundable once 6 unsuccessful attempts have been made to complete your stargazing experience (due to weather). 

• On the day of your experience we will confirm whether or not we can go ahead. However from time to time the forecast can let us down and so if you're experience is affected by unexpected cloud on the night and we haven't completed at least 75% of the allocated time of your experience then we will rearrange to do your experience experience again to complete it. (i.e. We won't redo if: 1hr experience - 45mins completed / 1.5hrs experience -  1hr 5mins / 2hr experience - 1.5hrs completed).

• We also offer other alternative payment methods including a pay monthly option. Please ask about this by contacting us. 

• We offer 6 spaces per booking, so you can invite your friends and family.

The images we see online, whether from the space based or large ground based telescopes are undoubtedly incredible, however there are a few things to consider about these images, compared to when observing these objects through a telescope:

Camera images (from telescopes) are long exposures, heavily edited, will have gathered light our eyes can't see (infrared and x-ray), are more sensitive to light than the human eye, some have been taken outside the disturbance of Earth's atmosphere and the equipment has been invested and developed for this specific purpose.

Viewing objects through a telescope is an incredible and mind blowing experience. It's the most natural, raw way you will see the planets, the moon, stars and anything else that resides amongst our cosmos. These sights are awe inspiring and we never know how it will effect people emotionally, some people cry, some people jump up and down and others have a smile from ear to ear.  

Please bare in mind, although you will not see images quite like the Hubble image, however what you do see through the telescope will leave you astonished and you will forever remember when you first saw them.