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The Society Today

 The Society holds lecture evenings at the Royal Russell School, Coombe Lane, Croydon. These are held every second Friday during Term Time more details are on our Programme page. Lectures start ay 19:45 and end around 22:00, We normally start with an introductory talk and club news followed by a short refreshment break the evening is then completed by the main lecture as shown in the programme.

a map is available showing the location. If you visit the school the clue to finding the lecture theatre is to look for the large building with a floodlit clock on top - this is called The Great Hall. The lectures are held in the basement of The Great Hall, the entrance is located at the far end of the building at the far side. Cars should be left in the car park on the left near the entrance. Visitors are requested to sign the visitors book in the Lecture Theatre when they arrive.

On Fridays where there is no lecture we hold informal lectures and carry out practical observing using the club's 18 inch and smaller telescopes located at our Observatory at Kenley.  It is advisable to wear warm clothing as the Observatory is not heated. Members & visitors are required to sign the logbook at Kenley when they arrive and when they leave.

We currently have a membership of about 100 and generally get 40 to 60 people at the lectures.
 

Finance

The Croydon Astronomical Society is a charity whose objectives are to help & educate members & the public to acquire a knowledge of Astronomy and allied subjects. The CAS does not charge a subscription but instead rely on the generosity of our members & visitors in donating what they can afford as well as buying tickets for our raffle which is a feature of the Lecture Evenings. Donations are used to finance the activities of the Society.

Constitution

The Society is governed by it’s Constitution – a copy can be found here in .PDF format. ( Please note that this is a word processed version of the original typewritten copy. In the event of any differences the original typewritten copy takes precedence). The constitution lays down the ground rules for the society and a copy has been lodged with the Charity Commission as we are a registered charity.

Library

We have a library containing books on Astronomy, this is open during the lectures at the Royal Russell School. Members may borrow books on production of their membership card. In addition we have a reference library at Kenley that contains books that are useful during observing.

History of The Croydon Astronomical Society

The Society was founded as  the Croydon Group of the Junior Astronomical Society in 5th May 1956. Some more details of our history can be found on our history page.