Whitby & District Astronomical Society

After a mild week of clear evenings, it was on the cards that for the weekend of the half term ‘dark sky’ event at the Danby Moors Centre, an arctic plunge would complicate matters.  Chilly, blustery, showery conditions are not conducive for observing outdoors.  Therefore the decision was taken to host an indoor presentation for the 55 or so people who had booked to come along.  Although conditions did improve marginally, it proved to be the correct choice. [Read more about Danby Dark Sky Event]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Uranus Neptune and Venus
• Meteors: Leonids, North & South Taurids
• Comets: Comet 46P/Wirtanen
• November 2018 Sky Charts

Even though our society is a fully paid-up member of the Federatation of Astronomical Societies, the annual FAS convention is an event we have never previously attended, primarily because it is more often than not held in places too far from Whitby to be reasonably reached with a ‘days’ time frame’. 

For their 2018 convention however, the FAS ventured North, hosting the event at York University on Sept 22^nd, so it was too good an opportunity to miss....and we very nearly did, given the relatively short notice publicising the event.  Delays in emails sent out being attributed to the search for a venue at a reasonable hire cost, a factor which has seen a number of lecture meets (including Leeds Astromeet) fall by the wayside in recent years... [Read more about FAS Convention 2018 (at York University)]

A good number of society members were at the free (but ticketed) talk held in Whitby Museum on 18^th September given by Charles Cockell, Professor of Astrobiology at Edinburgh University.

The Normanby room was full to capacity for Prof Cockell’s lecture on the work being carried out deep underground in Boulby mine, already well known for its work on Dark Matter and other fundamental issues in cosmology... [Read more about From Yorkshire to Mars: the search for life in the universe. (Lecture at Whitby Museum)]

Another ‘will it, wont it’ evening, for our visit to Westerdale on September 14^th, which in some respects was similar to the Hook’s house event.

Setting off from Mark’s in a two-car convoy, managing to shoehorn in the LX 200, Mark’s dobsonian, a small refractor, John L, Keith, Barabara, and a couple of Marks, we arrived at the village hall with already a gathering at the car park.  Westerdale legend and fellow member John Randles was on hand as usual, and it was nice to meet Nola, who had organised the event at that end... [Read more about Westerdale Event]

This year’s event proved to be another great success, even though skies didn’t entirely play ball.

Having met at Mark’s to sort out equipment and who was going with whom etc, eight members travelled over in convoy to Robin Hood Bay, arriving in good time at the campsite.  A bank of cloud in the west just couldn’t make its mind up which way to trundle, but skies to the south, east and northeast remained pretty clear at the start... [Read more about Hook’s House Farm event]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Uranus and Neptune
• Meteors: Orionids
• Comets: Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner
• October 2018 Sky Charts

Although not until October, it looks as though we shall be main hosts for the half term ‘dark sky’ star party event to be held at the Danby Moors Centre.  Unless anything crops up this will be Oct 27^th with a start time of 18:30h, perhaps 19:00h... [Read more about Danby Moors Centre events]

Next month Whitby Museum is hosting a landmark talk on astrobiology (hope you got the e-mail) Charles Cockell, Professor of Astrobiology at Edinburgh University, will be talking about his fascinating work on extra-terrestrial life.  The event is free, but you have to book tickets online... [Read more about ‘Yorkshire to Mars’ – talk]

Our annual pilgrimage to Westerdale will take place on Friday Sept 14^th.  Setting off from Mark’s (Laburnum Grove) around 19:15h  we anticipate to be at the village hall for 19:45h, allowing time to set up the telescopes should conditions allow.  [Read more about Westerdale Event]

Sept 1st (tonight) will hopefully find many of us at Hook’s House farm Campsite, weather permitting.  The event is due to commence at 20:00h, so we shall be travelling over around 19:40h... [Read more about Event Horizon - Hook’s House Farm]

On Thursday 23^rd conditions were again clear, however on this occasion the Bruce Observatory at the college served as our observing location.  John, Keith and Mark ventured up to see how Jupiter, Saturn and Mars fared in the Cooke refractor.   Proceedings were not as straight forward as hoped for... [Read more about Bruce Observatory Expedition]

Saturday 25^th proved to be a popular event, the conditions being far calmer and a bit warmer than the previous evening.  There were certainly a lot more public around, which all seemed to head in our direction once the (almost) full moon rose above the youth hostel across on the east side.  [Read more about Bank Holiday Events]

Folk Week proved to be a mixed bag, with the event on Saturday 18^th falling foul of cloud; indeed conditions were very similar to the previous week at Regatta. 

Tuesday evening turned out unexpectedly clear, and being mild an unscheduled star party proved rather successful, with the Moon, Mars and Saturn the mainstays of the evening.  The images were surprisingly steady, and much appreciated by all... [Read more about Folk Week Events]

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]