Open to society members and public alike from October through to April, Sunday evenings are reserved for observations from the Bruce Observatory, Whitby School - weather and access permitting.  Planning observations on fixed dates and times during a UK winter is always challenging and in recent years 70-80% of Sunday observing evenings have fallen foul of weather conditions. Still, we persevere and on those occasions the weather gods relent, evenings with the 5" f15 vintage Cooke refractor can be truly memorable.

The Bruce Observatory. (Click for larger image)

A positive start to March with Sunday 1st partly clear, allowing some observations to be carried out - although these were somewhat hit and miss. Jupiter looked reasonable but light from an almost full Moon did nothing for the appearance of the Orion nebula - the trapezium stars could still be resolved though. 

Handheld phone camera image of Jupiter and family through eyepiece.
Image - John L. (Click for larger image)

Sunday 8th March proved too cloudy for observations, no need to venture up as skies were obviously overcast. It looked as though the following Sunday would follow suit - at least according to the forecast.  However, skies on 15th March cleared by 7pm, with Keith, John and Mark hoping any rogue showers would miss the area.

WDAS members and Cooke refractor. (Click for larger image)

Opening just the one dome flap, Jupiter was our initial target once the scope had been orientated correctly. The view was exceptional - bettering the view the previous evening at Danby Lodge through the C11 scope. We assumed, correctly, as it turned out, sky conditions to be much steadier. Even at high magnification (7.5mm eyepiece) the image of Jupiter was still relatively sharp with good contrast and detail, items missing the night before and noted by all three of us. 

Moving to the Orion nebula, good nebula cloud structure was evident, with the trapezium cluster appearing like tiny diamonds. The view in the C11 had bettered this, as it should with an extra 6” aperture. To check how steady and clear the sky was (the ‘seeing’), we used Castor in Gemini as a test case. Both main components obvious, sharp and clearly defined even at low magnification.

After a quick look at M35 in Gemini, our final target, Uranus, proved more elusive to track down but we succeeded in the end. The green/grey disk tiny in comparison to that of Jupiter. Cloud did then spill in from the west, curtailing the session, a decent one all the same.  

The following Sunday reverted to type – cloudy.  For the final Sunday in March, Mark was away enjoying a Dark Skies' stay in a shepherd’s hut near Whenby. Conditions were showery and a gibbous Moon tended to drown out stars anyway, but you could see why the Howardian Hills may one day become part of the Dark Sky reserve. Fact finding research and retirement gift rolled into one! 

'red light mode'. (Click for larger image)

Please note: the school drive gate operates via an electronic card/key code which only certain WDAS members can access. If conditions look promising and you are intending to come along, please be at the top of Whitby School drive for 20:15hrs, or contact Mark with a pre-arranged arrival time, otherwise you may have to use a method of attracting our attention in the observatory.

If unsure of weather conditions and observing viability, please contact Mark on 07886 069339.

April dates scheduled are 5th and 12th from 8:15pm.