Karuizawa starry sky

Living in a city, it's easy to forget to look up at the night sky.
Nagano has clean air and high altitude, so you can see the stars from anywhere.
Achi Village in Nagano Prefecture is said to have the most beautiful starry sky in Japan.
Recently, Kitashiga's SORA tarace is also popular.

Karuizawa also has a starry sky that you can't find in the big city.
Even with binoculars with a magnification of about 8x, you can see Saturn's rings and Jupiter's stripes if you fix it properly. If you are lucky and have a good seeing night, you can see up to four of Jupiter's moons.
Above all, the moon is very impressive!
In Karuizawa, you can experience both the brightness of a full moon and the pitch black night of a new moon.

I received two photos of stars taken from Karuizawa, so I'll post them here.
The largest star in the lower right corner of the photo above is Jupiter.

After all, we recommend > in Saku City, which is next to Karuizawa. "Usuda Star Dome".
In addition to tours, there is one 60cm reflecting telescope and two 20cm refracting telescopes, so you can actually look through the telescopes and see the stars while receiving a fun explanation from a teacher who loves stars.
On days when the weather is unlucky, you can listen to fun stories about the stars on the slides.
The evening session starts at 7:30 p.m. (6:30 in winter).
It is also close to Karuizawa, about 40 minutes by car.
The pension is open until 10pm, so it's best to choose a pension where you don't have to worry about staying a little late. Although it's a little far away, Gunma Observatory is also fun. Here you can see through a 150cm telescope.
There are also space observation facilities near Karuizawa.
JAXA's Usuda Space Observation is located in Saku City, next door to Karuizawa. It has the largest parabolic antenna in Japan.
It is 64 meters long.
This antenna captured the signal from the Hayabusa space probe to the missing asteroid Itokawa.
Nobeyama is home to Japan's radio astronomical observatory sacred site National Astronomical Observatory Nobeyama You can tour the facility.
There are many antennas lined up, and the largest parabolic antenna is 54 meters long.
You can experience it like watching a science fiction movie.