The Star party event for Sept 9th was a strange affair, held at the end of the hottest day of the year nationwide and in conditions still warm and humid at 20:00hrs.  Mark and Brian joined Keith and Lee on the West Cliff claiming the few vacant parking spaces left.  Four scopes were deployed: the 300mm (12"), 250mm (10"), Lee's (6") 150mm reflector and the short focal length 100mm (4") Helios refractor.  Keith and Mark had re-collimated the two dobsonians a few days previous and were keen to show improvements made in image sharpness at a star party event.

Not surprisingly sky clarity was not that forecast with thunder clouds to the south of the district, but projected to push into the North Sea missing Whitby.  More dark clouds were gathered up the coast over Teesside, but overhead, to the north, parts of the west and east, skies were reasonably clear, so we pressed on.                                  

Mark taking a peek at the Andromeda Galaxy  
Image -Keith D (Click for full image)

Having set up 'shop' in bright twilight, people were intrigued to see something through a telescope.  Those first 'somethings' were the stars Vega and Arcturus, followed by Mizar & Alcor and Albireo.  Sky clarity came and went, but our prime target Saturn remained hidden in cloud.  As twilight deepened cloud above the SE horizon became increasingly illuminated by lightning, still distant, but seemingly edging ever closer.  Although no thunder could be heard.

People came and went, as did the targeted objects.  The Andromeda Galaxy was tracked down looking reasonable through the eyepiece, but was not at its best.  Just as we were contemplating calling it a night Saturn appeared from nowhere.  Quickly re-aligning the scopes toward it, image quality was surprisingly decent considering the approaching volatile air, and people were delighted just to glimpse Saturn as it faded in and out before finally disappearing.  A similar fate befell Vega, Altair, and Deneb, as flashes of lightening grew in frequency all around and cloud cover increased obscuring all but a few stars to the north.  It was now time to call it a night and after reloading the equipment back into the vehicles we had a final scan around the sky before departing.  Back at Mark’s the cars had only just been unloaded when raindrops began to fall, a close call.  

The scheduled event on the 16th coincided with low cloud, breezy conditions, and choppy seas, not surprisingly we didn’t trouble the cliff that night. 

The final event on 23 September from the West Cliff had to called off as Mark could not make it.  Annoyingly, although the forecast had suggested cloud cover, the early evening was fine and would have been satisfactory for viewing the very low Moon.  That said, cloud did build somewhat later, so it may have been a truncated event anyway.  At least no advertising placard had been put out on the Cliff.

And so, our summer schedule concluded. There had been some very successful and enjoyable evenings, but overall, it was a mixed bag of affairs.  Many thanks to WDAS members for their assistance, Brian, John, Keith, and Lee in particular.