We announced in our December Newsletter that the Society's new and improved web site should be available to peruse by the time our December notes reach you, and here it is!  Andi Ye and his team have done a sterling job building the new site, which has many new features.

There will be regular new content on all sorts of subjects, so bookmark the site in your browser, and keep coming back!  And it's not just a one-way information feed: you're welcome to add your comments to any article and start a discussion.  You can post anonymously or - better yet - create yourself an account and enjoy full site access.

Here's where we're trying to take the website:

  • Sky Notes: Features of this month's sky... planets, comets and meteor showers to look out for; and where and when to find them.
  • Society News: Up-coming events, and write-ups what WDAS Members have been up to.
  • In the News: A pointer to interesting TV programmes, news and media articles about astronomy and cosmology.
  • Telescope Garage: Building up a collection of articles to help you choose a telescope, or get the one working which visitors to our Star Parties regularly tell us they have sitting in their garage.
  • Cosmology Corner: We're in a Golden Age of Cosmology, where every week brings new discoveries and insights into our universe.  Follow Cosmology Corner month-by-month to learn a bit more about cosmology than you find in news articles.  Cosmology Corner articles will bring together our own explanations with the best videos and resources from the web.
  • Chemical Kitchen: Another developing section of articles, this one on the make-up of the Unverse: covering everything from the staggeringly distant (what happens in black holes and supa-novae; and how our sun burns) to the phenomenally small (what holds apart the atoms in our bodies and even what they're made of).
  • Speculation Patio: This series will cover current theories that will either make it into tomorrow's science, or onto the junk pile of mis-placed ideas. 
  • Messier Room: in WDAS star parties and Observatory sessions you will see galaxies, double-stars, star clusters and nebulae.  Most were catalogued by a French Astronomer called Charles Messier.  In this section you'll be able to review the tiny images you've seen in our telescopes, learn where in the sky to re-visit them, see them in their full beauty with images taken from space telescopes, and video explanations from expert astronomers.
  • Moon Phases: See a full calendar of the moon's passage through the skies.
  • Gallery: This is where we'll post our own pictures from star parties, events and our own observations.
  • Events: WDAS has a regular calendar of star parties, talks from visiting speakers, trips, open observing sessions and Member meetings.
  • Links: when we find an fascinating web resource we'll post it on our Links page.
  • And finally, thanks to Ed McCarren for making the extended Date and Time module included on the homepage, where you'll be able to find the today's sun and moon rising and setting times.