Sydney City Skywatchers

14/08/2026

With a new Moon in play, skywatchers anticipate a fine Perseid performance this year.
Read more: https://buff.ly/L12q6tA

12/08/2026

12/08/2026

Today our small group of Sydney City Skywatchers chased a total solar eclipse in Spain - when the clouds rolled in we jumped in the car and headed for the clear sky. Success! During the partial phases we saw 5 sunspot groups and another 4 individual sunspots, the diamond rings were bright and we were surprised by the naked eye observable prominences, observed during totality either side of the covered Sun. The corona was bright and compact, we saw Venus but it was a short totality of 1 minute 48 seconds, not enough to observe stars and the other astronomical events. The Moon and Sun did their performance splendidly and what a great turnout by the Spanish! Photos of the eclipse by Skywatchers President, Toner Stevenson.

12/08/2026

Spanish weather is unpredictable. As the clouds roll in a few of us have to leave our planned area to view the eclipse and head inland. This is part of the adventure! We had time to test our equipment and have been impressed by the countryside and the usual king tides at solar eclipse time are evident.

07/08/2026

A small number of Sydney City Skywatchers are on their way to view the total solar eclipse in Spain and had to stop at Pic Du Midi Observatory in the Pyrenees, an extraordinary location at 2887 metres above sea level. It still has the largest optical telescope in France and 9 other domes. We also did solar observing and saw a hedgerow and other prominences on the Sun.

04/08/2026

Join us for the Looking Ahead Lecture Series and National Science Week 2026 as we welcome Lisa Harvey-Smith.

02/08/2026

Tonight Wayne Orchiston will reminisce on astronomy in Australia in the 1960s - online to members and guests:

Find out how astronomy changed in the 1960s due to innovations in radio and optical astronomy from Wayne Orchiston's experiences.

02/08/2026

We are excited to announce the launch of our new forums! You can access it forums.aavso.org. For questions, please see our blog post. The forums at aavso.org/forum have become read-only.