About the Society

The Society was founded in 1981 to provide the Newbury area with a focal point for all those interested in astronomy, regardless of experience or expertise.
Part of our society's constitution is to provide an educational resource to beginners of all ages, so as well as the main society, we have a beginners group that is open to everyone without paying membership to the main society. See below for more details.

The Society is a member of the Federation of Astronomical Societies and a registered charity.

How the Society is structured

The Society consists of 2 sections. The Main Speaker section and a Beginner's Section. Both sections meet once a month between September and June and cover a variety of subjects.

Speaker Section.
This section is the core of the Society. Each month, there is a guest speaker, who will talk about his specialised subject, followed by a "what's up" from Lee Macdonald describing the sky that month and a 5-minute talk from a society member on something they have done.

Meeting Details:
The meetings are held on the first Friday of each month from September to June and start at 7.30pm. See programme for dates and talk information .
Location:
United Reformed Church Hall
Pembroke Street (off West Street)
Newbury
Free parking available in several nearby car parks. See Map for details or click here for an interactive map.

Beginner's Section
The beginner's section is open to all ages and abilities. Come along and hear about what's going on in the sky that month and an astro-talk in layman's terms. Weather permitting; telescopes will be set up after the meeting for observing.

Meeting Details:
The meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month from September to May, start at 7.15pm and end at 9pm. See programme for dates and talk information.

Location:
Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre,
Muddy Lane
Off Lower Way
Thatcham
Free parking on site. See Map for details or click here for an interactive map

Observing sessions
The Society also holds occasional observing evenings at local dark sites.

Sucscriptions

From September 2008 we have made some changes to the subscriptions which we hope will smiplfy things. Until now, the beginners section was based on a fee per meeting so that people were not put off by having join a society. This has worked well for several years but we have a growing number of regulars and this does not work so well for them, particularly for those attending both meetings. There was also the anomaly that the beginners fee included refreshments, but there were charged separately at the main meetings.

To resolve this we have changed the membership structure as below: