Welcome to the WDAS monthly newsletter for October 2019: a digest of the month's latest contributions to our website. Below you'll find Society News: past and coming events, a review of the season, possibility of free food?, and your monthly Sky Notes.
Don't forget: The first Society Meeting of the new Winter Season will be tonight, 1st October, at Whitby College.
Society News
The society is delighted to announce its involvement in the inaugural Star Gazing weekend, hosted by Vicky and Colin of the Fox and Hounds, Ainthorpe, near Danby.
This event is now running on Saturday October 19th only, from the Fox and Hound Inn and will commence from around 5pm. The evening will start with an indoor presentation and weather permitting will then continue outdoors with demonstrations and observations, hopefully of the wonderful autumn night sky above the North York Moors.
Having checked out the location and sites to be utilised, the viewing aspects and lack of light pollution should make for fantastic viewing, whether through a telescope, binoculars or just the naked eye. Vicky and Colin from the Fox and Hounds have asked the society to host the star party events as well as giving indoor presentations for the people staying in the inn for the weekend.
Evening Dinner at a discounted rate can be provided for those members assisting with the event, ie. transport, telescopes and other equipment, but this will be dependent on numbers as places are limited, so please contact Mark at the earliest opportunity if you are intending to come along. For further information please click this link.
Early weather forecasts for the Hooks house event initially looked rather unfavourable, however, predicted heavy showers failed to materialise and by late afternoon it looked more likely skies would clear and so it proved.
It was not though the balmy conditions we had enjoyed just a week earlier for the bank holiday, the northern air mass brought with it a decided chill, the kind that a warm padded coat only alleviated.
Having already dropped off a couple of telescopes at Hook’s house during the afternoon, there was enough additional transport on hand in the evening (Barbara and Mark and Lee) to ferry over the remaining instruments and personnel to the campsite, where we were joined by Paul Wood and his daughter as well as Paul Cass.
Having set up the equipment on the adjacent field to the main campsite, the six scopes deployed, including the LX 200 complete with new hand controller, keith’s GOTO dobsonian, the two ‘non goto’ dobs already left on site, together with John L’s scope, Lee’s reflector and Paul woods scope, all made for an impressive, array. Certainly enough aperture to fully exploit the transparent skies. The campsite was almost full, and once word filtered around the field, a decent sized crowd began to gather behind the instruments.
The two main visible planets; Saturn and Jupiter, were naturally our first targets, both showing detail not apparent from the West Cliff. It came as no surprise that people were bowled over by the vista, after all, who tires of the rings of Saturn? One major difference from the previous week, when the observing location had been from the west cliff, was the superb appearance of deep sky objects. Little scrutiny was required through the eyepiece to appreciate the selected deep sky wonders. The Ring Nebula, Dumbbell, M13, M31, the double cluster, M11, M92, M5, M15, et al, all were so much brighter. Perhaps best of all was the unmistakable soft glow of the Milky Way, which could be traced from horizon to horizon with the , dark the northern rift in Cygnus, clearly evident.
Several laser point tours were conducted, with constellation recognition made so much easier by the dark conditions. By 22:15h, some two hours after the first views of Jupiter, the chill finally began to take its toll thinning out the crowd to the die-hards and late-comers. It had been a rewarding and satisfying evening much appreciated by the campers. Here’s looking forward to next year.
The following three Saturday evening star party events from the West Cliff, had varying success.
The event on the 7th proved reasonable, The following Saturday (14th October) cloud prevented any direct observations although, the rising moon adjacent to the Abbey was a hit with the photographers until it disappeared in cloud.
14-Sep-2019: Moon Rise. Photo by Mark. See the Gallery for all Star Party images.
Our final ‘cliff event’ on the 21st went ahead in a brisk breeze, a pity as seeing conditions were excellent, with views of Saturn particular pleasing given its low altitude. Telescope Go-to duties were performed by Keith’s Dobsonian, with Mark’s two manual Dobs also in operation. Public involvement was steady, but not hectic, that said a few new members may have been picked up.
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!
Plan B was therefore an indoor presentation at their meeting venue, but as this was the main hall of the Whitby Pavilion, it did add another dimension to what was possible.
On arrival Mark and Keith were given a warm welcome by Heather and Mandy in the hall and given time to ‘set up’ the equipment and demonstration aids whilst the ladies saw to WI business for the evening.
Utilising the size of the hall, and with aid from WI members, various scale demonstrations of planetary solar system and stellar distances were performed with much encouragement from the side lines
Following a tea break, in which several rather delicious slices of home baked cake were consumed, our various examples of meteorite and tektites were passed around before Mark a gave a short (for him) power point presentation on the various types of wondrous objects astronomers observe.
We only overran for 5 minutes. It was an enjoyable evening and from later feedback, much appreciated by the WI members, with a few expressing an interest in perhaps joining the WDAS.
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.
On arrival we were warmly greeted, but deciding it was still too risky erect the scopes outside, we quickly unloaded and set up ‘plan B’ in the hall. It was great to meet fellow member and village elder John Randles again, along with a number of other residents who had come along, not as many as usual, but perhaps the weather had deterred. Utilising the Starry Night Pro program, Mark toured the night sky showing what was visible, but also kept half an eye on the conditions outside. Fortune was with us as skies cleared. The Dobsonians were erected and within 5 minutes or so we were unexpectedly observing Saturn, much to the joy of all attending.
Keith saw a bright meteor and shortly after, another one was witnessed by nearly all present. The ring nebula looked bright and crisp, as did M13 in Hercules. Alberio appeared very colourful and the Andromeda galaxy looked massive, with M32 and 110 very evident. It was undecided as to whether comet Africano W2 was actually spotted through the 10” dob, Mark was sure it was, everyone else said something about spec savers. Another meteor streaked down toward the SW horizon, and as we were packing up, the ISS appeared in the same direction. Things had turned out far better than expected, or foreseen and everyone was highly delighted with the evening. Pity all those who missed out thinking that the weather would be awful. You just never know sometimes.
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 2nd. The public book to attend the event, but places at the Danby Moors Centre are limited to 60. The event is due to start at 18:30h and therefore we are looking to be on site by 18:00h (setting off no later than 17:45h).
Personnel and transportation is therefore requested, as we would like to field 6-8 scopes dependant on the weather. Plan B is always waiting in the wings, ie a presentation indoors. Should the forecast be so awful, the event will be cancelled- though we shall have to wait until a few days before to make sense of the forecasts.
This year’s summer star party season was kind of a reverse to last year. The early and middle parts were particularly plagued by ill-timed spells of unsettled weather, most of which settled over us on scheduled event evenings!
Our Regatta events hardly got off the ground, although strong winds certainly carried plenty of other stuff off the ground. There were no sunspots again and the Perseids were clouded out, as well as subjected to strong moonlight.
Folk week events fared better, but were not vintage, however both the Bank holiday events proved very popular held in very un-bank holiday type conditions.
Hook’s House was excellent and Westerdale. To summarise, well a bit of a struggle really, certainly until late August when matters improved. But it’s only a C- this year
Events
Caedmon College Normanby Site (you may know it as Whitby College or Whitby School), Room H1.
In Members' monthly meetings we usually take a tour of the night sky for the coming month using the Planetarium program. Have talks and presentations on various topics of astronomy/space etc, and discuss future events etc. New members welcome.
A Public Star Party, weather permitting, near the Captain Cook monument on West Cliff (setting-up from 20:30hrs).
Solar & Lunar Observations.
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.
