Founder Luke Huxley started Astro Tours after he came back from a yearlong stay in Australia where he worked doing outreach for observatories with the astronomer known as Space Gandalf. Luke was struck by “How the night sky is something shared across all cultures, how we all look up at the same stars. How we all travel around this planet as it rotates once a day, and orbits the sun once a year. It’s a journey we’re all on together.” When he came back to the States, he couldn’t find an organization that was aligned with the experience he had just had and with his values as an astronomer. So he decided to create one of his own. “I decided to bring this experience to people who might not have had the opportunity to look through a telescope.” Luke explains that Astro Tours partners with diverse groups and events, non-profits and people of all ages, with multiple programs a week, year-round. “We aim to inspire the next generation of astronomers, and more importantly, communicate why astronomy is not just about distant celestial objects but a reminder of how interconnected we are.” Before we moved on to the moment we’d been waiting for — looking through those high-powered telescopes — Aislynn had one last important task for us. “I like to start the night by making some observations, making some measurements of the sky, because we’re going to take into account what we’re looking at right now. And then we’re going to come back later at the end of the night and make those same measurements again and see how they’ve changed. I like No. 123 to start off in the east. Let’s see what we have with these clouds — we can see part of Orion right now. Can you see my laser?” We could, and it felt like a Star Wars moment. We used our hands to take measurements from the horizon up to her laser which was circling the double star, Rigel, at the foot of Orion (which turns out to be a winter constellation). It took about three handprints. Now it was time to view one of Orion’s shoulders. “That right here is Betelgeuse (pronounced like the classic horror comedy). If you’re looking at it and thinking it has a bit of a red color, that’s because it’s a red supergiant. And we’re hoping that in our lifetime, we’ll see it go supernova.” She explains that it may already have happened. Because Betelgeuse is 700 light years away, so the light we were seeing is from 700 years ago. Our brains felt like they were about to go supernova with awe. Astro Tours is also changing the landscape for tourism. In a world increasingly impacted by human activity, preserving the natural beauty of our environment is more crucial than ever. “We believe in sustainable tourism. This means our operations are designed to have a minimal environmental footprint,” says Luke. Each of their stargazing sessions is conducted with the utmost respect for the natural environment from the locations they choose for their services and tours, to their transportation and production practices, to the education and information they provide to guests. As DarkSky Advocates, their commitment extends beyond their tours. They A S T R O N O M E R L U K E H U X L E Y G U I D I N G A T O U R
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