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| Next Meeting: |
Friday January 9, 2009 7:30pm |
| Speaker: |
Paul Mortfield
| | Topic: |
A Remote Observatory for Astrophotography
Paul will talk about setting up and controlling a remote telescope in the Sierra Mountains of California using today's off the shelf technologies. He'll highlight the talk with many astrophotos taken with this setup.
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| Location: |
The Hamilton Spectator Building is located at 44 Frid St, near the junction
of Highway 403 and Main St West in Hamilton. Admission is free. Everyone is welcome!
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| Also: |
There will be a draw for door prizes at the meeting... a free door prize ticket to all who arrive before 7:30 start time!
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| HAA Merchandise For Sale: |
HAA sweatshirts and toques are now available for sale!

Toques are $15.00 and are available in red and black.
Mock turtle neck shirts are available in in red, grey, and black, and are:
- $20.00 for S/M/L/XL
- $22.00 for XXL
- $24.00 for XXXL
They can be ordered at the meetings for pickup at the following meeting, or by E-Mailing the membership director at membership@amateurastronomy.org.
Please allow two weeks lead to get them for the next meeting.
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| HAA 2009 Calendars For Sale: |
HAA 2009 Calendars are now available for sale!

HAA 2009 Calendars are $20.00 each and are available at all HAA general or council meetings.
These make a great Christmas gift and are perfect for the home or office. They contain lots of
information about astronomical events upcoming in the new year and features wonderful photos taken by many of your fellow members. Help support your club and buy one (or 2) now.
Contact Don Pullen, treasurer@amateurastronomy.org for more information.
HAA 2009 Calendars can also be purchased for $20 at Camtech Photographic, 588 Concession St., Hamilton
(at E 23rd St, between Upper Wentworth and Upper Sherman) 905-389-8545. They are also the area's largest dealer of Celestron scopes and accessories.
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NEWS (click on the pictures for more information):
December 13, 2008
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Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn's Picture appears on Aramis music video on YouTube!
HAA member Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn's picture of the summer Milky Way over Binbrook Conservation Area, taken on July 5, 2008, has appeared on the music video for the song "Astral Dreams" by Aramis.
Click here or on the thumbnail picture to see the Aramis video, which features Kerry's picture at the beginning and at the end of the video.
Click here to see a larger version of this picture on Kerry's web site.
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December 13, 2008
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December meeting roundup
- John Gauvreau talked about the sky for December.
- The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Paul Delaney, Astronomer and Senior Lecturer at York University, gave a wonderful talk about the planet Mars. Mars has been an object of mystery for centuries. Over the last four decades, spacecraft such as Mariner and Phoenix have provided vivid images of Mars, allowing scientists to make amazing discoveries. Dr. Delaney showed stunning images from Mars missions, discussed findings, and talked about how robots -- and humans -- can continue to explore the red planet.
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November 8, 2008
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November meeting roundup
- John Gauvreau talked about the sky for November. He also gave some interesting insight as to the mythology surrounding Perseus, a prominent Fall Constellation.
- Jim Wamsley talked about and showed his telescope and his array of telescope eyepieces and accessories.
- The main speaker of the evening, Ray Badgerow, talked about his trip to China this past summer to view the August 1 Total Solar Eclipse.
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October 19, 2008
October 16, 2008
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John Gauvreau's Orion Picture appears on APOD!
HAA member John Gauvreau's picture of the constellation Orion, taken at the 2008 Black Forest Star Party in Pennsylvania, has been selected for NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day)!
Click here or on the thumbnail picture to see his Picture of the Day at the APOD web site.
Click here to view this picture in John's HAA Gallery.
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October 16, 2008
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October meeting roundup
- John Gauvreau talked about the sky for October.
- The new governing council for the HAA for the next year was elected.
- The main speaker of the evening, Tim Philp, talked about the planet Mercury and the latest images and data of Mercury recently acquired by the Messenger spacecraft.
Read more details of the October meeting here.
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September 28, 2008
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September meeting roundup
- Greg Emery talked about the sky for September.
- Mike Spicer talked about using binoculars for astronomical observing.
- The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Mike Reid of McMaster University, talked about the upcoming International Year of Astronomy, 2009, and a potential role in it for the HAA.
Read more details of the September meeting here.
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September 9, 2008
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Peter McHugh's HAA Album Now Posted
Click here or on the picture to view new pictures of Jupiter and its four brightest moons, taken by HAA member Peter McHugh.
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July 30, 2008
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Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn's Picture appears on APOD!
HAA member Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn's picture of the summer Milky Way over Binbrook Conservation Area has reached even greater hieghts. Her image from July 5, 2008 has been selected for NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day)!
Click here or on the thumbnail picture to see her Picture of the Day at the APOD web site.
Click here to see a larger version of this picture on Kerry's web site
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July 23, 2008
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Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn Makes SkyNews Picture Of The Week!
HAA member Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn has made it to the big leagues! Her Summer Milky Way image from Binbrook from July 5, 2008 has been selected as SkyNews Magazine's Picture of the Week!
Click here or on the thumbnail picture to see her Picture of the Week at the SkyNews web site.
Click here to see a larger version of this picture on Kerry's web site
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June 14, 2008
May 10, 2008
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May meeting roundup
- Mike Spicer talked about the sky for the month of May.
- Don Pullen talked about upcoming grazing lunar occultations, as well as Comets Boattini and McNaught.
- Mike Jefferson updated us on the performance of the LOFAR II radio telescope.
- The night's main speaker was HAA member and Past Chair Glenn Muller, who gave an interesting talk about the intertwined lives of several seventeenth century scientists and astronomers.
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April 12, 2008
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April meeting roundup
- Greg Emery talked about the sky for the month of April.
- Glenn Muller announced an HAA trip to the Cherry Springs Star Party in Pennsylvania at the end of May.
- Mike Jefferson talked about recent observations of the LOFAR radio telescope, including the detection of an
M-Class Solar Flare on March 25, 2008. Click on the picture below to view full graph of this period.
The flare is the spike indicated by the red arrow on the right hand side.
- John Gauvreau, the night's main speaker, talked about ten astronomical items we seldom think about, from Greek geometric calculation of the distance of the Sun, to the minimal separation of neighbour galaxies.

