Whitby & District Astronomical Society

From October to April, each Sunday evening is reserved for observations from the Bruce Observatory - Whitby.  Weather permitting.  This potential observing window on the universe is open to society members and public alike...conditions allowing.  If you sense some cautionary note being introduced, you are not wrong.  The brutal truth of observing in the UK on set nights is fraught with the likelyhood of our weather intervening and probably 60% - 70% of Sunday evenings are non-observing evenings.  Rain, cloud, snow, gales etc all take their toll.  Some seasons yield just 5 or 6 occasions on which we actually do get to observe through the 5" vintage Cooke refractor.  But when conditions are right and our celestial quarry is aligned in the cross hairs, evenings can be truly memorable. 

The focal ration of the 5" Cook refractor is around f15, so the images yielded for any given eyepiece are quite large. Only when 'seeing' is exceptional are higher powers employed, but normally magnifications of above 120x-150x in the UK are pointless, magnifying poor atmospherics only. We have found that 12 -13mm eyepieces used on the Cooke produce the optimum 'high magnification' image pleasing to the eye.

The number of October dates had already been reduced for various reasons, but the remaining two scheduled Sunday dates both fell foul of the British weather, but for very differnt reasons.  The first scheduled event (Oct 13th) was typically clouded out, however for Sunday 20th after storm Ashley had passed through earlier in the day, the evening became clear and mild.  Ideal for observations, yes, no!  The wind was too strong to open the flaps of the observatory dome, although we did check in on the observatory, deposit some books and inspect the scope.  October then was not a great start!  Let us hope November improves. Dates are Nov 3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th all from 7pm.  

Please note: the school drive gate now operates via an electric key code which only certain WDAS members can access.  If you are intending to come along, please be there for 19:00hrs, or contact Mark with a pre-arranged arrival time, you may have to use flashlights and beep car horn (if in vehicle), or shout very loudly from top of drive to attract our attention as the gates will be closed!