Centennial Park outreach for Science Week 2025

On the weekend of the 16-17^th August the Sydney City Skywatchers (SCS) ran their annual telescope viewing sessions for the public at the Science Week events in Centennial Park in Sydney. 

On Saturday evening we had four telescopes set up for public viewing as part of ‘The Planets Concert and Stargazing’ event.  There was quite a crowd gathered around, and we were able to show the public Mars low in the western sky, the bright star Arcturus, Alpha Centauri and Omega Centauri.  While neither the Moon, Jupiter nor Saturn were visible, many adults and children were excited simply by seeing a bright star through a telescope. 

Photos above copyright Elizabeth Budek.

On Sunday we had solar viewing telescopes set up as part of the ‘Science in the Swamp’ event.  With an estimated crowd of 12,000 people this was a big event with science stalls, shows and activities.  Our small team of four volunteers were kept extremely busy showing and explaining safe solar viewing.  According to feedback from the public our solar viewing setup was more impressive than the one from the University of NSW! 

Photos above copyright Rob Luxford.

Thanks to all our volunteers as listed below:

Saturday 16th August 2025: Elizabeth Budek, Ann Cairns, Elizabeth Cocking, Fiona Cox, Reuben Cox-Doherty, Dirk Goës, Milena Radnovic, Lu Szuhyta and Andrew Wood. 

Sunday 17th August 2025: Ann Cairns, Elizabeth Cocking, Rob Luxford & Andrew Wood. 

Thanks to our photographers: Elizabeth Budek & Rob Luxford.