Whitby & District Astronomical Society

The afternoon of October 24th had been a gloriously sunny one - hardly a cloud in the sky and as afternoon turned to early evening skies remained clear.  We were looking forward then to the school visit, eager to show pupils and parents some of the wonders of the autumn night sky - including Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas.

Brian, Richard and Mark took the short journey to the school, able to drive straight onto the upper playground where they were met by Joanne Shaw - our contact and science lead at West Cliff School. Having surveyed the school grounds layout - which is predominantly hard standing, we concluded that the rear lower school yard would be most suitable, pretty good views all round with light spill minimal considering the location of the school. Soft standing was present for the scopes too, the classroom for the indoor presentation was also near at hand.

Setting up the scopes etc - still under clear skies, pupils and parents started to arrive as did Keith, setting to work hooking up the IT to our laptop and TV screen.  The new society projector was therefore not required that night.  By 6:30pm the classroom was bursting with people. Having been introduced we immediately ushered everyone outside into the playground area for the scale solar system demonstration eagerly assisted by pupils, who willingly unravelled the 'planet string' across and up through the playgrounds.

Observations through the scopes hurriedly followed, cloud having started to spill in from the west already obscuring comet C/2023 A3 from view.  Luckily Saturn was visible - at least for 15 minutes before that too disappeared, but not before pupils and parents swarmed around the three scopes and one mounted pair of binoculars erected on the 'tyre' play area.  Soon after all the remaining visible stars disappeared and within the space of 20 minutes skies had turned completely cloudy! How does it do that?

Back indoors then for plan B, showing how the October night sky would have looked - including the comet, with images of the comet and recent aurora taken by WDAS members wowing all. True to say everyone in the room - which was packed to overflowing, were greatly impressed with these, especially Richard's time lapse sequences of the aurora and Perseid meteors. ​

Following some questions and answers from pupils and parents - some of which were enquiries on suitable telescopes for children (most encouraging), our 'evening under the stars' drew to a close - time had flown by.  We had enjoyed the evening immensely and according to Joanne, reaction from the children and parents had been extremely positive with future such evenings most definitely earmarked.  Thanks to Joanne and the staff present on the evening, and Brian, Keith and Richard for their time and assistance with the equipment etc - it was most appreciated.