New Plymouth Astronomical Society

The New Plymouth Astronomical Society are people from a variety of backgrounds and ages, with a common interest in viewing the sky at night and discussing the wonders of our universe. We have a small yet focused group who operate a Public night every Tuesday at the New Plymouth Observatory, on Marsland Hill. If the sky is clear, we observe planets, moons, stars, if cloudy we run presentations and discussions on aspects of astronomy and items in the news. Observatory Resources If you have seen the observatory on Marsland Hill, you will note a large dome dominates the building. This houses a large, working, historic refractive telescope, originally built in 1880, permanently mounted inside. We also have modern reflecting telescopes, including the 25 cm mirror based telescope frequently used for public nights. In addition, a team of smaller telescopes is available for short-term loan to groups We also operate a versatile computer projector for presentations of all sorts related to astronomy.

Public Evenings: Every Tuesday from 7.30 pm during winter and 8.30 pm during summer, generally running for 2 hours. These sessions do not run to a fixed program as there is usually a flow of people coming through from the start of the session until the end, so viewing and talks tend to be varied and flexible, in response to the number of people present at the time. Entry fee is $5 for adults and $3 for juniors where a junior is someone still at school, and $10 for family groups. The observatory can be opened on other evenings by prior arrangement, and details on this can be found under the "Notes" section on our Facebook page

AGM Date13/03