Is anyone going to Binbrook tonight (Saturday night)?

Tim

Topic: DSLR astrophotgraphy

Speaker: Kerry

It’s tonight, April 7, at the Burlington Arts Center, hosted by the Latow Photographers Guild,
at 7:30 PM. Join Steve G and others who will see the great range of possibilities for telescope-free
astrophotography, benefitting from the excellent optics and sensitivity of modern DSLR cameras.

Those of you who have heard her speak on this topic know this is not to be missed.

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While most of the HAA crew were out at Grimsby, a few of us were many miles away bringing a little sidewalk astronomy to the other end of the Hamilton region.

Two telescopes and three HAA members attracted about 40 people outside of a Tim Horton’s in Dundas. Jim single handedly managed a group of about 20 at once! Visitors were treated to views of the moon, Saturn, the Orion Nebula, the Pleiades and Castor, as well as whatever star the younger visitors wanted (“I want to see that star!”, was heard a couple of times from a youngster pointing at the sky). We were fortunate to have clear skies and a nearby supply of hot coffee and cider. One little fellow even claimed to have seen aliens through my telescope (green ones with three eyes). Although he encouraged me to look and see for myself, the aliens had unfortunately left by the time I got to the eyepiece. Maybe next time!

It was a fun and educational night for all!

A future astronomer gets his first look at Saturn.

A dozen HAA members and more than fourteen telescopes waited for clear skies that never came at Murray Street Park in Grimsby. Members of the public began arriving around 7:00 to check out the telescopes being set up and ask many good questions about astronomy and telescopes.

Views of the Toronto skyline (including the CN Tower) alternated with glimpses of the moon drifting in and out of clouds. A few lucky observers managed to catch Saturn and M42 for a few seconds, but as the clouds gradually thickened, the crowd thinned out and we packed up at about 10:00.

In total, it was estimated that we managed about 50-60 ?Galileo Moments? tonight.

Ann Tekatch

Nice summary, Ann – indeed, what promised to be a nice observing session, early on, turned into a telescope clinic instead. There were many questions about the pros and cons of the different styles of scopes on hand, and the Moon made enough appearances that comparisons could be made.
Thanks to all the members and guests who turned out to make this a worthwhile evening despite the clouds.

Glenn

Jackie F. and I started “The 100 hrs. of Astronomy” a little early.I set up my scope at the Tim’s in Dundas at sunset on Wednesday night.I had many curious folks come over to ask what I was doing. I explained to them that it was I.Y.A. and the 100 hrs. of astronomy was to start on Friday and I was concerned that the weekend weather may not be condusive to doing astronomy.I soon was busy showing people the Moon and Saturn in the still quite light sky’s. As the sky darkened, I had two very interested gentelmen asking to see more. I made an attempt, and succeeded to show them M42,M45,M44,as well as the Double Cluster.This was surprising, as the light pollution at this location is extremly bad, as is the case with most sidewalk astro sites.Jackie showed up about 8:45 and helped me show many more of the neighbourhood people views through the scope, and answered many questions about astronomy. We packed up about 11:30 and had a total of 50 or so Galileo moments, and many great memories.

As part of the International Year of Astronomy, observatories around the world are participating in the 100 Hours of Astronomy (April 2-5, 2009).

Today, Friday April 3, 80 observatories around the globe are participating in a 24-hour live webcast organized by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

(From APOD) The webcast event follows night and day around the globe to visit some of the most advanced observatories on Earth and in space, exploring the universe in visible light and beyond. The Gemini North Telescope (Hawaii, USA) and the large observatories at the summit of volcanic Mauna Kea are scheduled for the first stops in the program beginning April 3 at 09:00 UT. Others on the schedule include the Swift Satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Himalayan Chandra Telescope (Hanle, India), and the 10-meter South Pole Telescope and IceCube Neutrino Telescope (South Pole, Antarctica).

Here is the link to the webcast.

If you miss some of the events, this link also has some recorded sessions for playback at a more convenient time.

And don’t forget that the HAA is also doing our own things with our general meeting tonight (Fri Apr 3) and a public observing night in Grimsby (Sat Apr 4 – see Glenn’s posting below). There may also be some sidewalk astronomy occurring over the weekend so keep an eye on this blog for details as they become available.

Members of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers will be sharing an evening of Astronomy, telescope equipment demonstrations, and viewing of Saturn, the Moon, and other celestial objects.

We will be setting up in Grimsby on April 4th,

(note: the event was a success. there will not be a repeat of it on April 5)
with a rain/cloud date of April 5th, at 8 PM,

and will remain until about 11 PM.

Currently, the rain and clouds are forecast to clear out late Saturday afternoon making for a clear night.

There is a nice promo article in this week’s Grimsby Lincoln News:
http://www.thegrimsbylincolnnews.com/news/article/246033

(The article does say it starts at 7pm – but G&G can be there for any early arrivals)

Those who come early will be able to see what it takes to assemble and set up a telescope.

If you have a telescope, bring it along: we can help set it up and point it at Saturn for you. If you have binoculars, by all means bring them too. Binoculars are an excellent and easy to use way to get more from the sky.

As part of the International Year of Astronomy, we will also have some handouts to interest children and adults.

Detailed directions can be found here:
http://amateurastronomy.org/sites/grimsby_murray/map.php

As the weather for the weekend is looking “iffy” at best, forecasting cloud and rain Fri. Sat. & Sunday,I am going to set up my scope at the park in front of the Tim Hortons on King St. in Dundas.If the sky is clear this afternoon as predicted. I should be there by sunset or shortly after. Please feel free to join me with your scope, or just stop by for a look through mine.

This pretty open cluster skimmed barely above the treeline. Probably as low as I can get in the southern direction from home. It’s in the constellation Puppis and has a little planetary nebula NGC 2438. The cluster is fairly rich with about 150 stars that range from mag 10 to 13. Also nearby is another open cluster M47… which can probably seen in the same field of view with binoculars.

Imaged with the C6-SCT @f6.3 and QHY-8

Crop showing Planetary Nebula NGC2438

Larger version:
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=5075&g2_imageViewsIndex=3

KerryLH

This is my first post so please forgive any mistakes I may make. Three weeks ago, I ordered a 12″ Skywatcher Collapsible scope from KW Telescope. By this weekend, it still hadn’t come in so they lent me their “test-bed” version. I will need help learning how to collimate it correctly, but I gave it a go and was able to use it tonight for the first time. It was amazing! I have never seen so much detail in the Orion nebula, or so many small craters on the moon (I’m used to a 80mm refractor). Collimation wasn’t bad up to about 110x. I am looking forward to Grimsby on Saturday and would appreciate any help from other members on how to collimate properly. Maybe I’ll even have my own 12″ by then.
Hopefully see you all there.