Tekapo night sky among world's best

Tekapo has been named the fourth best place in the world to go stargazing by a United States travel website on top of receiving a powerful endorsement of its bid to become the world's first starlight reserve.

VirtualTourist.com, which has more than one million online members, listed Tekapo in its top places to count the stars.

Yosemite National Park claimed the No1 spot, beating out Scotland's Orkney Islands and the Gobi Desert.

Iceland's Lake Myvatn rounded out the top five.

The ranking is another boost for Tekapo's push for World Heritage status for its night skies.

Last month, Tekapo received its most important support so far, when it was declared the frontrunner for the world's first starlight reserve world heritage site at an International Astronomers' Union conference in Rio de Janeiro.

Canterbury University Professor John Hearnshaw, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, attended the conference and told The Timaru Herald the IAU's support was great news.

A working party at the conference indicated Tekapo was the prime contender for the first starlight reserve heritage site.

However, there were still some hurdles to overcome before the dream could become a reality, Professor Hearnshaw said.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is still to decide if it will confer status on starlight reserves and a decision will not be made before next June.

If Unesco proceeded , it would be 2011 before bids were considered, Professor Hearnshaw said.

Tekapo Earth and Sky Observatory Tours director Graeme Murray said it had been a big year for astronomy in the Mackenzie District, with record numbers of tourists visiting Mt John Observatory.

"I think it's certainly the starlight reserve that's brought a lot of attention to it. I also put it down to [the fact that] people are getting a wee bit more conscious about the night sky."

- © Fairfax NZ News