Coffs Harbour Astronomical Society

14/08/2026

A message from the President up top.

The partial solar eclipse was somewhat clouded out from Northern England, but a fun event sat on the first tee of Alston Moor Golf Club which is home to a small Astro club too.

The following two nights however were delightfully clear and allowed me to capture all of the Northern circumpolar messier objects with my Seestar which leaves me just eight short of completing my https://w4n2h.com/seestar-messier-marathon/ of all 110 objects. With only about two hours of darkness this time of year, it was quite a rush!

22/07/2026

It's all upside down!

First astrophoto from Jonathan who is on an astronomical adventure in England. A hard thing to do as it won't ever get truly dark until mid August, here is a very low and oddly (for us) oriented moon from a campsite still light at 9:30 at night.

21/07/2026

Members will know where a little of that telescope's foundation lies!

57 years ago today, DSS46 brought back the video of Neil Armstrong taking those first step on the Moon for the entire world to see. DSS46 was then located at Honeysuckle Creek. Happy Anniversary of the first Moon landing! 📡〰️〰️〰️🌖🚀👨‍🚀👨‍🚀👨‍🚀

06/07/2026

It's AGM tonight, and we have plenty to celebrate after a great year of astronomically related achievements within the group. Don't worry, the AGM formalities won't last too long, and at some point we will get a show-tell from Jonathan who has finally got his new astronomical dome up and working.

Meeting starts at 7pm in the Boambee East Community Centre.

03/07/2026

And Win got a well deserved mention in parliament too, congratulations again and we can all give him a pat on the back at the AGM/General meeting this coming monday at 7pm onwards at the Boambee East Community Centre. I recon a cake is in order, come share a slice!

18/06/2026

A lovely Solar System alignment tonight with the moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury coming out to play after relentless clouds!

11/06/2026

Win Howard OAM

Our very own former president has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this years Kings Honours list for services to the community through various organisations. We know him best of course for his magnificent stewardship of our club, but he was a prolific giver of his time and wisdom to many other too!

Congratulations and very well deserved.

(Photo borrowed from Coffs NOTA)

31/05/2026

It's a blue moon! Tonight is the night when things are actually meant to happen! Did they? well come along to our monthly meeting tomorrow, the 1st of June at the Boambee East Community Centre from 7pm and find out. Everyone welcome.

(Nerd fact: Antares means "Not Mars" in Greek. Ares is the god of war that we now call Mars, and with it's reddish hue and brightness looks just the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpio. Ant, or antithesis, simply means not)

28/04/2026

It's been a fun couple of weeks as incoming president with lots of personal media attention due to a recent award. I've been doing my best to plug our happy little band of astral travellers and managed to get us a mention in this article as well as on radio. Plenty of news for our next meeting in just a few days time, it promises to be action packed! See you on Monday at the Boambee East Community Centre from 7pm. Curious? Come along!

JB

These three friends made a startling discovery while looking at the night sky. Now they've been published in Nature journal and awarded the Page Medal.