I travelled out to the alternate site tonight hoping to get a photo of Venus & Mercury. Clouds and hydro wires prevented me from getting a decent shot, but I did snap a couple of interesting photos. One of those photos is of Jim’s new laser/finder apparently burning a hole in the clouds:

Using a green laser to burn holes in the clouds.

Another interesting photo I took was a 20 second exposure of a plane passing through the Hyades.

Plane passing in front of the Hyades star cluster.

Unfortunately, the cloud cover was too thick for just one laser to cut through (LOL) and I didn’t get as many photos as I’d hoped. There’s always next time.

Alan Friedman’s excellent talk included several links
which are listed here for the convenience of those who attended
and did not want to transcribe them, and anyone else who’s interested.

Alan has graciously sent us the links. Thanks, Alan!

The current hydrogen alpha sun (updated every minute.)
http://www.spacew.com/sunnow/index.php

APOD I’m sure everyone knows this one with Kerry’s success here!
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Spaceweather: http://www.spaceweather.com/

Cloudy Nights Forums (my particular favorite is the Solar forum – one of the best solar discussion groups around.)
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php

Alan Friedman’s Site: http://www.avertedimagination.com/

Bob Christmas also mentioned a few interesting links, to follow soon.

Steve

UPDATE FROM BOB CHRISTMAS

A very useful resource for comet hunting is the Weekly Information about Bright Comets Site:

http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

Check out April 6th APOD! (Astronomy photo of the Day)

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100406.html

It’s a spectacular rendition of the Fox Fur Nebula by
Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn (HAA) and Stefano Cancelli (RASC Toronto)

(Kerry incidently will be hosting our Imaging Clinic in April)

Thanks, Kerry, for the great AP you do! I like it!

Steve

Yesterday (Mar 29) was the Full Moon – also known as the Worm Moon which marks the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the thawing of the ground, and the movement of earthworms. The moon will still be quite full tonight and is very pretty just as it rises at sunset in the East-South-East (a nice orange-yellow on Mon night).

This week also has a nice conjunction of Venus and Mercury which are only 3 degrees apart in the West (approx the width of 2 or 3 fingers together held at arm’s length). Once the glare of the sun has gone behind the horizon, look for a bright “star” along the same path where the sun had set. Once you find it, then look to the right or below to find a fainter, but still quite visible Mercury. This pairing will be visible for the next few days with Mercury changing its relative position in respect to Venus each day. (Venus is also moving each day, but not as much.)

Go out just after the sun has set and enjoy wonderful views East or West. You won’t even need any equipment – these are excellent visual and regular photographic objects.

This is a reminder to HAA members that the Cosmology Discussion Group will be meeting tomorrow (Saturday) night. All HAA members are welcome, but as there is limited space available please contact me if you are interested in attending. This is very important as we were near our maximum capacity last time. If you attended previously, then there is no need to contact me, and I hope to see you there.
observing@amateurastronomy.org

The main speaker at the upcoming April meeting of the HAA, Alan Friedman, is being featured on today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA’s site is always informative, and Alan’s spectacular image is certainly worth lingering over. Be sure to check out the APOD site, and be sure to attend the April meeting to see Alan in person. It’s sure to be an excellent presentation!

Follow this link to Alan’s APOD:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100323.html

I arrived there about 6:50 PM and proceeded to set up the GWS for the inspection of the attendees. It was very cloudy and i was assured that they would not clear.

Ann set up a Dob as an additional scope. I also set up the Big Binoculars, and pointed them at a nearby Cell Tower.

Megan Fox (travelling incognito) arrived and posed with me for a photo-op, as my car transformed into a telescope:

Reporters from Rogers Cable and some local newspapers also conducted interviews with me and with our presenters. As usual, Don was also a great spokesman for the club.

The talks went well and I sniped some photos of the proceedings, while keeping one eye on the GWS and the other on the clouds.

At about 9:20 PM, the clouds started to clear. Alas, many of our number had already headed home.

I got this photo of the Moon afocally through the eyepiece:

ADDITION from John Gauvreau:

Well, I think it is also important to mention that besides Steve, there were at least 17 other members of the HAA that turned out to this event. Tim did a great presentation and represented the club well to his hometown, and many others brought scopes in case it cleared up. The efforts of so many members willing to travel out of town on a cloudy night demonstrates clearly that this is an active and dynamic club that works so well because everyone is willing to contribute towards a team effort. The club was so well represented, in fact, that we (sadly) outnumbered the public.

The club owes a big thank you to everyone who travelled all the way to Brantford to help out with this public event. Please forgive me if I don’t remember everyone, but here goes:
Alex, Ann, Bill, Bob, Don, Ed, Kevin, Ed, Jim, Joe, Les, Linda, Wayne, Mario, Marcel and Tim. I enjoyed seeing all of you there!

Hi Everyone,

I will bring the GWS (Great White Scope) and set it up at about 7 PM.

The skies might just be clear enough for some good views, so here’s hoping.

John Gauvreau and Tim Philp will be making presentations indoors,
regardless of the clouds, and there will be a sky tour after the presentations.

I hope to see you all there!

Steve

There’s a really nice picture of the sun by Alan Friedman on the SpaceWeather web site. Alan will be the main speaker at the April HAA meeting. Be sure to see his picture, and his talk!

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2010/18mar10/Alan-Friedman1.jpg?PHPSESSID=3h32ntrl26p11ot33mhukhnt04

http://www.spaceweather.com/

The weather forecast is looking good again for another night of observing. (Hard to believe we’ve had several nice nights in a row!!)

Several HAA members will be heading out to our alternate observing site on Tyneside Rd for some stargazing. (directions can be found on our “About Us” page.) We welcome others to bring their scopes and join us or just come and look through the equipment that will be there.

We’ll be setting up between 7 and 8pm and will stay until we get too chilled or the fog rolls in around midnight.