I had the great pleasure of joining Jackie and Ed at the Binbrook Conservation Area last night for a very special Canada Day under the stars.
We enjoyed the typically beautiful sunset over the lake and then took in a display of far off fireworks, that were no less enjoyable for their distance. Ready to follow up that display with the celestial one overhead, we were unfortunately forced to wait as the cloud cover increased to the point where the entire sky was lost. First Arcturus, then Vega, Deneb and finally Antares far to the south disappeared. Ed put the time to good use by working out some of the kinks in his lovely new setup. Frustration mixed with humour as the go-to on his mount repeated invited us to look straight down at the ground. Perhaps it really wanted to look at those southern hemisphere deep-sky objects! When the skies finally did clear his 80mm apo gave excellent views of Jupiter and its moons. Banding was clear and detailed. Ed has every reason to be a very happy scope owner, and ED80 has new meaning in Ed’s hands (should we call him ED80 Smith?).
I put a recently aquired camera to use by trying a few tripod shots. 30 seconds on a tripod can yield wonderful constellation shots. My very first astrophotography attempts many, many years ago (can it really be 30 years?!) were similar efforts. Just a tripod, camera and 30 seconds of time is all you need. Back then I had to wait until the film was developed, but below (and above)you can see a digital shot from last night. Hooray for instant gratification!
The final magic of the night’s fire works came not from combustable chemicals or from distant nuclear fusion, but from the gentle fairy-like luminesence of fireflys. As they flew around us Ed even caught one and we enjoyed a few moments up close with this tiny but brilliant visitor.
Thanks to Jackie and Ed for the great company, and hopefully we’ll see you out there at the next observing session of the HAA.
