By Dirk Goës The March 2026 meeting was our first online Zoom meeting for the year.  We welcomed all existing and new members and acknowledged First Nations peoples.  26 people attended the meeting including 24 members and two visitors. SCS President Dr Toner Stevenson  gave an overview of the results of our member survey.  The survey found that our members enjoy a mix of learning about amateur astronomy techniques as well as learning about what professional astronomers are

Observing the Sun with the Skywatcher’s solar telescope

Early women in amateur astronomy in Sydney.

This is a quick summary of the first Sydney City Skywatchers meeting for 2026.

Photo by Ann Cairns This wonderful photo of the Moon about to occult Saturn was taken by SCS committee member Ann Cairns.  Ann took the photo on the eastern grassy area of Sydney Observatory using a mobile phone camera held up to the eyepiece of a 4” (10 cm) Skywatcher refractor telescope in 2018.  The photo demonstrates that getting started in astrophotography can be as simple as holding your smart phone up to a telescope eyepiece.  The photo is also a good follow up to Dr A

What to consider when choosing a telescope.

When will T Corona Borealis go nova? The Blaze Star, corrected for the southern hemisphere! (Credit: Adapted from The Farmers’ Almanac ). By Dirk Goës The Blaze Star, whose scientific name is T Corona Borealis (T CrB), is a star which experiences a thermonuclear explosion on its surface about every 80 years.  The last explosion occurred in 1946 and according to observations and measurements made by astronomers in the last few years it is set to explode any day now.  This kind

The following describes objects in our night sky for December and is especially written for beginning observers. Moon Phases The Deep Sky Objects described later should be visible with the Moon present, although they will be better seen at times when the Moon is not visible. Still, don’t be put off by the Moon if the sky is clear. See what you can and try again on a moonless night. December starts with the 10-day old Waxing Moon, becoming more gibbous each day until… Dec 5: F

Andrew's setup at the Frogmore Astro Camp. Photo by Andrew Wood. By Andrew Wood For visual observing especially, light pollution greatly diminishes the experience of observing deep sky objects – star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Even with the sophisticated imaging equipment available today that enables those who like to take images of these objects in less-than-ideal skies, a dark sky will make the images even better. Finding a dark place, unless you live on a rural prop

Listening to Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell speak gave us direct personal insight into how she made her discovery of pulsars and she generously expanded on this in her response to questions from the audience.