It is almost 50 years since man last walked on the Moon, but on August 29th NASA's Artemis 1 mission stood ready on launch pad 39B - the same pad used for the Apollo missions, ready to make that initial step in returning humans back to the Moon and beyond. However ... [Read more about Artemis Foul(ed) Up ]
Monthly meetings of WDAS will resume at Caedmon College - Normanby Campus on Tuesday
October 4th from 19:30hrs. [Read more about Society Monthly Meetings Resume and Observatory Open Nights. ]
Weather permitting; Autumn 2022 should be a busy period with plenty on offer to observe and some excellent locations to observe from. We start at Hook's House Campsite...
In this month's edition:
Whitby Regatta; so often coincides with a mixed, unsettled weather, but with near heat wave conditions forecast this year confidence in hosting a full programme of Regatta events was high. So did matters work out that way ... well not quite. [Read more about August Events - Regatta - A retrospective view. ]
August tends to be a busy month - skies are darker earlier for one reason. Decent, warm conditions are another factor and we have some planets to observe now. Would cloud stay away, or spoil the party. [Read more about Star Party Reports -Aug 6th, 20th, 26th & 28th ]
A new astro-convention will take place this October organised by Brian Jones, editor of the Yearbook of Astronomy. Called the Yearbook of Astronomy Convention, it will feature guest speakers and is hoped to become an anual event ... [Read more about Yearbook of Astronomy Convention - 2022-update]
Following a three month initial instrument shakedown period 
the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) science team have released the first slew of images from the $10 billion telescope... and boy, was the wait worth it. [Read more about James Webb - Initial Images ]
August is expected to be somewhat busier on the star party front than the past two months, with darker skies and planetary offerings - weather permitting.
Due to circumstances beyond our control; ie light evenings and lack of planets, star parties have been few and far between. That said a successful event on July 9th, meant a 100% star party success rate this summer ... [Read more about Star Party - Report ]
In this month's edition:
Brian Jones, the Editor of the Yearbook of Astronomy has organised a convention, called the Yearbook of Astronomy Convention, which he hopes will become an annual event and will include guest speakers... [Read more about Yearbook of Astronomy Convention - 2022]
By late July, evenings gradually become darker once again, allowing more time for observers to explore and appreciate the summer night sky.
The brightest stars emerge around 22:15h: isolated jewels dotted around the heavens. Of these, three form a large asterism known as the 'Summer Triangle', visible in UK skies until well into autumn. The three stars, Altair, Deneb and Vega, are all bright, main sequence stars, but of very different nature.. [Read more about The Summer Triangle Stars ]
So often clouded out, rained off, even blown away, our first scheduled star party of the summer on June 11th from the West Cliff coincided with some fine evening conditions, allowing some fine views of the waxing gibbous moon, and to test out some equipment ...sort of. [Read more about Star Party - Report and Schedule ]
In this month's edition:
| Sun | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| Actual | 05:56 | 20:13 |
| Civil Twilight | 05:17 | 20:52 |
| Nautical Twilight | 04:27 | 21:41 |
| Astronomical Twilight | 03:28 | 22:41 |
| Moon | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| 19:12 | 01:00 |
