In mid-April 2024, the Pleiades disappeared behind the blaze of the Sun. We watched them every night from Star Safari until we could see them no more.
In mid-June, they came back as Matariki, visible on the eastern horizon just before sunrise. When a star or a group of stars rises just before sunrise after they’ve been gone from the sky for a while (because they’ve been hiding behind the Sun), is called helical rising. The heliacal rising of bright stars has been used around the world to tell when a new year starts.
The Matariki star cluster heralds the New Year in Aotearoa. They look like an eye from here – the eye of the Chief – Mata Ariki.
Download the photos here.
Since the government settled on the official date for Matariki, which is the last quarter of the Moon—known as Tangaroa- we all know when we have a day off, even though this changes every year.
On June 28th 2024, we opened up Star Safari for the Carterton community. Our local community heard from Cimone Grayson about the importance of the stars for Māori and we enjoyed a great morning. Even though the sky was mostly overcast, we had a fantastic dawn ceremony and welcomed about 40 guests on top of the hill.
In 2024, the morning sky was filled with planets. Just below to the right of the Pleiades-Matariki is Jupiter, on the same line as the Hyades (Mata Kaheru) and the red giant Aldebaran.
Download the photos here. Māori names. English names.
Mars was there too, a bit higher and also bright, halfway through between east and north.
Next to the half Moon, high on the northwest side of the sky, was planet Saturn.
