Celebrate your partner with late-night Valentine’s Day stargazing

WITH Valentine’s Day happening next Friday, the Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum is offering couples an opportunity to celebrate their love with some late-night stargazing.

From 10pm to 11.30pm, participants will be able to view Mars and Jupiter – which will be sitting high in the sky – along with three ‘partners’ while the centre of the galaxy and a waning moon rise.

Observatory education officer Kirralee McLoughlin said events had been run on Valentine’s Day in the past, but not like this one.

“We’ve done some in the past, but they were earlier [in the day],” she said. “This is more of a late-night gaze at the stars and a bit of a talk,” she said.

Ms McLoughlin said the height in the sky of Jupiter and Mars will be excellent for viewing through a telescope, while the three ‘partners’ also visible will be dwarf galaxies the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the stars Sirius and Rigel, and Eta Carinae and Canopus.

All the stars and the two clouds have been described as male/female partners in Indigenous stories.

Ms McLoughlin said the link between Jupiter and Mars and their ‘partners’ is deliberate, linking the celestial starscape with the traditional day for lovers.

“And by the end of it the moon will be rising, so it will be like ‘I love you to the moon and back’,” she said.

Ms McLoughlin said the Jelbart telescope in the purpose-built dome building and a 16-inch Coverdale reflector telescope will be used for the viewings.

The night’s education program will focus on learning about the ‘partners’, as well as gazing upon them and others with and without a telescope.

The strictly 18-plus event is open to a maximum of 36 people, or 18 couples, who can book their place through the observatory website at ballaratobservatory.org.au/event/valentines-days-a-late-night-under-the-stars-2025.

Bookings can be made up until about 6pm on the day.

If weather conditions – particularly clouds – rule out the stargazing, indoor activities will be substituted. Participants will also be able to take a raincheck for future events.

“It won’t be Valentine’s Day, but people will still be able to do the viewings,” Ms McLoughlin said.

The observatory is in Cobden Street, Mount Pleasant.