Thursday 30th of April 2015 | Bob Christmas
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.
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.
Capturing the Stars
Kerry-Ann will be talking about her journey in the intense hobby of astrophotography from 2007 up to 2015 and sharing some of the stories behind the many objects that were captured along with her more recent projects and goals.
The April issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available.
In this issue you’ll find…
Download your copy from the newsletters section.
Photo credit: Ann Tekatch, St. Patrick Day Aurora
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.
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Skies were clear and the ‘seeing’ was fantastic for our first public stargazing event of 2015. Club members shared detailed views of the Moon & Jupiter with passersby and visitors who came to the Niagara Gateway Tourism Centre.
Jim Wamsley had his telescope connected to the HAA’s video cam and flat screen. This is a great way to point out various lunar features to guests.
Bernie offered views of Comet Lovejoy through his refractor. Lise managed to find M42 in spite of the light pollution and mechanical problems with her scope’s mount.
I was impressed by spectacular views of the Moon & Jupiter through Tony’s & Mike’s refractors. It’s a treat to peer through a well made refractor.
My 6″ Skywatcher Dobsonian reflector is an excellent beginner’s scope and always a hit with people looking for their first telescope. I spent the evening showing several budding amateur astronomers how it works and what excellent views it provides.
I only managed to stay for a couple of hours before the cold wind got to me, but I enjoyed speaking to all the folks who came out to see us.
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The Waxing Crescent Moon and Venus in the Western Sky
Here is a shot of the Moon and Venus together in the western sky, as promised in the previous post (well, my previous post). Enjoy! (tripod mounted camera with zoom lens set at 200mm)
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Here’s a shot I took of the Moon and Mars last night. They presented a lovely pairing low in the west just at dusk, while Venus shone brightly high above them. Go outside tonight and see how the Moon has traveled up much closer to Venus. (photo is hand held with 200mm lens)
Fantastic auroral display tonight. These images were taken northwest of Hamilton, near Westover. The aurora was visible naked eye, but I couldn’t see colour.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) passed within about a degree of open cluster NGC 457, the E.T. Cluster, the week of March 9, 2015. This image is from Monday March 9, 2015, approx. 9:00 pm to 9:55 pm from Caledonia ON.
M103, another open cluster, is visible at far right. The bright star Delta Cassiopeiae is near lower right. The red emission nebula, Sh2-188, is faintly visible near the comet. North is towards the lower right.
This is a stack of 33 1-minute exposures at ISO 1600 and f/2.8.
I used my Canon 40D DSLR with an Astronomik CLS light pollution clip-filter and my Tamron 300mm f/2.8 telephoto lens on my SP EQ mount.
This was a lot of hard work processing this image; about a dozen iterations of layering and masking….. not including the gradient blending I had to do to flatten the field from side to side a bit better.
