Whitby & District Astronomical Society

Open to society members and public alike from October through to April, Sunday evening is reserved for observations from the Bruce Observatory, Whitby School - weather and access permitting.  Unless you are fortunate to observe from a part of the world where the percentage of clear nights is high, observing on a set date and time period in the winter is most likely to be falsely optimistic, especially in the UK.  Looking back at recent years 70 - 80% of Sunday observing evenings have fallen by the wayside, our potential observing window on the universe blighted by poor conditions and sometimes other factors. Still, we persevere and on those occasions the weather gods relent allowing celestial quarry to be aligned in the eyepiece of the 5" f15 vintage Cooke refractor, evenings can be truly memorable. 

The number of October dates had already been reduced for various reasons; however, one factor we had not bargained on was site accessibility, the school having changed the card keycode access making ours invalid. We were locked out! Fortunately, cloud, wind and rain on relevant dates ensured there would have been no observations anyway.  

Having sorted access to the site (albeit limited) November offered little improvement weatherwise (at least on Sunday), although observations were attempted at the start of the month. We then recalled an issue with the weighted clockwork drive system - it wasn't driving. Despite investigations into this involving part uncoupling and dismantling of the drive box, a satisfactory outcome was not forthcoming. The telescope can still be used manually, without the Victorian 'GOTO' system in operation.  It's a case of fixing this in daylight hours when we have access to the site.  On another note (becoming exceedingly monotonous), weather conditions on Sunday evenings continued to be unsettled with both Nov 16th and 23rd clouded out. However, Nov 30th eventually turned clear allowing observations to be made. More on this next month. Maybe December will see a change in fortune! 

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 19:00hrs, 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 07886069339.