Putting on a stellar show
Following her stars from Somerset to Greytown, Becky Bateman is opening our eyes to the wonders of the night sky. By Katherine Robinson. Photo by Lucia Zanmonti.
A small group of us stand in the dark gazing upwards. “Raise your left arm and point to the Gacrux in the Southern Cross; now point with the other arm to that bright star (Achernar). Bring your arms and hands straight together in the middle. You are pointing south – you’ll never get lost now,” says Becky.
This nugget of navigational know-how is a revelation – suddenly, the Southern Cross makes sense.
“Reading the stars was how people navigated around the globe until relatively recently. It used to be common knowledge. Technology has replaced it and it’s become a lost language,” says Becky.
Armed with a green astronomy laser pointer, she picks out planets, constellations and nebulae, guiding us around the cosmos.
“Our nearest stars are only a few light years away which doesn’t sound very far until you think one light year is 9.5 trillion kilometres away. The two Magellanic clouds are 180,000 and 200,000 light years away so you are actually seeing things from distant time, the light has taken that long to get to us today,” says Becky.
She has never lost her sense of wonder at the vast scale of the universe. “It puts things in perspective. If I am having a really bad day I just look at the sky and think, ‘You know, I am only a tiny, tiny object in the entire universe, I’ll go buy some chocolate’.”
Becky has her own portable, powerful telescope, which allows her to present at vineyards, hotels, museums, parks and schools to everyone from work groups to school children. She sets up astronomy sessions in backyards. “People are amazed about what they can see from their own gardens!”
“I’ve started to use the words ‘nomadic star-gazer’ because that’s exactly what I am. I go everywhere. I’ve always been focused on how to communicate the joys of science to people, and how marvellous science really is.”
Originally from England, Becky used to go out with her Dad to look at the night sky where she lived in Somerset. “Of course, stars were much harder to see in the Northern Hemisphere because of the light pollution,” she says.
Graduating with science and education degrees led her first into teaching science in the classroom but finding it was not for her, she switched to educational programmes in museums.
Eloping to New Zealand to marry husband, Andy, on a Coromandel beach sparked the move from the UK. “Just a couple of days after our wedding we decided to emigrate here. We went back home to sort out visas, quit our jobs and were back here in ten months.”
Becky was part of the team at the Space Place at Wellington’s Carter Observatory for 8 years. “I absolutely loved it, but I always wanted to do some of the fun stuff to do with astronomy, so I decided to open my own stargazing business.”
The opportunities provided by the Wairarapa’s spectacularly clear night sky, prompted the couple’s next move over the Remutaka Hill to Greytown.
“One of my first big jobs was star-gazing at Ranui Essentials lavender farm overlooking the valley near Martinborough – I came home that night and I was just buzzing! Since then, the business has grown through word of mouth. People tell their friends and say ‘Oh you are never going to guess what I did in the weekend.’”
For more information or to book a stargazing session with Becky, click here
Published Wairarapa Lifestyle, Winter 2019.
