The Hawkes Bay Astronomical Society Inc is a community group that exists to encourage the interest, education, and advancement of Astronomy!
Our monthly meetings are currently held at the Hawkes Bay Holt Planetarium in the grounds of Napier Boys’ High School, off Chambers Street, Napier.
These take place at 7:00 PM on the second Wednesday of every month (except January) and usually finish by 9pm.
A small range of equipment is owned by the club, for which we are currently looking for another site to set it up on permanently.
The eleventh Central Star Party will be held from Thursday 7 to Monday 11 January 2027 and will be held at the TukiTuki Camp site in the Hawkes Bay.
This is the site of many previous star parties.
Central Star Party has been established to hold annual star parties in the central North Island for the benefit of the astronomical community of the North Island of New Zealand.
The goal of the organisers is to provide a fun social astronomical gathering laced with talks and activities.
At the moment, we are a small group of people with mixed experience levels and equipment.
Our members shoot a range of images, from star-trails to long-exposure deep, sky images.
If you would like to try for yourself, all you need to get started is a sturdy tripod, a camera that allows manual exposures (preferably a DSLR of some type), a shutter release and some patience.
It is amazing what images can be created with some guidance & experimentation.
We use portable telescopes at various locations around the Napier area to view celestial objects, such as the moon, planets, and deep-sky objects when weather permits.
Binocular viewing is very popular as a group and is a great introduction to astronomical observing.
This is a low stress way to learn the night sky, and the addition of blankets and beach-chairs also make it a very comfortable form of astronomy.