Whitby & District Astronomical Society

Foiled by overcast skies last year, and given the mixed summer experienced this, we hoped conditions for the 2023 Hook's House event, one of the main highlights on our Astro-calendar, would be favourable.  If the event had been scheduled for Friday 1st, we would have been disappointed again, but the cloudy, damp, conditions that evening and early on Saturday 2nd gave way to the predicted sunny and mild conditions forecast with a clear evening expected.

Mark was optimistic, ignoring the early morning drizzle, dropping off equipment at Hook's House by 9:30am.  By late morning cloud was slowly being pushed away into the North Sea and the long-promised return of summer finally took shape with predominantly clear skies by late afternoon.  
Having swung round by Mark's to assist loading, Brian and Mark joined John, Keith, Lee already over at Hook's House Campsite by 7:50pm - Lee having picked up John and Keith.  The observing location was the grazing meadow in front of the House overlooking the 'Bay'.  The observing suite consisted of; 12",10", and 6" dobsonians, Lee's 6" reflector, John's ETX and the Helios 4" refractor.  Unfortunately, the equatorial mount for Lee's reflector was not tightening and six instruments became five before the start.  By 8:10pm all was ready. 

Given that it was final weekend of the summer holidays, the campsite itself was still full, and having set out the publicity placards that morning, the few people watching us deploy the telescopes soon swelled and continued to grow once word had filtered around the field.  With twilight falling Mark used the time to pass round the meteorite collection, much to the excitement of many then present. 

Stars began to emerge, the usual suspects - Arcturus, Vega, Deneb, Altair etc, but not our primary target, Saturn.  Hazy cloud banks were drifting around, and skies were not as transparent as we would have liked, but you work with what you are given, so Albireo, Mizar and Alcor, epsilon lyra (the double-double), Polaris, made good alternatives. 

Eventually Saturn appeared, much to the relief and delight of all present. Queues formed to look at the 'ringed wonder', the image through the eyepiece being pleasing with steady 'seeing'.  With the tilt of the rings closing, the Cassini division was not evident, unlike Titan, Saturn's chief moon, which was seen as a speck nearby to the astonishment of many peeking through the eyepiece.  

As skies darkened fully, Mark was able to conduct a superficial constellation sky tour with the laser pointer, although high level cloud in places made it harder than it should have been.  Unlike on many occasions, the Milky Way could not be discerned.  

A major factor why deep sky objects appeared fainter soon became apparent, increased light pollution - not from the site, but from the rising Moon, then three days after Full.  Scopes were turned toward our near neighbour, people were awed by the craters, mountains, lunar rays.  Our Moon is a wondrous object to those not having seen it through a telescope before.

Another instrument was then decommissioned, Keith’s 12” dobsonian suffering from poor collimation noticeable through the eyepiece. This rectified later that week.  As proceeding wound down somewhat, the fuzzy glow of Jupiter appeared unexpectedly above the hedgerow to the east.  The view was poor, but the banding and several Galilean moons were just about visible.  People were still impressed.  By 22:15h, the crowd began to dwindle, thinning out to just a few. It had been a rewarding and satisfying evening much appreciated by the campers.

Many thanks to fellow members and of course to the Halder's and all at Hook's House for their continued support at this much cherished event.