How did Celiztial start?
Liz has a lifelong passion for astronomy and is always enthusiastic in sharing stargazing experience with other people. Since 2013 she has been hosting small stargazing groups for people from various parts of the world. After getting her 4th telescope in Bali 2018, Liz planned to host public groups in late 2019 but then COVID hit so the idea was postponed.
It was until 2022 when she collaborated with an enthusiastic beginner to start an astronomy venture in Bali and the duo hosted 5 events together: planetary alignment (mid 2022), Jupiter opposition (Sep’22), lunar eclipse (Nov’22), solar eclipse (Mar’23), and of course Liz’s main passion: meteor shower trip (Dec’22). Unfortunately they both had different interests and decided to go separate ways. But because there were still many people contacting Liz to host astronomy-related events, she officially started Celiztial back in 2024. Her main goal was simple: to find like-minded people who are interested in hunting celestial wonders together.
The community
Since started in late 2024, Celiztial has over 200 members with various nationality who have called Bali as their home. While the majority are people who live long term in Bali, occasionally there are travellers who join our events, too. In addition to regular monthly meet ups, there are also astro camps under the Milky Way, workshops, special events to observe eclipses, rare comets, and more.
In Celiztial, groups are kept small to ensure that all participants has a memorable and fun experience, with tailor-made explanations to fulfil everyone’s curiosities about the night sky. A maximum of 20 people per event is expected, where everyone can make new friends, take as much time as they want to use the telescope, and ask as many questions about the night sky as needed. Celiztial is a stargazing community to gather all like-minded individuals. It is fun passion project where everyone can have a good time.
What people say
So who is Liz?
You see her name every time you read the brand. You call her name every time you mention the brand. But who is she?
Liz has a lifelong passion for the night sky and has been learning about astronomy since a young age. Before the era of mobile phone and internet, she spent her childhood navigating the night sky using a planisphere. She saw her first shooting star at the age of 8-9 years old, which triggered her curiosity even more. When comet Hale Bopp made headlines, she wanted to see it so badly but nobody in her family could point it out, so she was determined to learn astronomy in order to avoid similar unfortunate situation in the future. Her first telescope was a simple refractor, which was gifted by her parents. Over the next decades, she gradually upgraded her telescope and experimented with different types.
As Liz moved places to different cities, different islands, different countries, and to the other hemisphere, she observed that the night sky differs from place to place. She realized that the mission to find celestial objects in different regions require an extensive knowledge instead of a simple internet search. The problem is, it was not easy to find someone who can give those information, so she self-taught herself astronomy by reading and taking online courses. It was also during this time in 2013 when she first saw her first ever meteor shower. The phenomenon really got her captivated, and hunting meteor showers has been her passion ever since.
Liz is your kind of nerdy neighbour who wakes up at 3 a.m and drives to the middle of nowhere just to watch dust and rocks get burnt in Earth’s atmosphere. Then she will spend her savings collecting the leftovers of the meteors.