TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020.

SCARBOROUGH, NORTH YORKSHIRE, U.K.

TIME'S PACES 

'When, as a child, I laughed and wept, time crept.

When, as a youth, I dreamt and talked, time walked.

When I became a full grown man, time ran.

When, older still, I daily grew, time flew.

Soon I shall find, on travelling on, time gone !'

Some lines written on a clock in the Cathedral Church of Christ and The Blessed Virgin Mary, Chester, U.K.

Comet NEOWISE
C/2020 F3
Imaged on Saturday, July 11, by Maurice Bradwell from Crofton , WAKEFIELD, West Yorkshire. Thanks Maurice!

First I must point out that this is an educational site and I invite you to download any of the material you find here. Feel free to download any of the content, which could be of use, or of interest to you. That is what this 'SKYNOTES' website is here for! 

Welcome to jonvran.co.uk, John's simple astronomy site where you will find information about what is happening in the night sky from the point of view of Scarborough in the United kingdom, latitude 54 deg. 17 minutes north, longitude 00 deg. 25 minutes west,(situated on the east coast, midway between London and Edinburgh, and also mainland Britain); as well as what I hope are other interesting bits and pieces, of use to everyone.

Please feel free to download and use any of the material from my website, which you find useful. It is here for you to use !

Historically, these 'Skynotes' are a direct cyber-descendent, of the paper Sky notes I prepared, for many years, by hand, for members, at each meeting of the Scarborough Astronomical Society from the moment the Society began in February, 1976. In those days, I produced all the illustrations including the star charts by hand, but now, with the advent of excellent astronomy software programs, I am able to use much better graphics, for which I must thank the many programmers who have produced these wonderful software gems. In the credits section you will find a list of these amazing sources which allow me to continue to produce my 'Skynotes', for the benefit of all. It does not seem that they have been produced continuously for over 46 years, but as the Latin inscription reminds us: tempvs fvgit ! (time flies)!. There are many 'pages' in this different version of 'Skynotes'. These are listed in the MENU at the top of the page. My hope is that you find within them something of interest, and may I, here, express my gratitude to the many people who have already visited, this, my small contribution towards the popularisation of astronomy, which has been my lifelong aim and ambition.

I record here also a special 'Thank-you' for two very special teachers. First, Miss M Walker (later Mrs Martin). I was in her form at Normanton Secondary Modern school, before transferring to the grammar school at the age of 13. She gave me a small note nook in which to write about and draw events taking place in the night sky. This was to be the tiny 'seed' which would eventually grow into these 'Skynotes'. Secondly, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the late Senior English Master, of Normanton Grammar School, Mr. T Hewson, who made me stand up in class during 'English' on Tuesday afternoons, and read aloud, to the class, several pages of Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, despite the difficulties I had, at that time in reading words. Thanks to him, I can now read fluently; but more importantly, he taught me to have confidence, to be able to share my love of astronomy with all to whom I have been invited to speak; and ultimately to become a teacher myself.

 It is my hope that you will enjoy these pages, and return here often to take what you will from this site, as the months change, the result of Earth's journey around the sun.

May you too, always follow safe paths, and have clear and unclouded skies, in all the many aspects of your life!

Finally, I want to say a huge 'Thank You!' to friends, collegues and some of my ex students who provide me with excellent images which they have, very kindly, given me permission to use.

 The BLOG (About Me) bit is on a separate page. You can find it, if you are interested, via the MENU above!

This beautiful view of Dawn over the Castle Headland, in late October, is by Scarborough astronomer Fred Tiles, Thanks Fred

PLEASE NOTE : Because of the size of this FRONT PAGE, which resulted in the slow loading of the material on some machines; I have created another additional page. It is called 'FRONT PAGE continued' and can be reached using the MENU above.

You will find there, illustrations of Saturn and its fascinating moon ENCELADUS, thought to be a possible abode of life, as is Jupiter's satellite Europa (also to be seen on this additional page)

THE TWO QUADRANT CHARTS, updated monthly are now to be found on the supplementary FRONT PAGE also.

SKYNOTES are available. Use The MENU above to find the current month's SKYNOTES.

ASTEROIDAL OCCULTATIONS for THE CURRENT MONTH accessible via the Menu above (ASTEROIDAL EVENTS). Thanks For those Andrej !

VENUS, the "EVENING STAR", 'HESPERUS' to the Ancients reached INFERIOR CONJUNCTION with the Sun on JUNE 03. Thereafter Venus moved into the morning sky as 'PHOSPHORUS'  the "MORNING STAR".

REMOTE PLANETS. The paths of URANUS, NEPTUNE, and PLUTO, have been updated for 2020. 

POEM by Richard H Mann 'FRIENDS OF MINE' added to the ASTRONOMICAL POETRY page (see MENU above)

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

For information about suitable times to see the ISS, other satellites, and interesting objects, and to download the application if you wish, go to the following admirable site:

http://heavens-above.com

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - Visible passes from SCARBOROUGH. UK

The TIMES shown here are UNIVERSAL TIME   So when SUMMER TIME is in force, you must ADD ONE HOUR.  SUMMER TIME has ended so the times given in the table are LOCAL GMT TIME

The aspect of MARS presented towards Earth at 00h on DECEMBER 01

REMEMBER ------- NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN unless you have the proper astronomical filters for the purpose, NOT the one often provided by the telescope manufacturer. IT IS SAFER TO PROJECT THE SUN'S IMAGE ONTO A SCREEN.

Never look through view finders at the sun. instead look at the shadow of the instrument on a card. When the shadow is as small as it can be, it is pointing towards the sun, and you will see the safe image of the Sun on the card. NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN------ IT CAN BLIND YOU !

Image of The Moon, JUPITER and SATURN by Maurice Bradwell NOVEMBER 19, 2020, from Crofton , WAKEFIELD, West Yorkshire.
The Crescent Moon is over exposed so that the true brightness of the two planets can be seen. Jupiter, the brighter of the two, is approaching Saturn for a very close conjunction of the pair on DECEMBER 21.
Thanks Maurice!

THINGS TO LOOK FOR:

The times when ALGOL (Beta Persei), the famous eclipsing variable star reaches its MINIMUM brightness may be found in the monthly SKYNOTES summary for each month. The star has a page dedicated to itself also, accessible via the MENU above.

ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS due this month may be found in the MONTHLY SKYNOTES,accessible via the MENU above, and on the supplementary 'FRONT PAGE', see above.

The Hunter's Moon , Imaged by:
@FeelBetter2day from SCARBOROUGH UK Thanks Linda!

SUNRISE and SUNSET,  SCARBOROUGH.

GMT (UNIVERSAL TIME) 

NOVEMBER 24, 2020.

RISE: 07h 47

SET:  15h 49

DAY LENGTH (SUNRISE TO SET)

08h 01m 06s 

MOONRISE and SET, SCARBOROUGH.

RISE: 14h 20.  SET: 00h 45 

TIDE TIMES, SCARBOROUGH, NORTH SEA

NOVEMBER 24, 2O20

LOCAL TIME

HW:  23h 19 (MON, 23) 

LW:   06h 09

HW:  12h 24

LW:   18h 24

The images of SCARBOROUGH preceeding and following these tables are by kind peremission of people who live here, and who are justifiably proud of their seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast.