Have you spent late nights sitting on a bench in the middle of a park, gazing at the stars, wishing you could spend the entire night there under a quick-deploy tent? Until now, that might have seemed like a dream. But Sky View founder Joe Bissonnette has lived through such moments and has realized the need for a solution. This has given life to some inventive tents that are not just designed transparent for stargazing, but are also flipping the rainfly inwards to ensure your experience remains unperturbed, irrespective of the weather outside.
Designed and hand-built in Buena Vista, Colorado, Sky View Tents are made for stargazing. According to the company, their tents are “rugged, practical, roomy, and approved by astrophotographers and campers alike.” At first, that might sound like an exaggeration, as it did to me, but the fact is, these tents are crafted from durable, crystal-clear mesh that offers an unobstructed view of the night sky right from your bed. That makes them exceptional and worth considering.
Designer: Sky View Tents
“Sleeping in a Sky View Tent is like having the night sky at your fingertips,” the company website informs. While you may consider the high-visibility UltraVue 2 polyester mesh of these tents to be interesting, it’s not where Bissonnette and team are willing to stop. They have created an internally accessed rainfly that can be installed without stepping out of the tent at any point. This revolutionary design change in the tent architecture is likely to make the entire concept of stargazing from within a transparent tent even more breathtaking.
Easily then, the Sky View Tents are the best stargazing tents ever, wherein you can deploy the rainfly from inside the tent without the midnight hassles of the other stargazing tents. Just relax on your bed and gaze at the shooting stars in a complete 180-degree view, and when the weather tends to change, get up and close the rainfly from the inside. Easy as it gets!
We have seen a lot of transparent, weatherproof, plasticky skylights and high-visibility modifications in the rooftop and the ground tents. Most of it is really pointless when the rainfly has to be deployed or is susceptible to wear and tear, especially in tents meant for backpacking. Sky View has really taken notice and released a portable Backpacker model, that only 4.6 lbs, including its poles and carry bag.
If you’re an astrophotographer and want to go even lighter with the tent, since you already have a lot of gear to haul, the Sky View Backpacker tent can also be pitched using hiking poles. It can accommodate a couple on a star-viewing adventure and is available only for $349. With space enough to fit in a queen-sized air mattress, the bigger brother, Sky View XL, is ideal for a romantic night under the stars. The XL weighs roughly 12 lbs and costs $399.
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