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Our speaker this month is Dr. Alison Sills from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University, who will be speaking to us on her area of expertise: stellar formation:
Secrets from Stellar Nurseries: The Early Lives of Star Clusters
We know that stars are born out of large clouds of gas and dust. Most stars are born in groups. But what happens next? Do the siblings stick together, moving through the universe together all their lives, or do they disperse and move out of their birth neighbourhood as soon as they can? What influence do they have on their nursery cloud? What if another family of stars is born right next door — do they get together? Using a combination of observations and simulations, I will explore what we know about the early evolution of star clusters.
Dr Alison Sills studies weird stars in unusual places. The stars that interest her have had a strange encounter during their life, such as a collision with another star or an interaction with their binary companion. These events happen more often in dense stellar clusters. Dr Sills uses a variety of computational tools to model the formation and evolution of these clusters and their stellar populations. Dr Sills grew up in Toronto and attended the University of Western Ontario for her BSc before studying at Yale University for her PhD. After postdoctoral positions at The Ohio State University and the University of Leicester in the UK, she returned to Ontario to take up a faculty position at McMaster University in 2001. A full professor at McMaster since 2012, Dr Sills has also served as Associate Dean of Science and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and is currently the Chair of Physics & Astronomy. She has published over 125 research papers with over 6000 citations, has supervised over 50 students & postdoctoral fellows, and has directly managed over $2M in research grants. Dr Sills is involved in the astronomical community at the national and international level, through her membership in Canadian Astronomical Society committees, the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics council, the Canadian Telescope Time Allocation Committee, and an International Astronomical Union steering committee. She has reviewed grant, scholarship, and telescope time applications for granting agencies in half a dozen countries, and been involved with organization of 30 international conferences since 2000. Dr Sills also spends time on outreach activities to bring astronomy to the public, to support women and other underrepresented groups in STEM, and to bring scientists to elementary schools.
Following Dr. Sills’ presentation, we will have a short intermission, followed by door prizes, and then our monthly Sky This Month presentation.
The address for our meeting is the parish hall at St. Matthews-on-the-Plains Anglican Church, 126 Plains Road East, Burlington, ON L7T 2C3. Doors will open at 7:00PM, with the meeting beginning promptly at 7:30
With Artemis II bringing humanity back to the Moon, what better time to head out under the night sky and see our nearest celestial neighbor for yourself, up close and in detail?
This public event is meant to give the beginner stargazer, or anyone interested in seeing the Moon and the planets the basic information they need to get some up close and personal views of our solar system neighborhood.
The event features four short presentations by HAA members:
1:30 – Observing the Moon and Lunar Landing Sites by Chris Szaban
2:30 – Introduction to Telescopes by Matthew Mannering
3:30 – Introduction to the Night Sky by John Gauvreau
4:00 – The Moon and Planets This Winter by Kevin Salwach
In between the presentations, members of the HAA will have their equipment set up and will be happy to answer any questions you might have about telescopes and stargazing in general, and provide you help with any issues you might be having with your own telescope, binoculars or other astronomy gear.
There will also be a Moon themed kid’s coloring station, so bring the whole family!
HAA members are invited to bring out their scopes, equipment and anything else they want to show members of the public, as well as other club members!
The event is located in the program room at Valley Park Library, 970 Paramount Drive, Stoney Creek, ON L8J1L8. Public hours are from 1:00-5:00PM, while HAA members have access from 12:00PM onwards to set up their equipment.
We hope to see you there!
Our speaker this month is astrophotographer Keith Mombourquette, who will be speaking to us about how to automate your astrophotography to save yourself a lot of time and headaches under the stars.
Keith’s talk is titled: “Imaging Automation: How To Get Some Sleep While Imaging”
Are you a sleep-deprived astro-imager? Perhaps its time for you to consider automating your data collection so that you can get a good night’s sleep while your system operates to your pre-programmed instructions collecting data on the target or targets you want to capture. This can range from things as simple as determining when to autofocus and doing a focus run, to a fully automated system that will monitor the sky conditions and start or stop automatically when conditions allow. In the last 3 years, Keith has gone from sitting beside his camera and lens on a tracker to sleeping through the night while his two and often three telescopes are happily collecting photons without worrying about changing weather conditions or power failures. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced imager there are likely things that could be automated in your workflow that would make imaging easier and encourage you to take images when you might not otherwise.
Keith came to Astrophotography late in life. It started as an extension to his nature photography one night in March of 2022. On a whim, after photographing the northern lights he decided to turn his camera to the sky to see if he could capture an image of the Orion Nebula. He was delighted when he got home and stacked the 10 frames he had collected and was able to see the nebula. The next night he was out under the stars with his camera and lens mounted to a star tracker to try for a better image. From that point on, he was hooked. Keith is a Professional Engineer who loves to apply his engineering skills to many aspects of his hobbies. He has used those skills to design and construct a roll-off-roof observatory which he uses any time that the sky is clear – even if only for a few hours at a time. Keith’s images are well received by family and friends, and the local community, with whom he regularly shares them.
Following Keith’s presentation, we will have our usual intermission, followed by door prizes, and then a second guest speaker in place of our usual Sky This Month. Our second speaker is the HAA’s very own Fiza Mehfil, who will be talking to us about her team’s upcoming submission to the CANSAT project.
The CanSat Design Challenge invites teams of Canadian secondary school students to design and build a “CanSat” – a small psuedo-satellite the size of a pop can. Fiza and her teammates will be doing just that over the coming months and will be competing in Lethbridge, Alberta this April with other teams from across Canada. She will be speaking to us during the second half of our meeting to us more about her team, Aphelion 5, and what their project is all about!
