A Stargazing + Photography Tour experience by Epic Tours. Back to all Big Island tours.
Tour Summary: Skip the summit crowds for dark skies below 9,000 feet, a smart telescope on deep-sky objects, and free photos within 24 hours.
During one part of the night your guide stages and shoots star portraits of each group. 
You leave with a set of high-quality photos taken by your guide, not just memories. Meet James, an analog astronaut (someone who works in simulated space conditions) and your guide for the night. A smart telescope on the tour shows objects in the sky and captures them on camera. Complimentary photos from the night are sent to you within 24 hours. Long-exposure photos bring out nebulae and star clusters invisible to the naked eye. Part of the night is set aside for star portraits of you with the sky behind you. These pictures are examples of what the portraits can look like. The Milky Way is the most-requested backdrop for the portraits. A low-power green laser points out objects in the sky and doubles as a tool for the photos. The volcanic terrain doubles for a Mars-like backdrop in some of the portraits. Most groups leave with more photos than they expected. James shares stories from his work on simulated moon and Mars missions near the tour location. our portraits are included in the price; high-resolution files are an optional upgrade.
5 Tour Highlights:
- Clear-sky guarantee: if clouds look likely, you get advance notice up to 90 minutes out, then reschedule or a full refund.
- Free Milky Way portraits and deep-sky photos, sent at medium resolution within 24 hours.
- Celestron Origin smart telescope on nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies, with a green-laser star talk.
- Stays below 9,000 feet on Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa, away from the summit crowds and buses.
- Led by an astrophotographer and an astrophysics major, with the night timed for the darkest skies (no bright/full moon).
Important: This tour does not go to the Maunakea summit. Persons with respiratory/heart conditions, or in poor health, with mobility issues, or limited vision, are not permitted on the tour. Comfortable pants and walking shoes are highly recommended.
Tour Information:
| Price: | Adult | Youth |
|---|---|---|
| (excluding taxes & fees) | $259 | $239 |
Tour Provider: Epic Tours
Activity: Stargazing + Photography Tour
Tour start time: From 8PM to 4AM, depending on when the moon is not above the horizon
Duration: 2 hours
Location: Mauna Kea
Pick-up available? No
Included: Comfy Parka Jackets with pockets and a hood. omplimentary medium-resolution photos, downloadable within 24 hours. Telescope viewing (Celestron Origin smart telescope) and guided star talk with green laser pointer
Cancellations: 24 hr. cancellation policy for parties of 3 or less, 48 hrs for groups with 4-6 members, 1 week notice for groups with 7-9 passengers, and 2 weeks for groups with 10+ members and private tours. and 72 hr. If guests aren’t able to cancel in time, they will be offered stand-by tickets for a future tour. Guests will also receive a full refund in case of operator cancellation due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances. No shows will be charged the full price.
Read more: about stargazing in our Big Island stargazing guide.
Read more about this stargazing tour
If the stars don’t show, you don’t pay. This Mauna Kea stargazing tour skips the summit and the crowds for a remote, dark-sky spot below 9,000 feet on Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa, low enough to be safe for young children. Your guides are James, an analog astronaut and astrophotographer, and Dylan, an astrophysics major and telescope operator.
What the night looks like
James and Dylan run a guided star talk with a high-powered green laser pointer while a Celestron Origin smart telescope zooms into nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies. Toward the end, groups split off one by one with James for Milky Way portraits while the others stay with Dylan for his interactive StarTalk lecture. All medium-resolution photos from the night, both the deep-sky objects and your group, are included in the price. The tour guide schedules every night away from a bright or full moon, when too few stars show through the moonlight.
Where the tour goes
The exact location depends on the night’s weather, mainly clouds, but it is always below 9,000 feet on either Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa. James knows the area well and steers away from the spots crowded with people, buses, and cars.
Stargazing and astrophotography
With luck you end up at one of the sites NASA uses to test equipment for lunar and Mars missions, and James has stories about it, so ask him about HI-SEAS. You get a guided tour of the night sky with the green laser to pick out constellations, planets, nebulae, and, on a good night, shooting stars. The Celestron Origin telescope brings deep-sky objects close while the talk runs. Then comes the portrait session: James photographs each group with the Milky Way behind it. You get every photo from the night at medium resolution within 24 hours; high-resolution files cost extra. Dress warm and expect to be on your feet outdoors for a while: even below 9,000 feet it gets cold once the sun is down. Arrive on time, since the night starts once the whole group is there.
The only Big Island tour with a clear-sky guarantee
The upper slopes of Mauna Kea have dark skies, but clouds or a bright moon can hide the stars. The tour comes with a guarantee: if conditions look too cloudy, your guide contacts you up to 90 minutes before the start, so you do not drive all the way out for nothing. From there you reschedule or take a full refund.
How is this different from tours that go to the Mauna Kea summit?
This tour runs 2 hours, while summit tours usually run 7 to 8 hours. It also skips the Mauna Kea summit, so you will not see the telescopes up top or the sunset from that elevation. The stargazing on both kinds of tours happens from a similar elevation, so the quality of the night sky is the same.
Skipping the summit: safe for kids and later stargazing
The lower elevation makes the tour safe for young children, but the late hours and long stretches on your feet make it best for ages 6 and up. Summit tours have to leave within 30 minutes after sunset, so their stargazing always happens early. This tour has no sunset deadline and runs late into the night, when more objects are overhead and almost no other tour companies are out. If you would rather see the summit and the telescopes too, we can recommend a tour that does that.
About your guide
James Ward is an astronomy major at the University of Hawaiʻi and has more than 8 years guiding and shooting astrophotography for the Mauna Kea Stargazing Experience. He also worked at the HI-SEAS Habitat as mission support for simulated moon and Mars missions.
About Epic Tours
We list Epic Tours because the guide is a working astronomer, not a script-reader: James Ward is an astronomy major at the University of Hawaiʻi with more than 8 years running this experience, and he spent time at the HI-SEAS Habitat supporting simulated moon and Mars missions. That background shows up in the depth of the two-hour night and in the quality of the free Milky Way portraits, which is what reviewers single out most. The tour holds a 4.8 across 178 TripAdvisor reviews, with repeated praise for the storytelling and the photos.
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