About YAS
The Society
The York Astronomical Society is a friendly collection of people who share a common appreciation for all things astronomical. Anyone who is interested in Astronomy in any form is warmly invited to come along to our meetings and join in our public activities. Annual membership is £16.00 for adults, and £8.00 for those aged up to 16. Anyone can attend our meetings, (members or not), and the entrance fee to each meeting is £1 for members, £2 for non members, with all 16s and under free.
We currently have about 60 members and we meet at the Priory Street centre, York, in the Denham room, on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month (except August). Our meetings start promptly at 8pm, and most people arrive around 7:30pm for a chat before the meeting starts. We often run a raffle with prizes consisting of Astronomy books or other items. Our raffles are a great way of rasing funds for YAS so we try to keep a good variety of atractive prizes available, many of which are donated from YAS members.
Most of our meetings have an invited formal speaker who will speak on a subject of interest to the astronomical community. See our "meetings and events" page for details. We pride ourselves in having a wide ranging speaker programme each year and we aim to include a good selection of topics from leading academic experts in different Astronomical fields of research.
2 or 3 times during the year we hold what we call "Informal evenings" On these occasions, rather than an invited speaker, we enjoy an evening where any and all of the members can share anything of an astronomical nature with the rest of us. Topics range from recent observations, complete with pictures, videos, etc, to short presentations on an area of interest or topical astronomical news. These meeting are normally some of the most enjoyable and entertaining.
The society is made up of both "armchair" astronomers and active observers, and we are proud to be able to cater for both types of astronomical enthusiasts within the society. Although most of our members live within the York and surrounding area, we have a number of members who live further afield, and cover most parts of the Yorkshire region.
Observatory
We maintain an excellent observatory, for the use of members, outside the York outer ring road where we have a relatively dark site from which to observe. See the pages about the York AS observatory linked from our main page for further details of the observatory. Whenever the sky is clear (especially on Friday or Saturday nights!) we will gather at the observatory to enjoy an observing session. We also arrange observing sessions for special events such as meteor showers, lunar eclipses and occultations, etc. We frequently advertise our meetings and public events in the local press and in libraries and other locations around the York area. We have some society telescopes which can be "borrowed" by members of good standing so they can learn how to use them in their own time, and decide if they would eventually like to buy their own telescope.
The "aims" of YAS is to encourange and spread an appreciation and enjoyment of all aspects of Astronomy within the York area. We like to think we are achieving our aim. One of the YAS main purposes is public education. We welcome visitors of all ages to our bi-monthly meetings and Star Parties in and around York. At the Star Parties we not only show people the wonders of the heavens, we also help them with their own telescopes.
Star Parties
We hold regular public Star Parties on the Knavesmire (at an area of hard standing half way along Knavesmire Road). These public events are held each month, except for May, June, July and August, when the nights are too light for serious observing at a reasonable time of night. Our public Star Parties resume in September each year, and details are included on the "meetings and events" page when the dates are finalised.
Other members of YAS frequently hold smaller observing events or public displays about astronomy in librarys. We also have members who regularly visit brownies, cubs and scout meetings to help teach astronomy, and also make educational visits to schools from time to time.
We have a wealth of experienced members who are able and willing to help new members learn all they need in order to progress in their astronomical activites. We have members with experience in telescope building, observing skills, astrophotography with film, CCD and video, Video editing and AV applications, etc
Joining
If you would like further information about the society, see the "contact us" e-mail button on the main page, and send us your question.
If you would like to join YAS, please contact the YAS Treasurer using the treasurer@yorkastro.co.uk e-mail address, and he will send you joining details and answer any question you may have about becoming a member of YAS.
Back to the top.