Kea Matariki Planetarium Trip

Tonight the Keas went to the Planetarium.  We chose to go now as it is Matariki (Maori New Year) time.  Once a year, in the winter sky just before dawn, Matariki (the Pleiades star cluster) can be seen.

We assembled in the foyer looking at the many different displays and trying to land rockets on the moon (on the computers). 

 

 Then we had a movie about living on a space shuttle.  We looked at the way the effects of zero gravity has on the people and objects.  Imagine being able to do press ups easily, so easily that you could even do one handed or foot press ups  for that fact!! I know one cub (who went to help as part of his community service) whose mind is boggled by that :)

 Lastly we went into the Zeiss planetarium projector room and looked at the 3000 or so stars on the domes interior along with the moon, the planets, the Milky way and other wonderous sights.  Our presenter showed us Matariki and explained why it is important

The star cluster known as Matariki (the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters) rises during the cold months of winter, usually between the end of May and the beginning of June. Its rising signals the beginning of the Māori New Year.  About 500 stars make up the cluster, but only seven can be seen clearly with the naked eye here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Matariki remains present right through to March, when it disappears from the sky for two months, during autumn, before rising once again in the dawn sky.  

Early Māori and Matariki The ancestors of Māori used Matariki (as well as other stars and natural signs) to navigate across the Pacific Ocean to Aotearoa New Zealand.  Here on land, Matariki was strongly connected to the seasons for harvesting and planting. The couple of months just before its rising were the season when Māori would harvest and preserve birds and other food for sustenance over the winter months. Māori astronomers used Matariki to identify if the weather would be good or bad for the coming season.Around the end of April, they would await the first rising of Matariki. Stars shining brightly signalled that it would be a warm year and that crops would be abundant. Blurry or dim stars were a sign that the year would be cold and that crops would be scarce. This also determined when crops would be planted for the coming year.  The first sighting of Matariki was acknowledged and celebrated by a tohunga (priest) with karakia (incantations) to acknowledge the new year. Matariki was also a time when those who had passed away in the previous year were commemorated – a practice that continues today.  Some iwi would lay down a small hāngī to acknowledge the arrival of Matariki. They believed that, by checking how well-cooked the food in the hāngī was, they could foresee whether it would be a good or a bad year. (http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/Education/Matariki_education_resource.pdf)