AAS - Aberdeen Astronomical Society

Meeting at CTO, 14th Sept, 7pm

AGM
followed by
"Telescope Fettling"

Welcome to the website of Aberdeen Astronomical Society (AAS).

AAS is an organisation for astronomy enthusiasts that meet on a regular basis for astronomical observing, talks by guest speakers and visits to observatories and planetaria. AAS has members of all ages and experience levels. We usually meet at the historic Cromwell Tower Observatory (CTO) in Old Aberdeen and at the Bettridge Centre, Newtonhill (more >)

New members are very welcome!

Within these pages you can find out what events AAS has coming up, details of where and when we meet and how to join us.

AAS may be contacted by email at

Follow AAS on twitter.com/AberdeenAstro

Iridium Flash, 13 Mar 2010
Photo by Christine Macmillan
More >>

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Aug 24th, Informal Meeting. Bettridge Centre, Newtonhill, 7pm

Sep 14th, AGM followed by 'Telescope Fettling', CTO, 7pm

more >> AAS Meetings & Events for 2010

Sky Events from Scotland

Perseid Meteor Shower August 12th-13th
(According to the IMO, the traditional peak will be from 7 pm to 8 am (BST). And there's a new moon on the 10th, so this could be one of the best years of late).

Current Geomagnetic Activity
SAMNET's magnetometer near Aberdeen

[ from Aurora Watch ]

more >> Night Sky /Aurorae Section

Society News & Observing Reports

more >> AAS News

Feel free to come along to one of our meetings to find out more about AAS. AAS members are happy to give advice on telescope purchase and any other astronomical queries (AAS Meetings).

Come along to one of our Bettridge Centre meetings if you'd like to try out a few telescopes or learn your way around the night sky.

We look forward to meeting you!

What can you see from Aberdeen tonight? Is an aurora display likely? Will the International Space Station be visible? Find out in the Aberdeen's Night Sky section. This section includes an interactive star chart for Aberdeen. This website also has a Sky Notes page with details of forthcoming astronomical events visible from Aberdeen.

AAS organises regular public observing sessions. See our AAS News and Events page for details.

"Stars from the NE"
Astronomers from North East Scotland

An article about NE Astronomers
from a talk given to the
Robert Cormack Bequest Astronomical Meeting
in Aberdeen, 31st March 2003, by Dr John S. Reid,

History of the Telescope - Part 1
History of the Telescope - Part 2
Article based on a talk given to the AAS
(and the Moray Astronomical Society) by Dr John Reid, 2009

Histelesc.pdf Historic Telescopes
at the University of Aberdeen
(Some notes by Dr John S. Reid, Jan 2006 )

AAS may be contacted by email at

AAS is grateful to Forest Enterprise for access to a dark sky site in the Midmar area. In the future, we may wish to build an observatory somewhere as well. AAS members wanting to get involved in this project should join the aberdeenastro Yahoo! Group specially set up for the purpose. The Yahoo! site also contains an active message board for members, giving details of impromptu observing sessions and astronomical chat.

Noctilucent Clouds from Banchory-Devenick - 2009-Jun-18. Photo by Andrew Phethean (Click on image for large view)

See also Torcuil Torrance's NLC Video on UTube showing Noctilucent Cloud Display from Newtonhill - 2009 June 17th/18th