Whitby & District Astronomical Society

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Mars and Jupiter
• Meteors: Alpha Aurigids
• February 2020 Sky Charts

Celestial treats summary for 2020, including planetary line-ups in the dawn and night skies, an Occultation of Venus by the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn coming to Opposition, Planet Vesta meeting the Beehive Cluster, and Mars at Opposition...
  [Read more about 2020 – A brief look ahead]

Hardly seems like twelve months have slipped by, but once again society members found themselves in the Hare and Hounds, passing out Christmas cards, pulling crackers, donning paper hats, pondering the nature of the plastic toys inside, groaning at the terrible Christmas jokes, but most of all looking forward to the Christmas fayre... [Read more about Christmas Meal 2019]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Mars and Jupiter
• Meteors: Quadrantids
• Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
• Earth reaches Perihelion
• January 2020 Sky Charts

The Hare & Hounds at Hawsker will again be the venue for the Society Christmas meal.  The date is December 14^th at 19:00h.  Click to see the menu, and if you are interested in a festive feast, please let Mark know your course choices at the December meeting... [Read more about Society Christmas Meal 2019]

After working the thickest end of four decades at Fylingdales, society stalwart Andy Lawrence has finally vacated the work treadmill and retired. After starting at Fylingdales in a cleaning capacity before moving to the stores, Andy eventually finished as a materials controller... [Read more about Off the Treadmill]

Well, it wasn’t a total cloud out for the transit of Mercury on Nov 11^th after all, that said, the window of observing opportunity was limited to an hour or so during the early afternoon (at least from the Whitby and district area).  Several members did manage to get out and view the transit during this period, taking a few nice images of the event... [Read more about Transit of Mercury]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, Mercury, Mars... and stilll Vesta.
• Meteors: Geminids, Ursids
• December 2019 Sky Charts

The final star party in October, requested and organized by Chloe Barker and tied into ‘The Unblinking Eye: 55 years of space operations on Fylingdales Moor’ exhibition at the museum, looked most unlikely to go ahead less than six hours before it was due to start.  Rain was still failing during Saturday afternoon 24 hours after it had started!  However the forecast (and crucially the timing of it) was right for once, with colder, clearer conditions spreading down by late afternoon, just in time for the event to get a green light... [Read more about Star Party on 26th Oct 2019 for the ‘Unblinking Eye’ exhibition]

As you may know this was originally intended to be a two evening event, however as interest was more forthcoming for just the Saturday, Colin and Vicky dropped the Friday evening from the program.  Friday, as it transpired was a clear night, great for observing.  Saturday was ‘orrid (at least it wasn’t windy), and although the BBC forecast still offered some optimism, the Met office one did not.  The Met office was correct and any lingering hopes of some clear breaks were quickly extinguished by the rain... [Read more about Fox and Hounds – ‘Stargazing Night’]

It’s been a while since i was last in the ‘drill hall’ on Bagdale, spent many an hour there in the past.  This was (and always has been) the venue for the Scouts, and as conditions in the sky were once again no good for observing, it was our destination on 3^rd October 2019. [Read more about Scouts visited]

In this month's edition:

• Transit of Merury
• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Mars... and Vesta.
• Meteors: Leonics, South and North Taurids
• November 2019 Sky Charts

This is part of the Dark Sky festival involving all the North York Moors dark sky sites.  We will be hosting the event for Danby Moors Centre on November 2^nd.  The public book to attend the event, but places at the Danby Moors Centre are limited to 60.  The event is now due to start at 18:00h and not at 18:30pm as previously stated. We are therefore looking to be on site by 17:45h (setting off no later than 17:20h)... [Read more about North Yorkshire Moors National Parks: Dark Sky Evening]

With heavy rain showers peppering much of the country, the outlook for the annual Westerdale event did not look overly encouraging.  Having packed a couple of the manual ‘Dobs’ into Mark’s Car; just in case, together with all the ‘plan B’ equipment for the indoor presentation, Mark and Keith set off for the Village hall in yet another deluge.  It soon became apparent looking at the skies on the way over, that there was a chance of being able to observe something after all... [Read more about Westerdale Star Party]

This event was requested over a year ago by the Women’s Institute, but the actual composition and likely format it would follow only emerged on the day itself.  In other words the weather decided what was possible on the evening, and although the heavy rain which fell for much of the afternoon had ceased, it was still cloudy!.. [Read more about Women’s Institute Event]