For the second year in succession our Star party event planned for visiting pupils of Ayresome Primary school in Middlesbrough, went ahead under crystal clear skies. (Shock horror, yes, it is hard to believe) Requested by Libby Lavelle, Assistant Head Teacher, after last year’s successful evening which delighted and enthused the pupils, this year’s two dozen strong party of 10 and 11 year olds were already excited by the prospect of something similar.
With the party staying at Whitby Youth Hostel, the event was again held on the grassed outer approach courtyard area adjacent to the drive way along to the hostel. Mark, Keith and Lee were joined by Andy L this year, so 4 scopes were in operation. [Read more about Distant Suns: Ayresome School visit (Whitby YH)]
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In this month's edition:
Miranda has some very distinct features that have left astronomers wondering why it’s so ugly. As well as the usual craters and pockmarks that cover any rocky object with basically no atmosphere, Miranda has deep, almost parallel gashes running along its southern hemisphere. It looks a bit like a ball of yarn. These deep grooves are confined to three regions in the Southern hemisphere.
Just to reminder that we shall be hosting a star party event for visiting pupils from Ayresome Primary School & Lego Innovation Studio up at the Whitby Youth Hostel on April 12th. Elizabeth Labelle; assistant Head Teacher was impressed with the pupil response and feedback after last year’s inaugural event, and has contacted the society with regards to host another one this year. The start time is around 20:30h at the WHA on the east cliff. 
I don’t believe it! The Eskdale ‘Star night’ (Wednesday 22nd) unfortunately coincided with the only bad weather night of the week so our planned outdoor observations were quite out of the question. No scopes then, but with a new looking inflatable planetarium brought over and manned by York University boffins, who needed clear skies. All we needed was somewhere to use for the scale solar sytem(s). An ideal location was at hand – the main school corridor, which at nearly 60 mtrs long was tailormade for our demo... 
It all started in 1924, when Edwin Hubble proved galaxies are very distant objects, each containing millions or billions of stars, bound together by gravity. Within a few years, he set up a system to classify these galaxies by shape; a system which is still pretty much the system we use today... 
It's going to be a busy late-March and into April. 
The first of the events (a last minute unscheduled event on the 18th) was predominantly clouded out. Mark and Keith therefore enrolled the scouts in helping to demonstrate the scale solar system. 
The date of the Vernal Equinox and officially the start spring in the northern hemisphere falls on March 20th this year. This is when the Sun's path - the ecliptic - first crosses the celestial equator on its apparent journey northwards into the sky... 
Born into aristocracy in 18th century France, Charles Messier stood at the threshold of a great observational age. Comets were the fascination of astronomers - their discovery and subsequent observation occupying many observatories; bringing fame and fortune to their discoverer...
The lighter evenings of April offer up an interesting stellar challenge, testing the observing dexterity of astronomers - casual or otherwise - in a race against time. 
If skies are reasonably clear on Feb 25th we have been invited to host a star party down at Boggle Hole Youth Hostel. The event commences at 19:00h until around 20:30h.
Betelgeuse is a star constallation of Orion, which is well known for being very unstable and possibly exploding in a supanova at any point. It's a star that is often studied by astronomers, but before they can understand how a star goes supanova, they need to understand what the steady state of a star really is... 