I was fortunate enough to spend the past week in a cabin on an island in the St. Mary’s River, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. There were two clear nights out of the six I spent there, and they were spectacularly clear and dark. I had my Unihedron Sky Quality Meter with me, and it registered 21.57, even with the Milky Way high in the sky, and I could see magnitude 6.1 at the zenith. That is a very dark sky!

I took one of the club’s 8 inch dobsonian loaner scopes with me along with my own 90mm refractor, and both provided spectacular views. Of course I enjoyed spectacular views of some old favourites, like the Lagoon (M8) and Trifid Nebula (M20), the Swan (M17) and the Eagle (M16), the North America Nebula (NGC7000), the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and many more. The 8″ dob and the dark skies gave much nicer views than I’m used to here in Hamilton with my scope.

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I received this photo from Janina Plach and asked her if I could share it with you. Great photo Janina! Deserts are stunning landscapes by day and equally magical by night. Recently, I had the opportunity to explore Sedona Arizona and try my luck at astrophotography. This red rock formation is named “Courthouse Butte” and was illuminated by moonlight.

Many club members showed up at the Grimsby/ Niagara  Tourist Information Center last night, for another successful public observing night. We had about 8 scopes set up  for the people passing by to get views of the Moon, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. Members spoke to many people, explaining about the club, the night sky, and why we love this hobby so much. Most of the people left with a club brochure,  a planesphere and a big smile. As well as talking to the public, club members had a good time chatting to one another, sharing experiences, ideas, and I know some equipment was loaned between friends. The next public night will be held at McQuesten Park in July. Watch your e-mail for the details.  I hope you can come out and enjoy the night  with us.

The latest issue of our club’s Event Horizon newsletter is now available.

In this issue you’ll find…

• May Meeting Summary
• The Sky This Month
• Scenes From Astronomy Day
• Eye Candy
• Astronomy Crossword

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Even though the conditions last night were not exactly as expected at the start of the evening, as the night wore on, it got better, and lot of work got done. Of the 10 members that came out last night, most had projects to get their equipment sorted out. I had to work out the setup of a new autogider scope and standalone guider, to work together, before I head down to Cherry Springs. Vince Chaisson was working out how his new Celestron C GEM mount works. Leslie Webb was tuning up an older Polaris mount that he hadn’t used for a wile. Matthew Mannering was getting the kinks out of his  Sky Stopper wedge. Most of the group was ready to call it a night by 1:00 am.or so. I think we all where successful with our night’s work, as everyone seemed to be happy.

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Lovely image of the Sun taken by Bill using a 60mm double stacked Lunt solar scope and Point Grey Grasshopper video camera. This image was taken on May 6.

Sir William Herschel, A Model for Amateur Astronomy

Everyone knows Sir William Herschel is an 18th century astronomer famous for discovering the planet Uranus.  Looking a little deeper finds him an avid amateur observer and recorder who kept in contact with other amateur astronomers and never ceased wondering about the heavens.  Although we are separated from him by two centuries, we may find many similarities in the circumstances and methodology Herschel lived.  I suggest that he is a model for us to follow today.

Dr. Michael Spicer is a life-long amateur astronomer, former Observing Director and Chair of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers. He has previously spoken at HAA on subjects such as observing Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon, the astronomer Charles Messier and observing the Messier objects.  A retired attorney, Dr. Mike resides with his wife Therese and a few telescopes in Kitchener, Ontario

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As Jim said, it was a great night at Binbrook and I hope everyone there had as good a time as I did.  Here are a couple of images that I came away with.  I took a few of the sunset before setting up for the night, and after everyone was done I got a camera and tripod shot of Mars and Spica over the trees.

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We had a large group show up at the park last night, I counted 16 cars. the conditions where good even if the dew was heavy . Great views of Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, as well as many deep space objects. All attending said they enjoyed themselves. Two people sent me some photos to post here.  It was fun to get back out to the park after such a long stretch of bad weather, lets hope we can get the park opened more often in the future.

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Photos from Astronomy Day.

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