After spending some years working on aviation magazines and in public relations McIntosh returned to the Herald in 1957 as a senior sub-editor.
[1] His interest in astronomy was kindled by the 1910 appearance of Halley's Comet, and at age 13 he made his first binocular observations of the Moon.
One of McIntosh's most important contributions to New Zealand astronomy was his role in establishing the Auckland Observatory which opened in 1967.
He helped secure the One Tree Hill site and served on the observatory's trust board for many years.
He devoted a lot of his time to popularising astronomy through lectures, planetarium sessions and newspaper articles.