Welcome to the WDAS monthly newsletter for September 2015: a digest of the month's latest contributions to our website. Below you'll find Society News, Sky Notes and In-Focus articles printed in full. There's also future events, and trailers for other articles which appear in full on the website - just a click away!
On the website you'll also be able to comment on articles, and if you'd like to play an editorial role in creating new content, just let us know!
Quick Summary for September:
- Among the star parties for September: a trip over to Westerdale our second visit of the summer to Hook's House Farm in Robin Hood's Bay.
- Total Lunar Eclipse on 28th Sepember.
August Star Party Season (photo by Warren). Click for full-size. More pictures in the Gallery.
Society News
1st 2015 visit to Hook's House:
Sausage rolls, scale solar system
and some star viewing against the
backdrop of a lightning show.
Certainly one of our observing highlights on the WDAS calendar, the first of our two visits to Hooks House this proved to be an interesting affair.
I believe it was Wellington, who after Waterloo commented that the battle was ‘a dam close run thing’ The same could apply to the state and proximity of the weather and thunder storms on Saturday 22nd.
Although appearing ominous, luckily for us the storms slid just to north and west of Whitby, pushed away by a helpful southeasterly breeze. Not a drop of rain fell, but the light show teesside way was quite spectacular. Its a few years since a star party has gone ahead in such circumstances, but we rode our luck (good judgment) and eventually the sky cleared enough for a worthwhile star party.
Four scopes manned by Andi, Kieth, Lee and Mark were kept busy throughout the later evening, with more than enough present to help with the scale solar system.
Campers also enjoyed sausage rolls, Frankfurters and cheese on cocktail sticks, (Andi and Mark had been busy in the kitchen) All went down well (literally) the only down side was the reluctance of the moon and Saturn to escape the cloud over in the west, but we shouldn’t grumble, the campers certainly didn’t. The next event at Hooks House will be on Sept 5th, 8pm start.
We shall once again be travelling over to Westerdale to host a star party on Saturday Sept 19th.
The venue will be the village hall / car park area within the village. Start time is 20:00h for the public, but will members wishing to attend (contact Mark) be there for 19:30-19:45h to allow time for equipment to be set up.
Anyone who has been before will know the site is reasonably dark and the natives are always friendly, and it will be nice to see our friend John. Hopefully the sky will be clear, but if not plan B will be initiated.
For once the weather behaved itself for the annual Perseid meteor shower with clear skies all round for much of the night.
The route to the Archery Green - our usual venue for this star party - deviated from the norm with access onto the field blocked by a locked bollard. This was expected, but a cunning alternative parking location meant that the equipment only had to carried 30 or 40 meters from the side of the ‘pitch and putt’ anyway.
The event itself proved to be better than average with regard to actual numbers of Perseids spotted. People were delighted to catch a glimpse or fully observe several bright examples before skies were even fully dark.
A sighting the the ISS caused some excitement, bang on predicted time.
By 23:30h nearly all had drifted away, but Andi, Andy, John L, Mark and Warren stayed on a while and saw some real corkers: one brilliant Perseid left an ionized trail which was visible for several seconds afterwards.
Around midnight almost one a minute was spotted, so the overall number seen whilst there must have been over 40, possibly 50 in a 2-3 hours observing session. Not at all bad!
Regatta 2015: Saturday
afternoon Solar Viewing
(Click for full-sized image)
After last year’s gales and torrential downpours, conditions this year were on the whole rather benign. Stubborn cloud banks during the Saturday afternoon solar viewing prevented prolonged observations, although during cloud breaks tantalizing glimpses of a sunspot grouping at least raised hopes of better views the following afternoon. Our location, behind the Owl sanctuary pen and adjacent to Grovers optics was certainly convenient for unloading and loading all the equipment. Limited, observations may have been, but there was still considerable interest with large crowds on the West cliff and a large oil pipe laying vessel laid off shore ensuring that the scopes were not idle.
Saturday night was in many ways similar to the Perseid party, less meteors of course, but with clear skies and a chill in the air. Because of the food fair marquees on Archery green, the raised pitch and putt area again served as our ‘observational base’. Saturn was the first target low in the SW, the rings and Titan delighting those present. As darkness fell the transparent skies yielded some great views of deep sky objects, our usual favourites. The ISS also made a pass and even the Oil pipe vessel ‘lit up like a city’ was a spectacle. Quite a decent evening was the consensus of opinion.
Regatta 2015: Sunday
afternoon Solar Viewing
(Click for full-sized image)
The Sunday solar observation event proved to be more satisfactory than the previous day, with quite lengthy sunny spells, the threatening cloud banks mostly keeping to the west.
Careful scrutiny of the solar disk revealed quite a rash of mostly faint sunspots. Business was quite brisk, although the owls didn’t seem to care a hoot.
Regatta 2015: Sunday night
Star Party on Archery Green
(Click for full-sized image)
Sunday night’s star party was hampered a little by fragmented cloud, although it was actually better attended by the public. As usual the scale solar system proved a hit. In the sky Saturn actually looked better than the night before, the image appearing more stable despite the low altitude.
Views of various deep sky objects, double stars et al, kept people more than interested. So, overall the Regatta events were quite successful, there have been better years, but considering all factors I think we didn’t do too badly at all.
A succession of star parties coinciding with the run up to the full moon were held on the west cliff at our usual location during Folk Week.
Fri 28-Aug-2015 (Folk Week) on West Cliff. (Photo by Warren)
Click image to see full-size, and click here to see more Star Party images in the gallery.
Skies were pretty clear and as always the folk week crowd were eager to view, stay and listen.
Thursday 27th proved interesting with a faint aurora visible to the north – a distinct green glow with a hint of rays and bands moving within this. It was a pity strong moonlight hampered observations, but all those present were overjoyed to witness even this, a real bonus then.
Business was brisk the following evening, although no aurora was visible, but everyone seemed quite satisfied with views of the moon, when it eventually showed its bright face through the muslin cloud cover in that part of the sky.
Thanks to all members who assisted over the course of the late August period, it makes the events more pleasurable.
Events
Observe the night sky with us at the Bruce Observatory, Caedmaon College - Normanby campus (formally Whitby College).
Observing Nights are held weather permitting: check for a relatively clear sky before leaving home. If in doubt, Mark can be reached on tel 01947 605516.
Please note the college drive gate is now operated via a electronic key code - so anyone wishing to attend must be at the car park at the top of the drive by 19:00hrs, unless an arrival time has been arranged with Mark/Keith after 19:30hrs. Otherwise shout or bip car horn - we'll hear.
