Orion

Will the resident astronomer be on the ship in 2019?

The secret is out and Viking Orion does indeed have the most advanced 3D Planetarium in the World on board! I am very pleased to have been appointed as Resident Astronomer on this wonderful ship and look forward to delivering iconic lectures, planetarium shows and stargazing nights for all the guests. See you on board!

We will be on the New Zealand/ Australia cruise. Please feel free to tell us more about yourself and what we will be seeing!

Will the resident astronomer be on the ship in 2019?

Indeed they will. I am one of a team of Resident Astronomers so it will either be myself or another experienced astronomer.

The ship also has a stabilised telescope which can be linked directly to the planetarium. The planetarium itself seats 26 at a time and will feature some fabulous shows. It does not take up the whole Explorers Lounge, so there will be plenty of space. The Resident Astronomer will deliver a series of talks covering NASA space missions, History of astronomy as well as general astronomy talks. My field is mainly astrophysics and I collaborate on NASA and ESA missions such as OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. We will also utilise the planetarium and hold "stargazing nights" when weather permits. Resident Astronomers will, of course, be available to answer any questions guests may have and we look forward to meeting you all on board.

I am anxious to know how much of the second level of the explorer's lounge has the planetarium experience.....that is such a peaceful quiet place to sit and read I would be sorry to see it re-purposed. I love the idea of a resident astronomer .....we struggled to find the southern cross even with the App on the phone!!!

There's a picture of the planetarium in Cruise Critic's article about Orion:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8710

It looks like it's in the interior part of the upper level of the lounge (so it shouldn't block ocean views), and Viking claims that it doesn't even reduce the lounge seating compared to their other ships. I hope they add this to their existing ships – it sounds like a terrific addition.

AstroExeter, thank you for joining in on this forum! This sounds really pretty amazing. It appears that Viking designed it technically beyond anything out there, while still allowing for the upstairs space to be used as in the past. What a win-win.

With seating for 24 people at a time, do you have any idea how Viking is going to allow passengers to ‘book’ these viewings? I am guessing that piece is not part of your involvement, but curious as to whether there is any data released around that piece as of yet?

AstroExeter, thank you for joining in on this forum! This sounds really pretty amazing. It appears that Viking designed it technically beyond anything out there, while still allowing for the upstairs space to be used as in the past. What a win-win.

With seating for 24 people at a time, do you have any idea how Viking is going to allow passengers to ‘book’ these viewings? I am guessing that piece is not part of your involvement, but curious as to whether there is any data released around that piece as of yet?

I am also very interested in the answer to this question, AstroExeter. We are on the July 15 sailing out of Barcelona and will be arriving at the ship early and would like to know what we can do to reserve a spot, if anything.

The secret is out and Viking Orion does indeed have the most advanced 3D Planetarium in the World on board! I am very pleased to have been appointed as Resident Astronomer on this wonderful ship and look forward to delivering iconic lectures, planetarium shows and stargazing nights for all the guests. See you on board!

I remember how amazed I was when we sailed on the Queen Mary 2 her inagural year and she had a planetarium. It was quite an experience. I hope you are still on board when we take the Hong Kong to Vancouver cruise.

The secret is out and Viking Orion does indeed have the most advanced 3D Planetarium in the World on board! I am very pleased to have been appointed as Resident Astronomer on this wonderful ship and look forward to delivering iconic lectures, planetarium shows and stargazing nights for all the guests. See you on board!

Are you still on in May next year for Alaska?

July 7 from Rome. Getting excited and will have additional nights in Barcelona. How are the deluxe veranda cabins? We’ll be in 5010. Happy cruising.

The secret is out and Viking Orion does indeed have the most advanced 3D Planetarium in the World on board! I am very pleased to have been appointed as Resident Astronomer on this wonderful ship and look forward to delivering iconic lectures, planetarium shows and stargazing nights for all the guests. See you on board!

Looking forward to meeting you, AstroExeter, and attending some of the shows and your talks in the planetarium!!! We'll be on board July 8.

Do we reserve seats to the shows? Getting on board zJuly 5

5.

The secret is out and Viking Orion does indeed have the most advanced 3D Planetarium in the World on board! I am very pleased to have been appointed as Resident Astronomer on this wonderful ship and look forward to delivering iconic lectures, planetarium shows and stargazing nights for all the guests. See you on board!

Reserve seats once you are on the ship. I haven’t seen anything about it on the myviking site.

Looking forward to the stargazing.

There are pictures of the ceremony on the USATODAY website in the travel section.

I just looked at those - great pictures, and great press for Viking! Photographer didn't miss much. I didn't even realize there was going to be a planetarium on Orion, despite the ship name and the the ship's godmother. Other than that, and a few small changes like more attractive benches at the back of deck 2 (which I like as my own private photography space!!) and a ping pong table (I think), things look the same as the other Viking ships I've been on. Beautiful ship!

In case nobody posted it previously (I didn't read all posts), here's a link to USA Today story and pictures: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2018/06/26/viking-orion-cruise-ship-photo-tour/733557002/

Sorry July 8

Roothy123 thanks for providing the link to the news article. My first cruise was on Crystal Symphony and I thought it was elegant. This looks beautiful too.

And there is a by invitation shakedown cruise between Rome and Barcelona June 13-19, including the christening ceremony.

 

https://vikingcruisesevents.com/christening/

This is awesome. We’re on the July 7th Rome to Barcelona trip. Three more days, we are totally psyched!

Oh no!! (Just kidding.) That means we’re halfway through with our cruise. It’s been fabulous so far and the ship is beautiful, just like the other Ocean ships I understand. We have 3 more ports to go then a few days off the ship in Rome.

FionaGal, would you share some of your favorite places or moments on the Orion? You are on the maiden voyage, right?

This is awesome. We’re on the July 7th Rome to Barcelona trip. Three more days, we are totally psyched!

Don’t rush because we don’t dock in Rome until the morning of the eighth

Don’t rush because we don’t dock in Rome until the morning of the eighth

True. We’re just excited. We actually leave California on the 7th, end up in Rome on the 8th. Leave a light on for us!

Hey Seb-Town...we are neighbors. We live off HWY 12 east of SR! Small world enjoy your travels.

Fionagal - did you experience the observatory on the Orion? Would love to hear about that experience! Would also like to how much of the upper floor of the lounge space it is taking up. There is something special about being on a maiden voyage! We experienced that with the Star.

I believe we are the second voyage after the shakedown cruise. The observatory or planetarium offers two different 3D movies. The evening showings are “Journey to Space” and the afternoon showing is “Under the Arctic Sky”. We saw both and personally liked the Arctic theme better. If you go, we suggest avoiding the bottom seats. There are still a number of seating areas around the dome, but I have nothing to compare it to since this is our first cruise. You get tickets for the movies at guest services and they were easy to get when we asked on our second day. It seemed a lot of guests didn’t even know about the planetarium.

About our favorite spots on the ship: we loved watching our first sail away (from Venice for us) on deck 8. Very cool view of the city as we left! We also enjoyed the hot/cold features in the spa and our breakfasts in the world cafe. The ship is beautiful wherever you go.

Thank you for your quick response. Do you do any Viking paid tours? How did you like them? We’ve only booked private and included tours.

Thank you Fionagal. Appreciate your planetarium information and update. Enjoy your cruise!