Happy Matariki: New Zealand Maori New Year (Brian Boyle)

Happy Matariki: New Zealand Maori New Year

I was my privilege today to be at the top of the Greengates ski lift on Coronet Peak, Queenstown, NZ to watch Matariki (Pleiades) rise to signify the Maori New Year. A time to remember those that have passed away in the previous year, and to share last years harvest to prepare for the winter months ahead.

At latitude -45, Matariki doesn't get very high and living in the mountains its elevation prevents its visibility unless you get on top of one. After a scouting expedition to find a suitable spot to hold a service for 50-100 people, I managed to convince the manager of Coronet Peak to open the ski lift at 6.15am to watch Matariki rise from the top of one of the chair lifts - one of the few places near here with a clear view down to 3degrees above the horizon needed to see Matariki. In the end, we had a beautiful service with around 60 people, including a moving karakia (welcome) from a Maori leader and a little bit of astronomy from YT. We then all skiied down the mountain by head torch.

it was quite magical - all five planets visible, together with the crescent moon. A memory to treasure for a lifetime. And skiiing down on fresh snow (we have had 120cm in the past week) into the dawn's early light was simply amazing. Cold though. With wind chill around -10C.

A picture can't do this justice, but here's one anyway. This wasn't taken by me [I was otherwise occupied] but by Hannah, one of my friends. Deliberately kept low-res to protect her IP, but this time it is less about the picture and more about the occasion. Thought my AB friends would be interested. A great intersection of astronomy and culture.

New Zealand Astrophotography
AstroBin Platform open discussions community forum

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic pending
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9005488
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):