Following a particularly fine and settled spell - would mother nature continue to smile upon us for the 'solstice' star party event in June, or would she snarl and bare her teeth... [Read more about Star Party - Report - June]
In this month's edition:
After a rather poor spring - too often cloudy, our first scheduled star party of the 'summer recess' on May 26th from the West Cliff coincided with an improvement in the general weather pattern. A few society members, and the odd holiday maker took advantage. [Read more about Star Party - Report and Schedule ]
In last month’s ‘In Focus’ article we explored how the system of stellar classification evolved over the early part of the 20th Century, to the systems used today. In this article we shall look how stellar classification is employed in the most important diagrammatical tool in Astrophysics, the H-R diagram.
In this month's edition:
June Meteors and NCC
The 'Welcome in Spring' Star Party at the Fox and Hounds - Ainthorpe, on Friday April 7th, unfortunately fell victim to cloud. [Read more about Fox and Hounds - Spring Evening under the Stars clouds ]
Monthly meetings of the WDAS occur on the first Tuesday of each month from October to May, college opening hours and holidays permitting. You can locate us at Caedmon College - Normanby Campus. We have one meeting left - on May 16th - not the 2nd as stated last month. [Read more about Monthly Meeting in May Rescheduled ]
Stars come in many flavours, temperature, luminosity, mass, size, element composition, all are factors which combine to indicate what sort of a star it is and where it lies on its evolutionary journey. A glance at a stars classification 'ID nameplate' can therefore tell us a great deal about that star. So, how do we go about understanding the spectral classification system? [Read more about Stellar Classification ]
In this month's edition:
Monthly meetings of the WDAS occur on the first Tuesday of each month from October to May, college opening hours and holidays permitting. You can locate us at Caedmon College - Normanby Campus. Due to the Easter holidays and teacher training days at the college, there is no meeting in April, the next one being on May 2nd from 19:30hrs. [Read more about Society Monthly Meetings and Observatory Open Nights ]
The lighter evenings of April offer up an interesting stellar challenge, testing the observing dexterity of star gazers - casual or otherwise.
[Read more about The Stellar Baker's Dozen Challenge - 2023]
The Fox and Hounds at Ainthorpe are hosting a 'Welcome Spring' Star Party evening on Friday April 7th. Run along similar lines as the 'Evening under the Stars' event last October, it promises to be a cracking evening.
[Read more about Fox and Hounds - Spring Evening under the Stars ]
In this month's edition:
The Dark Skies event at Danby Moors Centre hosted this year by Richard Darn with outside assistance from WDAS, looked for better sky conditions than the previous year when cloud prevented observations. So would our luck change?
[Read more about Danby Moors Centre – Dark Sky Event - The Curse of the Cloud II]
The final event of the Feb-mid term period found us closer to home, Whitby Youth Hostel, where an expectant party were hoping for a walk under the stars. Were they in luck?
| Sun | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| Actual | 05:03 | 20:54 |
| Civil Twilight | 04:17 | 21:39 |
| Nautical Twilight | 03:12 | 22:44 |
| Astronomical Twilight |
| Moon | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| 03:10 | 13:49 |
