A monthly look at astronomical events in the sky and on Earth
Compiled by Steve Sawyer
Hi welcome to March’s whatsup. We’re now in the 1st month (meteorological) of Spring and the daffs are just about out and our snowdrops are just starting to fade. The days are becoming longer quite quickly so try to make the most of dark nights.
Compiled by Steve Sawyer
Hi welcome to Februarys Whatsup. Hope you all had a good January and managed to survive ‘Blue Monday’! We’re now in the last month of winter so try to make the most of the dark winter evenings!
A monthly look at astronomical events in the sky and on Earth
Compiled by Steve Sawyer
Hi, wishing you all a Happy New Year from York Astronomy Society!
The society has many events planned for 2023 including our 50th Anniversary! Have a look at the society pages for full details of our events program which includes star parties and outreach events.
So what’s on this month? Continue reading
Hi, wishing you all a Happy Christmas from York Astro! We hope you all have a great time over the festive season and here’s looking forward to a great New Year for stargazing.
Hopefully that means plenty of warm clear nights! (which is very unlikely but you can hope!) . The nights are still drawing in as I write this (the end of November). The winter constellations are starting to be prominent . So I’ll cover these in the deep sky section of this month’s guide.
Well what a month July was, mainly because of the justified excitement over comet Neowise, but also because Jupiter and Saturn were prominent from early evening. Society members managed to get some photos of the comet, many of which have been posted on our Facebook Chat Group page.
You may have noticed that the nights are starting to draw in. This increase in the length of the night is noticeable in the late evenings in August and heralds the ‘shoulder season’ for astronomical observations – August is the month when one begins to notice the stars again. And with it being predominantly warm, it is probably the month with the best combination of evening comfort and darkness.
The Perseids meteor shower is the highlight of the month, but with the Moon present it will make viewing challenging. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be easy to spot. The Andromeda Galaxy makes a re-appearance and you can also look for the Double Cluster and the Cygnus Star Cloud. Also prominent is the Summer Triangle of Deneb, Altair and Vega.
Continue readingJust a summary of observing this month as our usual contributor is unavailable. As with June, with the long summer days, there is not much opportunity for observing, but there are a few standout events.
Continue readingElon Musk’s attempt to ferry two astronauts to the ISS has been successful! The first attempt was halted after poor weather, but the second on Saturday was a success. Observers in the UK could see the shuttle playing tag with the ISS as it went overhead later in the evening. After 19 hours in space the Endeavour capsule docked with the ISS on Sunday. Thus opens a new era in manned space exploration. See Space.com for up-to-date news.
Continue readingWell, were you able to take advantage of that wonderful run of clear, moonless nights during the second half of April? I hope so, because from about May 3rd right through to the end of July, it doesn’t get astronomically dark at all. And this prevents observation of all but the brightest deep sky objects, and even those can only be seen between midnight and 0200 BST.
Continue readingWe held our first online meeting on Friday 24 April using the Zoom software. As a trial run, members only were invited and over 20 joined. Invitees were asked to suggest something astronomical to to during the lockdown (see link to Powerpoint document below for details).
The meeting was deemed a great success, so we plan to do one a month during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Slides from the meeting (downloadable Powerpoint file).
Graham Moore gave a short talk on astrophotography using a DSLR camera. He has posted the talk on Facebook.
Oh dear! Those jobs we’ve put off doing for years and for which we can no longer use the excuse that we haven’t got time to do, will have to be done. There are no excuses left; we’re confined to barracks! So in this era of social distancing, are there any reasons for us astronomers to be cheerful? Well, maybe.
Continue reading