Yellowstone Stargazing

Big Sky country offers some of the clearest and darkest night skies in the United States, perfect for viewing stars, planets, the Milky Way, and even distant galaxies. The region’s minimal light pollution and stunning wilderness settings make it an ideal location for an immersive stargazing experience.

Our four-hour stargazing adventure includes:

• Transportation to a remote wilderness location.
• Use of high-powered, computerized telescopes to view celestial bodies.
• Expert guidance from an experienced astronomer who shares knowledge about constellations, star mythology, and cosmic phenomena.
• Comfortable amenities like blankets, chairs, hand warmers, and hot beverages.
• Nighttime photography opportunities to capture your memories.

The tour is offered in several stunning locations:

• Near Bozeman, MT, with views from the Gallatin Valley mountains, or in Missouri Headwaters State Park.
• In Big Sky, observing the night sky from a remote area of Northwestern Yellowstone.
• From West Yellowstone, with evening access to a geyser basin for a unique stargazing setting.

The specific location is tailored based on weather, sky conditions, and guest preferences.

Guests will enjoy the transition from twilight to deep night, experiencing the cool evening air, sounds of wildlife, and a breathtaking view of the night sky. Our astronomer will provide detailed insights about celestial objects, share stories of constellations, and guide you through the mysteries of the cosmos.  There is a potential for dusk wildlife sightings en route to our stargazing location as well.

To ensure your comfort, we recommend wearing warm layers, including a hat and gloves, as temperatures can drop significantly at night. While we provide blankets, chairs, and hand warmers, it’s helpful to bring any personal items that enhance your comfort. A camera is also recommended if you’d like to capture the beauty of the night sky.

Yes! Depending on the time of year, you may witness events such as planetary eclipses, moon craters, deep-space star systems, or even the aurora. Our guides will help you make the most of the celestial wonders visible during your tour.

Absolutely! Our guides cater to guests of all ages, making the experience engaging and educational for families. Kids and adults alike will enjoy the opportunity to learn about the stars and constellations in a fun and interactive way.

This will depend on the season of your booking. In early summer and late summer the night hours will be quite cool, even dropping to the 40’s or 30’s. We recommend wearing layers so that you can be comfortable in the vehicle in the drive out to the stargazing location, and can put on jackets, hats and gloves while we are outside. Mid-summer nights are pleasant, albeit late hours at our latitude. We recommend normal clothing with at least a jacket for wind protection. Comfortable shoes are great as we will not be moving around a lot on these tours, but might be in variable terrain such as dirt, brush and even puddles. We recommend setting children up for success with extra clothing for comfort. For our winter tours we recommend extra intense clothing to protect from the cold and wind. Anything you would wear skiing would be good. We will provide hand and foot warmers for extra comfort as well as hot beverages. 

Stargazing tours are of course based on best case nighttime weather conditions. We will take bookings well in advance for all of our stargazing tours. We will then touch base with bookings as tour dates approach and make guests aware of potential weather or impending storms that might affect their tour. Our policy will always be to move dates if possible up until the day before, and if this is not possible we will of course refund our bookings. We have some flexibility in locations and because of our geography we can possibly move locations to optimize the tour if possible even within our area still close to our place of origin. The inherent value of stargazing tours is unique and we want our guests to have the best experience possible.

Our region affords some of the best nighttime views in the US. On your own you can walk outside your hotel or AirBNB and see stars, the moon and Milky Way in a way you may have never seen before. This is magic. However, utilizing our astronomer guides to spend some time with the night sky offers something more. We are able to tell the story of the stars. We will orient you to constellations, stories and meanings of our human engagement with our cosmos in many varying ways from pre-civilization wonder, agricultural frameworks, the importance of spiritual and cultural references, orientation for traveling, and much more. We can also introduce the world of deep space engagement with our high powered telescope so you can see stars and planets in a close, detailed way. It is an exceptional experience to peer that far into the realm of the sky which is so far outside of our normal day to day experience.