Read more details of the April meeting here.
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March 15, 2008
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LOFAR II Radio Antenna Update for March
Click here or on the picture to see a new plot of readings from the LOFAR II radio antenna. This is a plot of night time residual effects of a ~ B class 4.5 flare detected by the LOFAR II antenna on March 11, 2007. This one hit the other side of the Earth and worked its way around to us on the night side. The GOES spike occurred at about 05:00 and LOFAR II responded about an hour or so later.
Data reported by Mike Jefferson.
Also, Click here to go to the 3-day GOES X-Ray Flux Monitor Website (dynamically updates every 5 minutes).
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March 8, 2008
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March meeting roundup
- Bob Christmas showed his pictures of Comet Holmes and gave some insight into its Fall 2007 outburst. He also showed his pictures of the February 20, 2008 lunar eclipse.
- Mike Jefferson updated us on the performance of the LOFAR II radio telescope. He also paid tribute to the late Dr. Norman Green
- Don Pullen talked about an upcoming grazing lunar occultation.
- Club Chair Mike Spicer talked about the upcoming Messier Marathon.
Read more details of the March meeting here.
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February 9, 2008
January 26, 2008
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HAA LOFAR II Radio Antenna Data Reports Now Automated [Updated]
On Wednesday, January 24/08, Chris Kubiak very kindly offered to come to my house and help us with some minor problems with the LOFAR II radio-x-ray telescope.
His very capable expertise put the instrument on a router with my workstation and streamlined the data collection capacity to send daily observations directly to Stanford University
as well as to my worstation for archival purposes. We are now finished with 'floppy-email-attachments' which have been the standard fare for the last 46 days of operation.
These manual agendas had to be done at the end of each UTC day which is 7:00 PM EST. To date we have logged well over 800,000 observations for the 191-country, UN-NASA SIDMON Radio Telescope Network for International Heliophysical and International Polar Year.
This makes us part of the world's largest telescope array.
THANK YOU CHRIS!
-- Mike Jefferson
Update - February 6, 2008: Click here to view recent LOFAR data now available on the Stanford Solar Center's
SID Database site. This is actual data recorded by HAA member Mike Jefferson's homemade LOFAR radio antenna! Data is indicated by the legend to the right of graph as "LOFAR NAA S-0090-FB-0090".
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January 16, 2008
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January LOFAR II Radio Antenna Reports [Updated]
Click here for latest January reports on the LOFAR II antenna and project. Included is a graph of the January 6 readings.
Update - January 21, 2008: New report for January 20, including new chart showing Jan. 20 readings, with Jan. 6 readings superimposed.
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January 12, 2008
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January Telescope Clinic a Huge Success!
The HAA Telescope Clinic that was held on Wednesday, January 9, 2007, was a huge success. Also, a reporter with The Hamilton Spectator
was on hand with a video camera to cover this event.
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December 31, 2007
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Comet Holmes Movie by Bob Christmas
Click here or on the picture to watch a movie of this past year's outburst
of Comet 17P/Holmes. [611 KB]
This is an animation of six (6) still pictures taken by HAA member Bob Christmas from October 30, 2007 thru November 30, 2007, inclusive.
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December 20, 2007
November 26, 2007
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The LOFAR II Radio Antenna is Up and Running! [Updated]
The LOFAR II Radio Antenna, crafted and built by HAA member Mike Jefferson, is now operational and receiving signals!
Click here for more information on the LOFAR II antenna and project, as well as reports for November and December.
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November 10, 2007
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November meeting roundup
- Greg Emery talked about the sky for November.
- Don Pullen updated the Club about grazing lunar occultations, one of which is coming up on November 17.
- Mike Jefferson updated the Club on the LOFAR II radio antenna project.
- Club Chair Mike Spicer talked about Comet 17P/Holmes.
- Ray Khan talked about his astronomy experiences. He also gave a comparison of the Celestron and Meade hand-held sky locators.
Read more details of the November meeting here.
See pictures in the Meetings Gallery.
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October 20, 2007
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October meeting roundup
- This was the HAA's Annual General Meeting, in which a brand new club council was elected for the upcoming year.
- Mike Spicer presented the “Sky This Month” for October. pdf [1.2M]
- Glenn Muller gave his “Into The Mystic” talk.
Read more details of the October meeting here.
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