Matariki 2024

Matariki is now celebrated across Aotearoa as it was across the Pacific by the ancestors. The planetarium allows us to move forward in time to see Matariki rising as it does in late June and July as dawn breaks and experience what those ancestors felt when they first sighted them each year.

In fact humans have observed the cluster of stars we know as Matariki since caveman times, and there are stories about this unique cluster in every culture. More recently Astronomers have also studied them with interest and discovered many facts about this nearby celestial wonder that we can use to build a bridge from our ancestors to ourselves and beyond.