With the Binbrook observing site open for the past few nights — thanks to Councillor at Large Bernie Vanasse — various HAA members made an appearance to catch the Perseid Meteor Shower. Despite a mid-week peek making late nights difficult I grabbed my wife, essential gear,  the dog, and headed down to Binbrook to take in the show.

With only an hour to spend under the night skies I quickly setup my camera to record the action while we laid on camping air mattresses. Looking straight up, the skies were busy with celestial highlights. The main attraction did not disappoint with both faint and bright meteors streaking across the sky. The best left visible smoke trails, briefly illuminated by the glow of the meteoroid  itself. Satellites silently moved overhead in high numbers as well as an unexpected fly-over by the International Space Station (ISS).

Continue Reading

In the May 1996 issue of our club newsletter, Event Horizon, Rob Roy wrote an excellent article about this phenomenon. Here is a link to everything you ever wanted to know about Blue Moons.

http://www.amateurastronomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/May1996.pdf

That’s Venus (left) and Jupiter (right) on Thursday, July 2, 2015, 10:03 pm.

Jupiter’s moons, from left to right, I believe, are Callisto, Europa (barely visible as a bump on Jupiter’s upper left limb), Io and Ganymede.

Taken with my Canon 40D through my Tamron 300mm telephoto lens, set at ISO 800 and f/5.6 for 1/2 second. A fixed tripod was used.

Brightened a bit, cropped a LOT, but otherwise unprocessed.

Between the weather and my lack of a western sky here at home, I’ve only had one night that afforded me a view of the conjunction between Venus and Jupiter. This image is from Monday, June 29, 2015, at 10:30pm. It’s always amazing how bright the sky is that late at night, only a week after the solstice.

I was travelling in the Killarney area and this image is taken looking across a small inlet on Baie Fine, a true fjord at the very northern tip of Georgian Bay. The image is from a tripod mounted camera, with a lens set to 24mm at f/4, and an exposure 0.8 seconds long.

Continue Reading

This photo of last night’s aurora was taken by John Crowdis from his home in Alberta. In spite of interference from clouds, moonlight & streetlights, the Northern Lights are prominent in this image. Keep watch again Wednesday night for a possible repeat performance.

There is a major solar storm happening now that could produce strong auroral displays. If skies clear, look up tonight or tomorrow night. For current info on aurorae (Northern Lights), check out this website.

We had another successful public stargazing night, this time at T.B. McQuesten Park on the Hamilton mountain Sat 23 May 2015. We had some thin cirrus clouds to start the night off, but they didn’t impair viewing of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter – all well positioned in the western sky after sunset. Eventually they dissipated and we had pretty good seeing.

Continue Reading

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) and open star cluster NGC 188 in Cepheus, near the north celestial pole.  Taken near Barry’s Bay, Ontario on May 13, 2015 between 10:24 pm & 11:29 pm EDT.  Stack of 30 exposures of 1 minute each; 30 minutes total.  Canon 40D through Tamron 300mm lens at f/2.8, on SP mount.  ISO 1600.

The HAA celebrated Astronomy Day this year at Bayfront Park in Hamilton. We had excellent weather with crystal clear seeing during the day and minimal light clouds during the evening.

Continue Reading

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this season’s inaugural public viewing session in Grimsby, but I did get my telescope out for some solar and lunar viewing on the weekend. After a long and cold winter, the comparatively mild temperatures and clear skies were like a siren’s call, luring me out under the sky.

A week ago I treated myself to a new astro-toy; a Herschel wedge, for white light solar viewing. Both Saturday and Sunday afternoon offered opportunities to test it out, and after comparing different eyepiece and filter combinations, it gave spectacular views that I was very happy with.
Continue Reading