#sciastro, the amateur astronomer's IRC channel, was founded in November 1996 by Chris Sheehan. It was designed to provide amateur astronomers at all levels of interest a place to chat about their hobby. The channel, housed on the friendly StarLink-IRC Network, is open 24 hours per day, with channel OPs logged on for much of that time. So pull up a chair and join us! The only requirement is interest.

There are three ways to join us for an astronomy chat. 

1. For advanced users, the best way it to connect with dedicated IRC software, such as mIRC and PircH.  If you have one of these programs, all you have to do is type /server irc.starlink-irc.org in any window, press enter, and you should log onto the network.  Then type /join #sciastro to enter the channel.  More can be learned about these programs in our Help Section.
    
2. The second method is to use our Java based web browser interface.  No other software is needed.  Just click the Web Based Chat button in the navigation bar.
    
3. If you are a Web-TV or MSN-TV user, we even have an interface for you!  Just clicks the Web-TV Chat button in the navigation bar.

For more information about IRC, please visit our Help Section.

We'd really like to hear from #sciastro users. Email us your comments or suggestions about the chat channel, or about these web pages.

This site was designed by Steve Carroll (AstroCady on IRC)