The Whakatane Astronomical Society is a voluntary, non-profit society for people interested in amateur astronomy in the Whakatāne District of New Zealand. The society was founded in September 1960, and maintains a small observatory in Whakatane, which has been operating continuously since 1964. The society is affiliated with the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. The Society's main fund-raising activity is the running of observing nights on Tuesday and Friday evenings, where members of the public pay a small fee to view the sky using one or more of the society's telescopes at the observatory, under the guidance of a society member. Similar evenings can also be run for larger/school groups, with prior arrangement.
Equipment The Society's observatory houses three main telescopes:
A 350mm Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain A 250mm Meade Instruments Schmidt-Cassegrain with GoTo Control A custom built 150mm refractor, equipped with a solar filter
See also List of astronomical societies List of astronomical observatories
References
External links Sky of Plenty (Whakatane Astronomical Society Homepage) Listing on Whakatane.info