YAS & astronomy news
21st October 2011
The talk by Paul Money was one of our best attended meetings of the year and Paul treated us with the opportunity to purchase his 2012 edition of the Night Scenes which was quite literally hot off the press!
1st October 2011
The YAS Star Party at Sutton Bank was a brilliant night. Over 150 people came to the NYM National Park centre at Sutton Bank to see the wonders of the night sky! We were very fortunate to be blessed with clear skies and a balmy evening, making the experience a night to remember. Thank-you to everyone who made it up there.
16th September 2011
At the Annual General Meeting, YAS members voted for the new committee. Details of the results can be found on the committee page.
12th Aug 2011
Campaign for Dark Skies (CfDS) If you're eligible to vote in UK elections, please sign the e-petition here!
10th Jun 2011
The meetings and events for the 2011-2012 season have now been finalised and can be seen here
3rd May 2011
The planned "Informal Night" meeting at the Priory Street Centre on the 20th May has now been cancelled. Instead, members of YAS will be heading to Harrogate AS' meeting to see Dr Allan Chapman give a talk entitled "Astronomy and the early Royal Society in 1660 England"
1st May 2011
YAS now have a Google Calendar, showing details of planned events. Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to have details on how you can include details from this into your own personal electronic calendars!
23rd January 2011
We have just had confirmation that Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe has agreed to come talk to us on the subject of The Antiquity of Cosmic Life. More details here
9th January 2011
The two YAS events last week were both listed as part of the BBC's Stargazing Live events. The Star Party on the Knavesmire on the 5th attracted 8 'scopes and around 60 vistors of all ages and the meeting on the 7th was very well attended - so much so that 2 sets of additional chairs had to be found to seat everyone!
5th January 2011
YAS have had a busy start to the New Year with a couple of interviews on BBC Radio York. First off, Martin Dawson and Philip Jennings were interviewed for the Jonathan Cowap morning show (approx 2hr 17min into the show). Then, Martin Whillock was interviewed from his observatory during the Adam Tomlinson breakfast show (approx. 2hr 8min into the show)
1st December 2010
YAS is participating in the BBC's televised stargazing spectacular on 5th Jan 2011 on the Knavesmire. More details can be found here
1st October 2010
At the Annual General Meeting, YAS members voted for the new committee. Details of the results can be found here
16th July 2010
Tonight saw the closing meeting for the 2009/2010 observing season. YAS Chairman Martin Whipp would like to thank the various speakers we have had during the year for their fascinating talks and everyone who has attended the meetings for their support. We look forward to seeing everyone at the new season kick-off meeting on Friday 3rd September 2010
9th July 2010
On Friday YAS had its committee meeting, during the meeting it was decided to co-opt John Rowland onto the committee in the role of "Acting Observatory Director". Congratulations John!
3rd October 2009
On Friday YAS had its AGM and selected a new committee. Our new Chairman is Martin Whipp, and the full list is on the committee page. We also now have full events and meeting details for the rest of 2009 up on the events page.
14th September 2009
YAS video-boffin Martin Whipp has been busy making some fantastic videos for the YAS vimeo site. If you haven't seen them already, pop over there now and have a look at what we've been up to over the summer months. The "Date With Discovery" video in particular is a must-watch!
13th August 2009
YAS members Martin Whipp and Glen Berry have only a few days to go before they attempt the Lyke Wake Walk in under 24 hours to raise funds for YAS. It's not too late to sponsor them! Please see this page for more details.
YAS members were out at the observatory last night to enjoy the annual Perseid meteor shower. We had a great time and most of us saw around 25-50 over the course of the night, and most importantly sat around and had a good laugh. Martin Whipp and Martin Dawson were interviewed on Radio 4's The World Tonight, live from the observatory, and they did a great job explaining the event and why we do it. The full interview is available to download in mp3 form.
27th June 2009
YAS now has it's own TV channel, available by clicking here or in the future through the top menu. Our multimedia expert Martin Whipp will be keeping it up to date with loads of YAS videos, old and new, so keep an eye on it. We have also added dates for Perseids observing in August, including our annual Perseids BBQ.
17th May 2009
The events page has been updated with the latest information on upcoming talks up to September 2009. Please note that at the end of May and beginning of June we will have two star parties to make the most of the moonless nights.
26th February 2009
If we're lucky enough to have a break in the clouds then tonight should be the best chance yet to see Comet Lulin, which will reach magnitude 5 and be visible in South, in Leo. There is a special SPA report available on the SPA News page containing all the details, and Universe Today has an excellent blog post showing the exact position of the comet.
1st January 2009
Happy new year from YAS. The meetings list is now completed up to date for the new year, with detailed descriptions to follow.
26th November 2008
The events list has been updated with some meetings and preliminary dates for the coming year, with more information to follow soon.
12th November 2008
Added latest SPA Newsletters. To all members: there's another working party down at the obsevatory tomorrow so please turn up and lend a hand if you can. People usually arrive around 10am-ish.
Tuesday 4th November
We've updated the Oz Blog with some new images and video. Also a reminder to YAS members that there is an Obs working party on Saturday, so please come and help out if you can.
3rd October 2008
Welcome to the new YAS website. At the moment we're just moving the old content over in to the new design, but over the next few months we're hoping to make some big changes to the design, content and overall usability of the site. We've just got going but if you'd like to let us know your thoughts on this site, any problems, or any ideas on what you'd like to see, please let us know.