Martin Dawson joined the York Astronomical Society in 1973 shortly after the society was formed and has been a member ever since. He kept an occasional diary of events from that time. Some of the entries bear a similarity to current happenings at the Society: meetings, talks and working parties at the observatory, then at Acaster Airfield. An example entry:
7 Jan 1977 – ‘YAS Member Mrs. Gibson presented her talk on her trip to West Africa to see the 1976 October eclipse. 0.90p made in raffle (1.75) Planisphere as prize.’
| 1972 | |
|---|---|
| 11th August 1972 | No entry |
| 25th August 1972 | No entry |
| 27th August 1972 | Sponsored Walk |
| 8th September 1972 | No entry |
| 22nd September 1972 | No entry |
| 6th October 1972 | 1st Meeting of The York Astronomical Society |
| 20th October 1972 | 2nd Meeting |
| 3rd November 1972 | 3rd Meeting |
| 17th November 1972 | 4th Meeting - Raffle |
| 1st December 1972 | 5th Meeting |
| 15th December 1972 | 6th Meeting |
| 19th December 1972 | 7th Meeting - Social evening |
| 29th December 1972 | No meeting |
| 1973 | |
| 8th January 1973 | 8th Meeting |
| 26th January 1973 | 9th Meeting |
| 9th February 1973 | 10th Meeting |
| 23rd February 1973 | 11th Meeting |
| 9th March 1973 | 12th Meeting |
| 23rd March 1973 | 13th Meeting |
| 6th April 1973 | 14th Meeting |
| 20th April 1973 | 15th Meeting |
| 4th May 1973 | 16th Meeting |
| 18th May 1973 | 17th Meeting |
| 10th August 1973 | 21st Meeting |
| 21st August 1973 | Committee Meeting |
| 24th August 1973 | 22nd Meeting - Annual General Meeting. Martin Dawson and Philip Hammond attended for the first time. |
| 4th September 1973 | Committee Meeting |
| 7th September 1973 | 23rd Meeting - Film Show |
| 21st September 1973 | 24th Meeting - Talk by David Scarth |
| 5th October 1973 | 25th Meeting - Film Show - films on Mars. |
| 9th October 1973 | Committee Meeting |
| 1976 | |
| 20th February 1976 | YAS Member David Thackery presented his talk on 'Greenwich' |
| 25th February 1976 | 19:30 Physics Dept room no. L.002 'Clusters of Galaxies' |
| 28th February 1976 | Visited Salford Astronomical Society |
| 5th March 1976 | Dr. Keith Hindley presented his talk 'Fireball's' |
| 6th March 1976 | Got up at 05:20 to see Comet West, very faint |
| 9th March 1976 | YAS Committee Meeting |
| 10th March 1976 | Astro |
| 19th March 1976 | Astro Quiz |
| 20th March 1976 | Trip to Huddersfield Astronomical Society |
| 2nd April 1976 | Dr. Keith Hindley presented his talk 'Comets' |
| 7th April 1976 | Went to YAS Observatory at Acaster Airfield. |
| 16th April 1976 | Went to YAS Observatory at Acaster Airfield. |
| 29th April 1976 | Eclipse of the Sun |
| 30th April 1976 | Went to YAS Observatory at Acaster Airfield. |
| 2nd May 1976 | Went to YAS Observatory at Acaster Airfield. |
| 5th May 1976 | Went to YAS Observatory at Acaster Airfield, placed dome on Observatory |
| 11th May 1976 | Astro |
| 13th May 1976 | Eclipse of Moon |
| 14th May 1976 | Mr. Roger Jackson gave a talk to YAS |
| 15th May 1976 | Went to FAS meeting at Coventry |
| 28th May 1976 | Dr. Promfet presented 'Modern Cosmology' |
| 8th June 1976 | Astro |
| 11th June 1976 | Martin Dawson held a quiz at the YAS |
| 12th June 1976 | Visited Cambridge |
| 28th August 1976 | Working party at Observatory, Judy Acton and Martin Dawson painted the inside of the walls. |
| 3rd September 1976 | Astro |
| 12th September 1976 | Went to Observatory to finish off the painting, meanwhile Len Cook put the W.C. door up. |
| 24th September 1976 | Went to Observatory |
| 1st October 1976 | Went to Astro |
| 15th October 1976 | Astro |
| 20th October 1976 | Astro |
| 29th October 1976 | YAS member Hamish Lowe presented 'Telescope Making' |
| 6th November 1976 | Went to the Observatory, no one else went... |
| 9th November 1976 | Astro |
| 12th November 1976 | Astro |
| 20th November 1976 | Visited Wold Newton |
| 23rd November 1976 | 'Arab Astronomy' lecture in Tempest Anderson Hall |
| 26th November 1976 | Astro |
| 10th December 1976 | YAS Meeting, film shows on Mars, Jupiter and YAS Special on YAS Visit to Wold Newton. |
| 1977 | |
| 7th January 1977 | YAS Member Mrs. Gibson presented her talk on her trip to West Africa to see the 1976 October eclipse. 0.90p made in raffle (1.75) Planisphere as prize. |
| 13th January 1977 | New nova discovered in Sagitta |
| 17th January 1977 | The Sky at Night, 11:35pm 'Sirius the Dog Star' |
| 21st January 1977 | YAS Meeting, General Chat amongst members. £1.13 made in raffle (1.73) book as prize. |
