The Whakatane Astronomical Society is a voluntary, non-profit society for people interested in amateur astronomy in the Whakatane District of New Zealand. The society was founded in September 1960, and maintains a small observatory in Whakatane, which has been operating continuously since 1964.^[1] The society is affiliated with the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand.^[2]

The Society's main fund raising activity is the running of observing nights on Tuesday and Friday evenings, where members of the public pay a small fee to view the sky using one or more of the society's telescopes at the observatory, under the guidance of a society member. Similar evenings can also be run for larger/school groups, with prior arrangement.

The Society's observatory houses three main telescopes:

• A 350mm Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain
• A 250mm Meade Instruments Schmidt-Cassegrain with GoTo Control
• A custom built 150mm refractor, equipped with a solar filter

• List of astronomical societies
• List of astronomical observatories

• Sky of Plenty (Whakatane Astronomical Society Homepage)
• Listing on Whakatane.info