Mount John University Observatory

Mount John University Observatory, officially the University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory, is New Zealand's premier astronomical research site, rising above the Mackenzie Basin in one of the darkest skies on Earth.

About Mount John University Observatory

The observatory sits at 1,029 metres atop Mount John, at the northern end of the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's South Island, and was established in 1965. It is operated by the University of Canterbury and lies close to the resort town of Lake Tekapo.

Telescopes & research

The site hosts a range of instruments, including one 0.4-metre, two 0.6-metre, one 1.0-metre, and a 1.8-metre MOA telescope. It is home to HERCULES, the High Efficiency and Resolution Canterbury University Large Echelle Spectrograph, and serves as the observational base for the Japanese and New Zealand MOA collaboration, the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics project led by Yasushi Muraki of Nagoya University. About 20% of nights at the observatory are photometric, with more available for spectroscopic work and direct imaging.

Location & getting there

Mount John rises above the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's South Island, in the Oceania region, near the town of Lake Tekapo. In June 2012, an area of 430,000 hectares around the observatory was declared the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, one of only four such reserves in the world at the time, with skies rated Bortle Scale 2.

Visiting Mount John University Observatory

Check the University of Canterbury's website for current public access and tour options before planning a visit, since Mount John is an active research facility as well as a dark-sky destination.

See your named star from here

Few places on Earth offer skies as dark as the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve for spotting the coordinates of a Star Register named star. Name a star and find its exact position in the catalogue before your trip to Lake Tekapo.