Whitby & District Astronomical Society

In principle, this article will be a great deal shorter than last year’s; the weather over the Regatta weekend preventing any War and Peace length article. So here is a précis of events.

Saturday: probably the best day, did allow some observations of the sun at the solar party event. As usual now our location was adjacent to trampoline/Go carts on the West Cliff and near to our friend Marcus at Grover Optics and the bird of prey display. The new gazebo acquired last year went up like a dream and once all the poster boards, inflatable solar system and scopes were set out, our pitch looked half decent- bordering pretty good... [Read more about Regatta 2018]

On paper the prospects for this year’s Perseid shower were on the face of it as good as it gets for our society: no moonlight to interfere, a summer of seemingly endless clear nights, and for us the timing was perfect for the Regatta star parties... [Read more about Perseids Obscured]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Mercury.
• Meteors: a few Piscids, perhaps.
• The Autumnal Equinox
• September 2018 Sky Charts

Continuing the tour of stellar objects crossing the meridian line in August: a star and three open clusters from constellations lying in the South, currently above Mars and Saturn:

• Star: Epsilon Lyrae, in Lyra
• Cluster: NGC 6633 in Ophiuchus
• Cluster: Graff's Cluster (IC 4756) in Serpens
• Cluster: Wild Duck Cluster (M11, NGC 6705) in Scutum

The timing of this year’s event is somewhat easier to set than last year, when various factors hindered suitable dates.  So, ink in September 1^st (Saturday) from 20:00h. 

As twilight deepens we should hopefully be able to observe Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, with a waning moon not rising until 22:30h allowing plenty of time for deep sky observations... [Read more about Hook’s House Farm / Westerdale Events]

Not long before we hit the peak season (we hope) as regards star parties.

The Regatta events follow the usual route – afternoon solar viewing, on the Saturday (11^th) and Sunday (12^h), with evening star parties on both dates.  The location of the solar viewing will i assume be as per last year ie – the grassy area adjacent to the small Go carts and Royal Crescent on the West Cliff.  Time wise, we are looking at 14:00–16:30h.

The Star parties will be held on the pitch and put area, above the archery green – like last year.... [Read more about Coming Events (Regatta, et al)]

The following evening skies cleared after earlier showers, leaving just interesting cloud formations to watch carefully.

Mark, Keith, Phil and John met up on the cliff and after deciding no more rain was forthcoming, set up the scopes hoping to entice people over. It turned out to be a decent observation session, with Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all on show... [Read more about 24hrs later (28-Aug-2018)]

AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh. Yep, the only evening required clear – or even partly clear; July 27^th, turned out apocalyptic. Mark did venture up to the West Cliff for 20:45h, sat in the car, headlights on, peering through hell unleashed, along with a few other hardy and optimistic souls.

To paint the scene, you couldn’t even be creative and photograph the lightning strikes, because the rain was so heavy, which to add insult to injury grew even heavier around the time of the eclipse moonrise. Balrogs and demons, definitely the work of a wizard bent on ruining our chances of observing... [Read more about Lunar Eclipse, Mars opposition (27-Aug-2018)]

Well, the fireworks were quite good, but too early and it wasn’t dark enough.  The  cloud rolled in off the sea, so we hardly saw anything, but the evening was enjoyable and we may have gained some new members. [Read more about Star Party on Sat 7th July]

This was our second Park Fest event, a family fun day organised by North York Moors – Parks authority and held at the Danby Moors centre.

Keith and Mark made the journey over to Danby, Mark’s car packed with equipment and paraphernalia both necessary and in the ‘just in case’ bracket.  Having made good time over and then unloaded pretty pronto too, allowed everything to be erected, laid out, hung up and arranged at a leisurely pace... [Read more about Park Fest 2018]

With the continuing good weather we have hosted a number of unscheduled star parties – and probably could have done more – but even Mark needs a break sometimes.  Ironically the scheduled event on the 21^st was almost called off with cloud cover during the day forecast to persist well into the night.  It didn’t...  well not enough to hamper our observations... [Read more about Event Horizon]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Mercury.
• Meteors: Perseids
• August 2018 Sky Charts

Continuing the tour of stellar objects crossing the meridian line this month: three objects from the constellation of Hercules:

• Planetary Nebula: Turtle (or NGC 6502)
• Globular Cluster: M92 (NGC 6341)
• Star: Alpha Herculis (or 'Rasalgethi' - ‘the kneeler’s head’)

Observers join WDAS Members for the one star party scheduled in 'the lightest month'.  And the fog in which had marked the early part of the month had given way to clear skies and warm temperatures.

Also on test - Keith's new telescope: a 12" Dobsonian number fro Skywatcher. [Read more about June 2018 Star Party]

The society has again been invited to the NYM Park Fest day on Sunday 22^nd July, to be held at the Danby Moors centre.

We attended the event in 2016, and although Mark and Keith put on a good display the weather didn’t, and only fleeting glimpses of the Sun were possible for solar viewing.  We have been tasked again with solar viewing and if conditions are fine a scaled solar system demo.  The event runs from 10:00-17:00h... [Read more about WDAS News - Park Fest 2018]