| 26th January 1977 | YAS observation session on Knavesmire, start time 19:30. |
| 2nd February 1977 | YAS observation session on Knavesmire, start time 19:30. |
| 4th February 1977 | Dr. Keith Hindley presented his talk 'Comets and Meteors', made £1.85 in raffle |
| 9th February 1977 | YAS observation session on Knavesmire, start time 19:30. |
| 18th February 1977 | University Meeting. |
| 4th March 1977 | YAS Meeting, Astronomy film show, raffle made 0.55p (all together £1.30). |
| 7th March 1977 | Got 2 lenses of Olav's image erector and Zac's prism for his star-diagonal re-silvered. |
| 18th March 1977 | YAS Meeting, Guy Fennimore's trip to Moscow, made .70p in raffle. |
| 20th March 1977 | Went to Observatory with Zac in morning. |
| 30th March 1977 | Committee meeting at Roger Jackson's home. |
| 1st April 1977 | Bought ABT 647R a Suzuki GT185A |
| 2nd April 1977 | JAS Meteor section meeting at imperial Collage, London, Roger Jackson and Dr. Keith Hindley attended. |
| 3rd April 1977 | Went to Observatory with Zac Kadis, Patrick Martin and Dave Barker. |
| 12th April 1977 | Went to Observatory. |
| 15th April 1977 | Bradford Astronomical Society visited YAS. made £1.36 (£1.96) in raffle. |
| 22nd April 1977 | YAS Trip to Observatory to see April Lyrid's cancelled due to heavy cloud. Zac Kadis, Patrick Martin and Martin Dawson went to the Knavesmire |
| 29th April 1977 | Astronomy Society meeting, made £1.75 in raffle (.75p for book) |
| 13th May 1977 | York AS meeting, Zac Kadis presented 'Spaceflight'. Made £1.50p in raffle, £1 for book and raffle tickets. |
| 21st May 1977 | Croydon Astronomical Society's 21st Anniversary celebration. Set of at 6:45 got back at 23:30 |
| 27th May 1977 | Went out to the Observatory. Put some old boulders in a pile for some steps up the side. |
| 7th June 1977 | Went to Scarborough planetarium |
| 10th June 1977 | Made £1.20 in raffle (£1.35 in total) plus 0.50p donated by Mrs Gibson |
| 11th June 1977 | Opened a savings account on behalf of the YAS for raffle money (£10.09) (G.P.O. No. 384/405/780) |
| 12th June 1977 | Went to University with Zac and Patrick. |
| 24th June 1977 | Made 0.40p in raffle |
| 26th June 1977 | Went to Observatory with Zac and Patrick. |
| 1st July 1977 | At night, Zac Kadis, Patrick Martin and Martin Dawson went to the Observatory and stayed all night. |
| 2nd July 1977 | Zac started work on the path. |
| 3rd July 1977 | Went to Observatory |
| 8th July 1977 | Had a mixed bag of assorted astronomy subjects. |
| 10th July 1977 | Went to Observatory, worked on the path. |
| 15th July 1977 | Went to Observatory with Zac and Patrick. |
| 17th July 1977 | Went to Observatory. |
| 18th July 1977 | Went to Bradford Astronomical Society to challenge them in a quiz. York AS won 110 to 83. YAS team members Patrick Martin, Adian Barcley (check spelling), Dave Thackery and Martin Dawson. |
| 20th July 1977 | 'The Sky at Night: The New Infra-red Telescope' |
| 22nd July 1977 | York AS meeting, Roger Jackson presented 'Meteors', last meeting for summer. |
| 24th July 1977 | Went to Observatory. |
| 26th July 1977 | Roger visited me in the evening. |
| 30th July 1977 | Rebuilding YAS's old 3-in brass John Dollond refractor. |
| 31st July 1977 | Went to the University in afternoon with Zac Kadis, Dave Barker and Patrick Martin. |
| 5th August 1977 | No astronomy society meeting. Visited Knaresborough bought a book by Arthur C Clarke. |
| 9th August 1977 | Observed the Sun during the day, then watched for satellites and meteors in the evening. |
| 10th August 1977 | Went to the Observatory in the Afternoon. 'The Sky at Night: The Sun in the Sky'. |
| 12th August 1977 | YAS Perseid Meteor Watch - 20:00 start, came home at 03:00. |
| 17th August 1977 | Visited Patrick Martin took his telescope to rebuild. |
| 19th August 1977 | Tried to find a bolt for PM' telescope - no luck. |
| 20th August 1977 | Went to see Dave Barker and Patrick Martin. Voyager 2 was launched on a perfect lift-off. Cygnid meteor shower, |
| 1st January 1970 | in York it was too cloudy on the 20-21 August, saw a glimpse of moon at 22:00hrs on 21st but too cloudy to see properly. |
| 22nd August 1977 | Went to see Patrick Martin and Zac Kadis. |
| 23rd August 1977 | Went to see Patrick Martin gave him back his address book. |
| 29th August 1977 | Took photograph's of Patrick Martin's telescope. |
| 31st August 1977 | Roger visited and passed me some posters, delivered them to various library's around York. |