The Sky This Month will still be uploaded to our YouTube channel as usual the day of the meeting so you can all watch from home. The address for our meeting is the parish hall at St. Matthews-on-the-Plains Anglican Church, 126 Plains Road East, Burlington, ON L7T 2C3. Doors will open at 7:00PM, with the meeting beginning promptly at 7:30.
Our guest speaker this month is Dr. John E. Moores, Associate Professor at the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science at York University. Dr. Moores will be speaking to us about his book, Daydreaming in the Solar System, taking a journey across the solar system and exploring what it would be like for mankind to experience each of our planetary neighbours.
Following Dr. Moores’ presentation, there will be door prizes and a telescope raffle, followed by our annual Christmas Social, where club members and attendees enjoy coffee and snacks and engage in fun conversation and comradery for the rest of the evening.
Copies of Dr. Moores’ book will be available for $40 (tax included).
We invite those attending to bring some snacks for all to share, as well as a small donation for Hamilton Food Share.
The meeting takes place in the auditorium of St. Matthews-on-the-Plains Anglican Church, 126 Plains Road East, Burlington Ontario. The event will begin promptly at 7:30 PM. This month is an in-person event only, there will be no Zoom broadcast.
Daydreaming in the Solar System: Exploring the Planets with our Five Senses – Our ancestors experienced the five classical planets of our solar system only as points of light in the night sky that appeared to wander amongst the fixed stars. Today, we know these places (and even a few more that our ancestors did not) as worlds in their own right through the data returned from our robotic explorers over the past 62 years. How would those planetary environments appeal to our five senses if we were to visit them in person? In this talk, I will draw on the research and storytelling from my book, Daydreaming in the Solar System, to help us tour the solar system and understand what it would be like to see, hear, touch, smell and even taste immersed in the environments of our planetary neighbors. Through this journey, we will obtain a keener understanding of our universe at a human scale that will deepen our appreciation for our own home, the Earth.
Dr. Moores is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science at York University. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, a recipient of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute’s McCurdy Award and served as the Science Advisor to the President of the Canadian Space Agency from 2022-2024. John holds a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Planetary Science. An author on over 100 articles in planetary science, John has also been a member of five NASA and ESA-led space mission teams.
Webpage:
Book: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049290/daydreaming-in-the-solar-system/
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.ca/Daydreaming-Solar-System-Adventures-Exploration/dp/0262049295
Podcast link:
Please join us, November 14th at 7:30PM for our November monthly meeting.
Our speaker this month will be HAA member Doug Turner, giving the annual presentation of member’s astrophotos as seen in the HAA’s 2026 Celestial Events Calendar. Doug will be speaking with various members of the club about their featured photographs, sharing details of their shots, and unveiling our 2026 Calendar which will be available for sale at the meeting.
Calendars are $15 cash or cheque in person at the meeting on Friday. They will be available for sale soon through the club website – so keep an eye out for that email notice.
Following Doug’s presentation, we will have a short intermission, followed by door prizes, and then The Sky This Month for November presented by myself.
The address for our meeting is in the parish hall at St. Matthew’s-on-the-Plains Anglican Church, 126 Plains Road East, Burlington, ON L7T 2C3. Doors will open at 7:00PM, with the meeting beginning promptly at 7:30.
The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find;
- 2025-2026 Event Dates
- HAA Explorers 2.0 — DIY Space Experiments!
- The Sky this Month for October 2025
- 5 Smart Scopes Reviewed and Compared
- Report from Starfest 2025
- Eye Candy
- Upcoming McCallion Planetarium Shows
- Upcoming Events
- Plus More
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: The Pacman Nebula (NGC281), by Alex Kepic
Please join us on this Friday May 9 for our monthly meeting. Doors open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm.
First on the agenda this Friday is a vote on the resolution to file the articles of incorporation to change the HAA from an association to a not-for-profit organization under the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (2009). For details please see the email dated Saturday May 10, 2025 or contact Sue MacLachlan at chair@amateurastronomy.org. Voting will take place in person and over Zoom. Please consider joining us on Friday and participating in the vote.
Continue Reading
Please join us on this Friday May 9 for our monthly meeting. Doors open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm.
Our speaker this month is Thomas Deere. Tom holds a BA in Anthropology, BEd, specialists certification for teaching Iroquoian languages and Environmental Education. He has a deep interest in researching the astronomical knowledge of the Hodinǫhshǫ́:ni, and for many years has been interviewing elders, and investigating anthropological native language texts to identify astronomical wisdom. With this traditional knowledge, he helped to develop a show for W. J. .J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University based on the Hodinǫhshǫ́:ni origin story of the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) constellation. On Friday, Tom will be discussing the origin stories of the Big Dipper and the Pleiades constellations as well as well as the ceremonial calendar of the Six Nations’ people.
Continue Reading
The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find;
- Announcements
- The Sky this Month for April 2025
- NASA Night Sky Notes
- Total Lunar Eclipse March 14, 2025 Members’ Image Gallery
- Upcoming McCallion Planetarium Shows
- Upcoming Events
- Plus More
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: Lunar Eclipse of March 14, 2025, by John Gauvreau
Join us on Friday December 13th for our annual Seasonal Social. The meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm at St. Matthew’s-on-the-Plains Anglican Church at 126 Plains Road E. in Burlington.
There will be some club announcements and followed by the Sky this Month with Kevin Salwach. This will be followed by door prizes and the Seasonal Social. There is no guest speaker this month.
Potluck finger food treats are welcome. Coffee, tea and water will be provided by the club.
We hope to see you there!
Photo credit: cpliving.com