Welcome to the WDAS monthly newsletter for September 2017: 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!
Society News
Tonight (Sept 1st) is Hooks House night, so if you read this in time and are planning on coming over, weather permitting we aim to be there for around 20:00h. The Moon will be just after First Quarter, Saturn will still be quite well placed, so there should be something on offer for all (weather permitting) and if so it should be a cracking evening.
Our annual pilgrimage to Westerdale will take place on Sept 15th. As it’s starting to get dark earlier, it is planned to be at the village hall by 19:45h, allowing a little time to set up the scopes. We shall be setting off from Mark’s house on Laburnum Grove for 19:15h. We always receive a very friendly welcome and I’m sure John Randles will be on hand to muster the locals. Let us hope the weather is similar to the previous few years, when fine clear skies have been the order.
Image: TimeAndDate.com
Unless you had stopped up all night, the chances of spotting any shooting stars from our neighbourhood were pretty negligible. The waning gibbous moon would have drowned out most, however cloud cover obscured all! Apparently it did break up sometime in the early morning hours, allowing moonlight to drown out any late meteors. Super!
So, what did Mother Nature have in store for this year’s Regatta – the usual mixture of inclement dross, incorrect forecasts and a blank white disk to look at for hours on end! Well, at least any likely showers would fall on a new gazebo, purchased just a few days prior. The old one requires major (but not insurmountable) work to rectify various issues – particularly with the strut frame work – so we thought a new one would be the better option for now.
It was unpacked and erected on the Saturday afternoon, an hour before our solar event was due to start. Saturday, although actually quite sunny, was let down by a nagging breeze, met office speak for a blustery gale at least that’s what it felt like sometimes. Still, if you can erect a gazebo in conditions like that, it should be a doddle in calm weather. Keith and Mark battled on and surprisingly had the thing up in less than 15minutes, pegged and tethered down.
Our colleague Marcus from Grover Optics was once again pitched adjacent, with the birds of prey eyeing up the un wary on the other side.
Having set up ‘shop’ with scopes and posters etc it was time to see what, if anything was on the sun. Wow! Not a blank, disk, but a decent grouping of sunspots occupying the equatorial region, a fine sight indeed and one that people could appreciate for once.
Clouds, people and our flyers came and went, the A4 flyers gaining their wings during a particularly blustery period, plastering cars, bikes, people, babies alike across in crescent garden. Fortunately people ran, fetched and retrieved (a bit like Marcus’s new Border collie) and within 5 minutes all the literature was securely nailed down to the table.
Saturday evening was meant to be the clear night... it wasn’t, but strangely all was not lost with a clearing to the SW allowing views of Saturn, much to the delight of the ‘party goers. Eventually the cloud cover did fragment, allowing observations of a few deep sky objects, the LX having its first run out this season.
Sunday afternoon – was much calmer, and erecting the gazebo was indeed a doddle, but the high hazy cloud robbed us of the clarity of the solar disk we had enjoyed on the Saturday.
The forecast was not encouraging for the Sunday evening – cloud cover would continue to build, preventing any observations whatsoever. Well, cloud did build up, slowing marching across the sky. Then the subsiding breeze swung round to the ESE and lo and behold the cloud fragmented and marched off again. So having expected to preside over a ‘cloud party’ the LX and several members were called into action for what turned out to be a half decent event.
Mark ventured up to assist Marcus on the Monday afternoon, and tried a little solar viewing with one of his spotting scopes and our ETX solar filter. The sunspot group was evolving nicely. Tentative plans had been made to train a scope on the setting sun that evening to observe the 4% partial solar eclipse, but in the end thicker cloud prevented any chance of doing this, but at least we could enjoy the NASA on line streaming of the total eclipse tracking across the US. So, Regatta, in summary 7 out of 10 I guess.
Images: taken by Mark - 20-Aug-2017, 12:15h.
Astronomy fever gripped America in August, where millions were treated to a total solar eclipse. And WDAS was also invited to join in, by a website visitor from Whitby (Ontario), wondering what events we had planned.
Although Regatta Monday was laid on in celebration, or otherwise, the 5% eclipse in Whitby (North Yorkshire) was less exciting to behold, particularly as it was hidden from view by thick cloud.
However Andi and Héctor's friend and colleague, Javier, captured this imagen evocadora from his home in Gran Canaria. Thanks to Javier for letting us publish it here. (Click photo for larger image.)
Unusually for Folk Week it didn’t rain every single day, in fact Wednesday (Egton show day) was the only bad day... and it was bad, and dark, very dark, sort of total eclipse dark with apocalyptic rain for several hours. Prospects for the evening star party therefore looked encouraging.
Come the evening, the day’s storm was just a memory and clear skies were now overhead. Keith, Lee and Mark made the most of them. Saturn was the main target... appearing a little higher than anticipated and not behind the Royal Hotel as feared, at least not for a while anyway. The image was surprisingly steady, and caused much excitement, especially when Titan was pointed out. Once Saturn was hidden, our favourite deep sky objects were centred in the eyepiece, the transparent conditions allowing great views, much appreciated by the visiting host.
Mark did a solo party the following evening, although conditions were not as clear with slightly milky skies, people were still impressed with the views of Saturn, deep sky objects were though harder to appreciate.
Given that this event was organised for a bank holiday weekend, it was pleasantly surprising to plan for the evening with a high degree of confidence of clear skies. Mark, Andi and Keith made the journey over to Northcliffe holiday park at Hawsker, (Andi and Keith checking out Seaview park en-route), three scopes packed including the LX 200. Once we had negotiated the bollard and gate (don’t ask) leading to the football field, the instruments were set up and we prepared for a great evening’s observation.
The location was great for our purposes – clear aspects, flat ground and plenty of it so that we could demonstrate the scaled solar system. This played well with the attendee’s...estimated to be around 40.
The crescent moon was our first port of call, shortly followed by Saturn, which was unhindered from obstructions. Both objects drew gasps. As twilight deepened, it was obvious that ‘seeing’ would be very good for a coastal location. Attention turned to deep sky objects, The Ring nebula (M57) looked magnificent, brighter, with so much more detail present. The same was true for all the objects targeted, making it a real joy for people experiencing their first views of such deep sky wonders.
Mark conducted a tour of the night sky, borrowing Keith’s laser pointer for the purpose having stupidly left his own at home...Dohh!
With conditions fully dark, the Milky Way was clearly visible to the naked eye, arcing across the sky from NE to SW.
It has to be said it was a pleasure to be out under the stars, an experience shared by all present and stayed on. By 23:00h it was time to pack up – thank our hosts Andy and Sophie who had organised the event at the site. We all expressed a desire to host another one – making it a regular event perhaps. Watch this space.
Having finally made contact with Paul, we have pencilled in a date for his postponed talk. Unfortunately it will be 2018 before Paul can make it as he running a WEA course until March of 2018. He then only had a few available dates on a Tuesday left, so we have plumped for Tuesday May 8th. We are assuming that all being well the venue will be the college hall, but we will confirm this and the presentation topic in due course.
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.
