Whitby & District Astronomical Society

Sited within Caedmon College grounds (formally Whitby College, formally Whitby School) the Bruce Observatory is home to a vintage 5", long focal length Cooke refractor dating back to latter part of the 19th century.  It is excellent for Lunar and planetary observations as well as double or multiple star work.  

Sunday evenings from October through to April (barring a few dates) are scheduled for observations.  In practice however, skies above the North Yorkshire coast have yielded just a 15% success rate over this last open night period, in short - it has been a struggle!  Predictably scheduled April dates also fell victim to our glorious spring weather and bad timing.  In two years, we have had just 10 open nights at which observations have taken place.  You would like to think with the law of averages - matters would improve, but with climate change, who knows? 

A few images from the previous months - taken through the Cooke refractor.