The ‘summer ‘ star party season is almost upon us and as per other years we shall be hosting events from the Cpt Cook headland area on West Cliff; and some from the Archery green area later in the summer. [Read more about Event Horizon: future Star Party events]
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)]
Our Solar System has some pockmarked, weird and contorted moons. Let's have a lok at a few of them.
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.
Astronomers have a couple of ideas about where these features come from... [Read more about Three of the Strangest Moons in our Solar System]
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. [Read more about Event Horizon – future Star party events]
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... [Read more about Eskdale School Night]
It's been a big news week for space, so let's have a round-up in the Newsletter.
All being well Paul is set to return to Whitby in May. The venue will be the college main hall (Whitby college as was) May 9th is the date ‘inked in’ and we will be looking to start around 19:30pm. No definite topic as yet, although Paul has suggested an updated talk on Voyager, to coincide with its 40th anniversary since launch. [Read more about Paul Money Lecture 2017]
It's going to be a busy late-March and into April.
- and possibly more... [Read more about Star party, Visits and Events]
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.
There were certainly plenty of them, so they had to be split into two groups. The demos went well and no scouts were lost in the sea. [Read more about Boggle Hole Event(s)]
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... [Read more about The Spring Equinox]
| Sun | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| Actual | 05:50 | 20:12 |
| Civil Twilight | 05:11 | 20:51 |
| Nautical Twilight | 04:21 | 21:41 |
| Astronomical Twilight | 03:20 | 22:42 |
| Moon | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| 13:57 | 04:51 |
