The number of teachers who actually fulfill this role in real life is open to debate.

The students of class 6AT at The Junction Demonstration School in 1969, however, did have such a teacher.

His name was Phillip Maloney. On Saturday, 18 former students joined him to mark 50 years since their Year 6 graduation.

Some travelled from interstate and overseas to celebrate the occasion and honour Phillip, who was - of course - known to his students as Mr Maloney or, we imagine, that moniker widely used for male teachers at schools through the ages - "Sir".

Phillip - we're reliably informed - was one of those teachers who made a significant contribution to student learning and development.

On the night, students recalled how Mr Maloney always encouraged them to do their best and be confident in their own abilities.

He was an innovative teacher for the 1960s, often taking students out of the classroom and into the playground to play-act and recreate historical events.

There was also time for a bit of fun, like handball competitions.

The students unanimously agreed that Mr Maloney was the teacher who they best remembered and respected from their school days.

Kurri Kurri's Col Maybury tells Topics that tech billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has just launched 60 satellites under its Starlink project in a bid to cover the Earth with high-speed internet.

"At present they are travelling like little soldiers in a shining row of starlets across the skies of the world," said Col, who is an astronomy expert.

On Saturday at 8.50pm, they rose in the north-west "directly over Maitland but visible throughout the Hunter Valley" [way above the bush-fire haze!] before zooming across the sky and leaving our horizon in the south-east at 8.54pm.

"The company SpaceX is, of course, the brainchild of the brilliant Elon Musk [who also owns Tesla]," Col said.

"It seems amazing that 60 communication satellites launch at once in a reusable rocket."

The company's planned network could eventually include up to 42,000 satellites.

Col said the new system could well make Australia's trouble-plagued NBN broadband network redundant.

However, some astronomers are concerned about the SpaceX satellites. They fear they're too bright and could form a "mega-constellation" that blocks out stars, preventing astronomers from observing the universe from Earth.

SpaceX, however, has said it plans to paint its satellites black on the sides that face Earth to make them less reflective.