The Southland Astronomical Society finds itself without a home. Can you help us to move on?
Southland
We are a local astronomical society which finds itself without a home. For 45 years we operated from the observatory at the Southland Museum, but as of July 14, 2017 we have been unable to use that facility as Work and Safety have declared it unsafe. In the years we have been operating we have run weekly public education nights and have records of well over 40,000 people coming to our site. Recently we also started to run open nights in school holidays and in just two sessions attracted over 600 members of the public.
The feedback we have had since the closure is one hundred percent positive in its support for our society, and we have taken that as a mandate to do everything in our power to recover and continue to serve our community as before. Recently we have resorted to placing a portable telescope on the tennis courts next to the museum, but this is labour intensive, needing setting up and alignment every time we open. Not an ideal option.
It is to this end that we have decided to build a new observatory on land of our own, and to aid in this endeavour we are asking for donations from the public.
We are a society which has been in existence in Invercargill since 1972. We have operated a public education programme at the Southland Museum observatory since that date.
Recently we were forced to end our association with the observatory because of health and safety concerns. This has left us homeless and in need of new premises and buildings. It is for that reason we are seeking funding for:
1. Suitable site for an observatory to either lease
or buy.
2. Building/s and facilities for public access,
Updates will follow.
Any funds raised will be used for:
Acquisition of land suitable for siting an observatory.
Construction of a new observatory and meeting/toilet facilities.