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.
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.
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
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.
The York Astronomical Society was formed in 1972. There had been an earlier society, which existed during the 1960s, but it disbanded before the current society had formed.
After a few informal meetings at members' homes, the society began to meet at the York Railway institute where various lectures and demonstrations took place. We then had to vacate the Institute as they were renovating the building. For a short time, we met at the Folk Hall in New Earswick with the intention of returning to the Railway Institute after the refurbishment was completed. Unfortunately, the rent had been increased too much for us to afford. Fortunately, help was at hand. Our President, Professor Michael Woolfson offered us a room at Goodricke College on the University of York campus, completely free of charge, which was gratefully accepted.
Over the years, we met at various venues on the campus, but during 2000, the University advised us that they would be starting to make a charge for the room, and so we decided to look for an alternative venue. After a couple of meetings at a temporary location, it was decided to hire rooms at the Priory Street Centre. It would appear to be an excellent choice as the facilities offered are very good, and it is a central location in York, which makes it convenient for people to get to. In the past, a number of members have suggested a more central location would be better than the University, and it would now appear from the attendances we get that they have been proved right.
We meet on the first and third Fridays of each month (except August) at 20:00
Over the years, the society has maintained five observatories. For more information about this, click on the "YAS Observatory" button on the main page.
We observe on most clear friday and Saturday nights at the YAS observatory, or on other nights if members wish to meet for a special event, or if some folk have time off from work, etc. We mainly use the Yorkshire Astronomy Yahoo group to co-ordinate observing activities, although we plan to make more use of e-mail lists for those members who wish to be informed of observing evenings at short notice. For the 2007 observing season starting in September we plan to put a new system in place for regular Friday/Saturday night observing at the YAS observtory.
As a group we have no set observing aims except to enjoy the beauty of the heavens, and hopefully to pass on some of it to the public so that they too may appreciate the pleasure we all derive from our observing.
Individually, our members' interests are wide and varied, from constructing the early astronomical instruments, variable stars, deep sky, astrophotography, CCD imaging and so on.
Quite a number of members have taken the GCSE astronomy course and a number of them have go on to embark upon further education in astronomy, including the Open University courses.
The society has organised a number of trips in the past, including visits to other societies and places of astronomical interest. In recent years we organised a trip to Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, which included a small lecture and a guided behind-the-scenes tour of the site. It was a very worthwhile visit, and a very enjoyable day out. Other society trips have included RAF Fylingdales, the IMAX in Bradford, and observing weekends in Wales and Kielder forest.
If you would like further information about the society, see the contact YAS link for our contact e-mail address.
