In my talk and articles, I have often referred to certain free web resources which are useful observing planning tools.
These web pages allow you to locate items of interest in the sky, which vary (such as the location and brightness of asteroids) or are best observed from certain places on earth (such as eclipse paths).
General Meeting for December 9th 2016
Dr. Gord Williams will be talking about the design and construction of the observatory he made at his cottage in the Muskokas, and the challenges and victories involved. He will also share some collected stories about astronomy, and the visual treats he has observed over the years.
The December issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find…
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: The Ring Nebula, David T.
Roger Burrough, the owner of Hamilton’s Camtech Photo & The Scope Shop, has passed away. Roger was a longtime supporter of the local astronomy community and we will miss him very much.
Visitation & services are this Saturday. Details can be found here.
The azimuth for today’s Moonrise is 75 degrees: that is, 15 degrees North of Due East. You will be able to see it from Hamilton and Burlington out over lake Ontario. Bring your compass and you will catch it as it first peeks up. At 98.9 percent full, it’s already pretty super.
General Meeting for November 11th 2016
Almost every day someone enters the store asking how to pick out a telescope and then how to use one. Experienced observers seem to struggle as well. Here are some tips on how to make your observing session fun and productive.
The November issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find…
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: HAA Telescope Clinic, by John Gauvreau
The Hamilton Amateur Astronomers 2017 Celestial Calendar is now available!
This cosmic collection of club member photos is out of this world and set to blast off at the next General Meeting (Nov 11) for $15 each or two for $25. Each month includes upcoming celestial events, historical dates in astronomy, Moon phases and more to keep you informed this 2017. Packed full of beautiful astro-photos each month will inspire your own astrophotography and visual observing sessions.
All revenue generated from calendar sales goes back into the club to help support future club activities! Be sure to beam-up your calendar and don’t forget they also make excellent gifts!
Dec 19, 2016 Update: Hamilton Community News Article
Come join the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers this November 19th between 1 and 4pm for our Telescope Clinic and open house! At this event you’ll find knowledgable amateur astronomers with their telescopes and gear on display and available to answer questions. This is a great opportunity if you’re thinking about getting into astronomy! Learn where to get started, the type of gear you should buy and more importantly avoid. Already an amateur astronomer? This is a great way to take your hobby to the next level and learn about more advanced topics such as CCD imaging, auto guiding and more!
Annual General Meeting, October 14th 2016
“Exploring the ghostly side of galaxies with Dragonfly” with Dr. Roberto Abraham, University of Toronto professor, Dept of Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bigger telescopes are usually better telescopes…. but not always. In this talk I will explore the ghostly world of large low surface brightness structures, such as galactic stellar halos, low-surface brightness dwarf galaxies, and other exotica such as supernova light echoes. These objects are nearly undetectable with conventional telescopes, but their properties may hold the key to understanding how galaxies assemble. I will describe why finding these objects is important, and why it is so devilishly difficult.
I will also describe a bizarre new telescope (the Toronto/Yale/Harvard Dragonfly Telephoto Array, a.k.a. Dragonfly) which is now being used to explore the low surface brightness universe and is testing some of the most fundamental predictions of galaxy formation models. Dragonfly is comprised of 48 commercial 400 mm f/2.8 telephoto lenses which utilize novel nanostructure-based optical coatings that minimize scattered light and ghosting. I’ll showcase some our early results, mainly focusing on the properties of ultra-faint stellar halos. I’ll also report the discovery of gigantic stellar disks underlying nearby galaxies, and will describe the discovery of a new class of ghostlike galaxies that are as big as the Milky Way but have about 1/1000 of its mass.
