Hat Trick, the company who organise Mastermind, have contacted the Society via our website to canvas for potential candidates for the next series. Opportunity awaits – see the flyer below for details and if you apply, and are successful, let us know.
You can also apply online for Mastermind.
A Happy New Year to all our Readers!
Well, here we go. Another year; another chance to see something you’ve never seen before, or just to re-acquaint yourself with old celestial friends.
Continue readingOne really has to wonder whether we are “poco loco” to choose astronomy as our hobby. We’ve just had the cloudiest and wettest couple of months that I can remember for some time, and although we may have a few clear nights in the first week of December, the Met Office isn’t forecasting much in the way of clear and stable conditions for the rest of the month. Still, mustn’t grumble. Let’s at least take advantage of the odd observing night that happens to come our way and be grateful for small mercies. Important thing is to make sure that telescope is in tip-top condition and ready for action if the opportunity presents itself.
Continue readingWell, it’s arrived: the astronomy season for real. Suddenly, shockingly for some, now the clocks have gone back it’s getting dark by just after 5 p.m. and that’ll be 4:30 p.m. at the end of the month. No longer do we have to wait until after bedtime to see anything. The whole evening is at our disposal. So what’s up there?
Continue readingThe author is taking a break this month but recommends the following Jodrell Bank web site for an excellent run-down of what to observe this month: The Night Sky October 2019.
See What’s Up! for August 2019
After the short and light nights of summer, September is the first month in which the sky goes completely dark every night (i.e. astronomical twilight ends, and the sun dips to more than 18° below the horizon). At the start of the month, total darkness runs from 2211 to 0355 BST, but by month end, it runs from 2043 to 0504 BST. So in addition to other delights of the night sky, we can observe faint and diffuse deep sky objects without having to stay up really late.
Continue readingA blue plaque was unveiled on Friday morning, 23 August 2019, in honour of Thomas Cooke (1807-1868): internationally-renowned optical instrument maker.
The plaque was jointly arranged by York Civic Trust, the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and York Museums Trust.
Report of the meeting written up by Rob Maclagan from notes taken by Michael Reakes.
Nick gave an interesting talk to the Society at a recent Priory Street event. He showed how, originally, meteors were recorded visually, then by film photography, and now using digital cameras, including standard CCTV. Modern cameras mean that video footage can be shot in real time at high quality. Although these are currently expensive, CCTV and other cameras are affordable to amateurs and astronomical societies. Using software, data can be uploaded to sites, contributing to the recording of meteors. It also possible to use radio equipment to ‘see’ meteors.
Continue readingNo 2. in a series created and compiled by Dave Armeson
If you’ve had a few nights out under the stars and learnt a few constellations, then you might wonder what is there to see just below naked-eye limit. Well, rather than plunging in the “deep end” and buying a telescope that might/might not be suitable for you, a prudent step is binoculars. Binoculars bring into view star clusters, glorious Milky Way star fields, Jupiter’s four largest, Galilean moons and of course some craters on the Moon and some of the brighter “Deep Sky” objects like the Andromeda Galaxy.
Continue readingNo 1. in a series created and compiled by Dave Armeson
It’s not as difficult as you first think!
Starting out in astronomy at first seems a very daunting prospect. When I first got into stargazing nearly 40 years ago I thought this is going to be difficult – but I was pleasantly surprised. When you learn just a few constellations it is surprising how everything else tends to start to fall into place – and a few months of perseverance you will start to gain a very satisfying working knowledge of the night sky. You should be able to identify nearly all the northern sky star patterns within a year of dedicated looking.
Continue reading