Outreach Update

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue74 1–31 July 2026

The early dark nights of July were also accompanied by some great, clear nights. Despite the school holidays, we still had 11 schools visit in July bringing about 500 students from WA, Queensland, Victoria, and regional NSW. July usually brings a lot of special programming, and this July was no different!  

At the beginning of the month for NAIDOC week, Pete Swanton gave a talk at Parliament House and a crew of outreachers headed to do stargazing out-front on the forecourt.  With a crowd of over 200, it was a great night!

We ran our school holiday program for 3 days – hosting students in years 3 – 6. We had about 75 students over the three days – with a lot of activities from launching rockets, to topics on Mars exploration, and even a visit by some wombats!  Special thanks to Clinton Li, Purvi Udhwani, Ben Burgess, Chuhan Zhang, Alannah Falvo, Sophie Kim, and Jacob Denby for running it all!

Patrick O’Connor and Lewis Miller headed to Thredbo and while there may not have been a lot of snow, they had some clear, dark skies for talks and stargazing at the resort. We’ve been regularly running programs at Thredbo for the holidays, and it is a great relationship that has been built for both of us!

Patrick and Wei Shen Oh headed to Hyatt for S’mores and stargazing – setting up a telescope in the courtyard for guests who came out, had s’mores and did some stargazing on both Saturdays of the school holidays. We also resumed our nights at Lanyon Homestead and look forward to continuing those through October at least.  

Brad Tucker

Image: Wei Shen Oh stargazing at the Hyatt Hotel