Clear skies, sometimes plucked from the jaws of a dismal daytime, gave a full month of star parties:
Catering was laid on for some of the events, and for Hooks House Farm there was something close to a banquet... [Read more about September Star Parties]
A succession of star parties coinciding with the run up to the full moon were held on the west cliff at our usual location during Folk Week.
Skies were pretty clear and as always the folk week crowd were eager to view, stay and listen. Thursday 27th proved interesting with a faint aurora visible to the north: a distinct green glow with a hint of rays and bands moving within this. [Read more about Bank Holiday and Folk Week Star Parties]
Tantalizing glimpses of a sunspot grouping in brief cloud breaks on Saturday were realised on Sunday when we enjoyed an interrupted view of the solar surface.
Star parties on Saturday and Sunday evenings with clear skies, an ISS passing, and Mark's sky tours.
[Read more about 2015 Regatta Events: Solar Viewing & Star Parties]
A better-than-average display, with the best action late on. One brilliant Perseid left an ionized trail which was visible for several seconds afterwards... [Read more about Perseid Meteor Shower Star Party]
We shall once again be travelling over to Westerdale to host a star party on Saturday Sept 19th from 20:00h (scopes set-up 15-30m ahead of time)... [Read more about Westerdale Star Party ]
Sausage rolls, scale solar system and some star viewing against the backdrop of a lightning show courtesy of nature: the first of our two visits to Hooks House this proved to be an interesting affair... [Read more about First Hook’s House Event, 2015]
Certainly one of our observing highlights on the WDAS calendar, we are hoping to host two events at Hook’s House this year; one on Aug 22nd and another on Sept 5th.
The Aug 22nd event will coincide with a quater phase moon, whilst the 5th will be a dark sky event. Should the first two dates fall victim to the weather, we shall try again on Sept 12th... [Read more about Hooks House Farm Events 2015]
Members of the society travelled over to Kettleness on July 18th to host a star party for a visiting party of cub scouts; the Osbaldwick and Murton Cub Scouts, requested by their leader Julie Lund... [Read more about Kettleness Visit]
Did anyone else notice a bright light flash outside - presumably in the sky, around 10:45pm -11pm on Wed 10th June. The light persisted for around 3 or 4 seconds and was roughly south in orientation, reasonbly high, but it was not directly visible. No sound was heard, so a bolide can be ruled out. It could have been a brilliant meteor. Anyone else notice anything? [Read more about Mystery Flash]
Perhaps not a first, but at least opening star party event of the summer season on May 23rd went ahead in pretty decent conditions, with just a little cloud around the horizon. With five scopes deployed and eight members present, the most was made of the bright twilight conditions that prevail at this time of year.
A lovely waxing crescent moon, the planets; Venus and Jupiter and Saturn and finally some of the brighter stars, made it an enjoyable evening, certainly plenty of ‘goodies’ to keep a quite sizeable and interested crowd at the eyepieces for a couple of hours... [Read more about Summer Star Party Season kicks-off in style]