June meeting roundup

• Mike Jefferson announced that we, the HAA, are now a member of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA).
• The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Peter Brown of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario, talked about the Southern Ontario Meteor Network, as well as the Great Fireball of September 25, 2009, fragments of which fell in Grimsby. Dr. Brown explained the various data that the SOMN picked up from this meteor, and he showed amazing video of the fireball from several all-sky cameras located all over Southern Ontario.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for June 2010.

May meeting roundup

• Mike Jefferson gave a brief summary about his recent trip to Australia and New Zealand.
• The main speaker of the evening, HAA Treasurer Don Pullen, talked about Space Science, the latest interesting news in astronomy, cosmology, and various space missions.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for May 2010.

Kerry-Ann's and Stefano's Cone and Fox-Fur Picture appears on APOD!

HAA member Kerry-Ann Lecky-Hepburn's and Toronto astrophotographer Stefano Cancelli's collaborative image of the Cone and Fox-Fur nebulas in the constellation Monoceros, was selected as NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) for April 6, 2010!

Click here or on the thumbnail picture to see their Picture of the Day at the APOD web site.

April meeting roundup

• The main speaker of the evening, Alan Friedman, current president of the Buffalo Astronomical Association, spoke about his famous imaging & post-processing techniques of solar, lunar and planetary images.
  
  During his talk, Alan showed numerous gorgeous images of the sun & solar prominences, craters, mountains and craterlets on the moon, as well as images of Jupiter and Saturn.
  Click here to see Alan's astronomy web site.
• Bob Christmas talked about the sky for April 2010.

March meeting roundup

• The main speaker of the evening, longtime HAA member Ray Badgerow, spoke about his adventures of chasing solar eclipses all around the world, including his most recent eclipse trips to China. See some of Ray's Africa and Iceland eclipse pictures here.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for March 2010.

February meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for February 2010.
• Mike Jefferson showed various charts and graphs showing the recent solar flares picked up by the LOFAR radio-antenna.
• The main speaker of the evening, RASC Mississauga Centre president Randy Attwood, gave a tantalizing talk and audio-video presentation about the Apollo 11 moon landing, and gave insights as to the various occurrences and events that almost made the first manned moon landing fail. Fortuately, the landing succeeded!

January meeting roundup

• Steve Germann and Ed Smith gave a demonstration of their equatorial scope platforms.
• Mike Jefferson gave a talk about the LOFAR radio-antenna, and showed a time-lapse movie of LOFAR curves obtained over the month of March 2008, which showed one obvious solar flare.
• Don Pullen talked about Space Science, including interesting tidbits from around the world of astronomy, cosmology and aerospace engineering.
• John Gauvreau talked about the Sky for January 2010.

December meeting roundup

• Don Pullen talked about upcoming HAA Events for 2010. Stay tuned to this website for further details.
• Mike Jefferson gave a show an tell on various winter outerwear suitable for winter observing.
• John Gauvreau updated us on the latest astronomical news and events.
• John also talked about the sky for December.

November meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for November.
• The main speaker of the evening, IYA Lecture series speaker Roberto Abraham, gave a captivating talk about the early universe, and how the first stars formed shortly after the Big Bang.

October meeting roundup

• Mike Jefferson gave another update on the LOFAR II radio antenna.
• Jim Wamsley talked about "sidewalk astronomy".
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for October.
• The new governing council for the HAA for the next year was elected.

September meeting roundup

• Mike Jefferson gave the club an update on the LOFAR II radio antenna.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for September.
• The main speaker of the evening, HAA member Tim Philp, gave a talk about Galileo, the history of the man, and his discoveries.

June meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for June.
• The main speaker of the evening, Past HAA chair Glenn Muller, gave a talk about the history of astrophotography, from its beginnings in the 1840's, all the way to the present day.

May meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for May.
• Mike Jefferson presented a 1932 film of the total solar eclipse of that year. The film shows the totality of the eclipse in surprisingly good detail and quality.
• The main speaker of the evening, Phil Mozel of the Ontario Science Centre, told a variety of stories about Greek history, including about how a lunar eclipse influenced the Battle of Syracuse. He talked about other historical events involving astronomy. He also talked about his recent visit to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, and about this observatory's future plans to detect dark matter.

April meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for April.
• Our special guest of the evening, Bob McDonald, gave an captivating talk about his favourite places in space. In it, he weaved many tales about the moon, Mars, Jupiter & its moons, space tourism, among other topics.
  

Summary of HAA Trip to York University

On March 21, 2009, the HAA embarked on a bus trip to York University Observatory to take a tour of the facility by Dr. Paul Delaney, the director of the observatory, and two of his undergraduate students. A great time was had by all. The only regret was the clouds preventing us from observing the sky from the observatory's 60cm and 40cm telescopes.

Read more details about the trip here.

Click here to view York University's schedule for public viewing at their observatory.

March meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for March.
• Margaret Walton gave a slide show talk about her and Bruce Peart's recent astronomy safari through southern Africa.
• The main speaker of the evening, Dave Makepeace, gave an intriguing talk about his many solar eclipse trips to some of the most exotic places on Earth, from China to Libya to Antarctica. In doing so, he presented several amazing video clips of those solar eclipses he witnessed and filmed.

February meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for February, including the appearance of Comet Lulin.
• The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Christine Wilson, talked about how Millimeter Wave Astronomy can be used for imaging spectacular galactic collisions and also regions of quiet star formation in galaxies like the Milky Way. Dr. Wilson showed how it can probe into the cold dark regions of space where stars, planets and galaxies form. During her talk, she showed interesting radio images of the interacting "Antennae" galaxies in Corvus, and of nebulae in Orion. She also talked about the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) being built in Chile, as well as her upcoming work on this array in furthering our understanding of the origin of structure in the universe.

January meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for January.
• The main speaker of the evening, Paul Mortfield, talked about setting up and controlling a remote telescope in the Sierra Mountains of California using today's off the shelf technologies. He highlighted his talk with many stunning astrophotos taken with this setup.

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.

December meeting roundup [Updated]

• 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.

Read more details of the December meeting here.

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.

Report on HAA's 15th Anniversary Dinner

A splendid time was had by all attendees at the HAA's 15th Anniversary Dinner at the Mandarin in Hamilton last Friday!

Read the full report on the HAA's 15th Anniversary Dinner here.

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.

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.