Whitby & District Astronomical Society

With Mars at opposition this month, the most favourable until 2035, the opportunity to view the Red Planet is too good pass up on.. [Read more about Mars Observation Evenings. ]

It's looking increasingly unlikely a Society meeting will be held in October. [Read more about Society Monthly Meetings - October's Cancelled]

...A frustrating time for all concerned .. [Read more about West Cliff Star Party Reports and Overall Summer Assessment. ]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter & Saturn, Neptune & Uranus, Venus, Mars (at Opposition)
• October 2020 Sky Charts

Thanks to Members for some stunning pictures of The Moon, Jupiter, and the house across the street[...] [Read more about Member Images in September 2020]

We will soon sadly be losing one of the stalwarts of the society shortly: Andy Lawrence.  I say sadly, but for Andy and his wife, Anne, it is the start of a whole new exciting chapter in their lives as they move up to Scotland by October[...] [Read more about Andy Lawrence]

Hook's House Event - 22nd August 2020

Planned as our first real outdoor ...outreach event, it was hoped conditions would play ball for our annual pilgrimage over to Hook’s house[...]

Westerdale Event

As of ‘going to keyboard’, we haven’t yet officially had a date confirmed for the annual Westerdale star party event, but it certainly will not be in September[...]

Monthly Meetings Recommence??

WDAS monthly meetings may also possibly re- start in October, but to be honest we won’t know whether it will be feasible until after the college goes back and settled down[...] [Read more about Coming Society Events]

No.

Cancelled earlier in the year, a casualty to the Covid 19 pandemic, this year’s Whitby Regatta (had it gone ahead) would still have been a huge disappointment weather-wise with cloudy, misty and damp conditions prevailing across the weekend.  I very much doubt whether we would have even ventured onto the West Cliff at all, such were the leaden skies.  Some things never change[...] [Read more about Regatta 2020 – Did we miss out?]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter & Saturn, Mars, Neptune & Uranus, Venus (with Beehive).
• September 2020 Sky Charts

Having graced our skies throughout most of July after brightening far more than predicted, comet NEOWISE is currently residing in Coma Berenices.

Discovered in late March by the Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, aka NEOWISE launched by NASA in 2009, comet NEOWISE became readily visible to the naked eye shortly after rounding the Sun in early July.  The comet was visible low to the north during the short hours of semidarkness in the twilight skies from approximately 23:00h until 02:45h[...] [Read more about Member Images of Comet Neowise]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter & Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Mars, Venus, Mercury.
• Meteors: Perseids
• Comet F3 Neowise
• Noctilucent Cloud
• August 2020 Sky Charts

Think this may have always been a challenge to view Venus’ occultation by the waning moon. And so it proved.  The day itself was much improved on the previous 8 or 9 days and I had some optimism that something would be viewed.  The start of the occultation occurred at 08:38h from Whitby, so with compass, tape measure, binoculars and camera on hand... [Read more about Venus Occultation by The Moon (by Mark Dawson)]

Lockdown measures continue to eased, but I think that July is still too early and impractical to host a star party. It will actually be rather light anyway until the end of July. I think therefore we shall revisit the situation in a month’s time as it may be possible to host a few star parties in August... [Read more about WDAS Diary: July-August 2020]

In this month's edition:

• Planetary Skylights: Jupiter & Saturn (Opposition), Mars, Venus, Mercury.
• Meteors: Lyrids, Virginids, alpha Scorpiids
• Comets
• Noctilucent Cloud Watch
• July 2020 Sky Charts

They say June's Full Moon got its name as it's the month when wild strawberries begin to ripen.  ('Evidently not named by a Canary Islander!' --Andi)  Be that as it may, Mark has been out in force to take some photos for you pleasure and delight.  So ('Odd-one-out' round) which of these Moons is Mark's teaser?

  [Read more about Strawberry Moon]