WOLAS

About WOLAS

We meet every month except August,  alternately at two venues in Harrow and Hillingdon boroughs, so we cover a wide area of the west of London area.

You definitely don’t need to be an advanced amateur to join, as we try to keep meetings at a level which anyone with a general interest in astronomy can follow. Probably the majority of our membership consists of people just like you – interested but not obsessed!

The society was founded in 1967 and has a membership mostly drawn from a wide area of the western side of London. As well as our monthly meetings, we have occasional public observing sessions at Ruislip Lido, and every year we organise an observing weekend to a truly dark sky site such as mid-Wales or the West Country.

We are affiliated to the Federation of Astronomical Societies.

If you are interested, take a look at our meeting programme and come along to one of the meetings and see if you like it. We have a wide range of meeting topics, from basic stargazing to cosmology, covering the wide range of interests among our members. The Society is not just for the advanced amateur astronomer   we have members with all levels of experience and interests and welcome new members of all ages. There are subscription rates for those under 16 and for families, and our large membership allows us to keep our charges surprisingly low. You can join online or by post.

Our monthly meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at
Christ Church Chapel, Redford Way, Uxbridge (Feb, April, June, Oct and Dec)
Standard map | Google map for this venue

Royal British Legion Harrow Club, 76 Northolt Road, Harrow, HA2 0DW (Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept and Nov)
Standard map | Google map for this venue

Members’ Pages

WOLAS members who have logged in with their unique username and password can see the special Members’ Pages listed in the menu. To see more about Members’ Pages go to Members’ Pages – General

WOLAS News

WOLAS member on RAS Council

We are pleased to announce that on 9th May 2025, WOLAS member, Karen Devoil, was elected by a considerable majority as a Council Member of the Royal Astronomical Society. Karen undertakes a large amount of astronomy outreach work as part of her job at UCL/Birkbeck and in connection with several other organisations of which she is a member. 

WOLAS  Bob Garner Trophy

The WOLAS observing trophy is now known as the Bob Garner Trophy to honour our observing director for many years. Observations shown at meetings count towards this prize.

The  2025 winner was  Douglas J Adams (below, left), who was presented with the trophy at our September 2025 meeting.

For more about the observing  prize and observing trophy see here (members only).

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