AAS - Aberdeen Astronomical Society

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 in Old Aberdeen and in 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

Night at the Museum Event /Saturday 17th May
Alongside thousands of museums across Europe, for one night a year you can experience a unique late-night opening of at the Zoology Museum and Natural History Centre on the University of Aberdeen's historic King's College campus.

Interactive festivities include star and planet gazing with the Aberdeen Astronomical Society

plus an exciting variety of other family activities including Bat detecting, torch-lit treasure hunt in Museum, night time creepy-crawlies, glow sticks, 'Night at the museum' film

Free Admission, 7pm - midnight.
For more details see :
'Night at The Museum' / Zoology Event

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Tue. 13th May : CTO, 7pm [directions]
AGM and Talk - "Future Mega Facilities" (10, 30, 100m telescopes ) by Dr. John Davies

Sat 17th May : Univ. Aberdeen, King College/Zoology Museum, 7pm to midnight
"Night at the Museum Event", including Star Gazing with AAS (at 9:30) (see Description - Top Right)

more >> AAS Meetings & Events for 2008

Sky Events from Scotland

more >> Sky Notes

Current Geomagnetic Activity
SAMNET's magnetometer near Aberdeen

[ from Aurora Watch ]

more >> Night Sky /Aurorae Section

Society News & Observing Reports

Dark Sky Observing Meeting (2007-Sep-07): Five member of the society had a very enjoyable evening up at Dark Sky site on Friday evening. The early evening sunshine suggested good conditons for the dark hours, so we were initially disappointed with total cloud cover when we arrived at 9:30 pm. Patience paid off though as good clear spells materialised within an hour and we spent a good couple of hours with a few telescopes and one of our new 25x100 binoculars.
more_>> AAS News

Phil Hart wins Honourable Mentions for astrophotos at prestigious "David Malin Awards", 2007. Phil Hart recently entered a number of his astro-images in the fourth annual David Malin astrophotography competition, hosted by the Central West Astronomical Society in Parkes, NSW, and came away with three honourable mentions in the Amateur Deep Sky and Amateur Solar System categories.
>> Picture of Phil Hart with David Malin

Photo Copyright: Phil Hart

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 Woodbank 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.

Picture by Darren Moody

See
Gallery of
Total Lunar
Eclipse Images
taken by
AAS Members
March 3rd

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.