I was delayed trying to cross the skyway bridge and arrived at Binbrook Conservation Area at about 10 PM. There were already members in the park so i let myself in by operation of the combination lock, drove with lights on to the top of the hill, then put them out to drive the rest of the way, with a tiny flash of the hi-beams a couple of times to make sure i was not driving off the road. Hmmm. I am thinking small tea-lights along the road might guide drivers along that last section.

By then John, Brian and Gavino had all set up scopes, and were looking at Jupiter. My laser pointer was a big hit, allowing John to point out a number of DSO’s and other features of the sky. This was first light for Brian’s scope, so we had to plan for some kind of mishap, which seems to always accompany first light events.

The Milky Way was easy to see, but there was some ominous fog on Harrison road as i approached the park. Pretty soon, while looking for M22 in Sagittarius, Ann noticed it was remarkably hard to find. The answer was that dew had formed on the corrector plate of Gavino’s telescope, and for him the evening was over. We discussed various dew-busting strategies, including taking the scope into the car and letting the heater blow on it for a while, but without a dew shield, it would just dew over again immediately, so it was time to pack it up.

Fortunately, i had my tripod and 15×70 binoculars handy, and we were able to poke around Sagittarius for a few DSO’s including M22 and M16 in the same frame. The lineup at my binoculars got pretty long with all 8 people at the park queuing at one point.

At about midnight, defeated by dew, we packed up and headed for Tim Hortons where, for a change, all the donuts had not yet been discarded. I went home with the intention to buy a 12v hair dryer for dew busting in time for the upcoming Black Forest Star Party next week in Pennsylvania. I failed on that count, but i will get a low wattage hair dryer and plug it into my power tank as the next best thing.

I tried something different last night – I imaged widefield – hand held. That’s right, hand held – no tripod. It’s not a hi-def closeup of any celestial target – but it does show just how far technology has come. The cameras of today are so light sensitive that wide field astro-photography can be done not only without a tracking tripod – but without any tripod at all. The following image was taken with a Canon 40D at 30mm – ISO3200:

And for those that like this – Canon just announced the release of their EOS 50D which has over twice the light sensitivity (and 50% more pixels) than the EOS 40D.

We had two really good nights with clear weather this past week. Although I would have liked to join the gang in Binbrook I ended up staying home. I had some bugs in my setup to work out. One of them being a broken azimuth peg which I fixed thanks to Tim H’s tips. Also, I have been having major problems with the balancing my scopes now that I have a new mounting accessory. THe CG5-GT mount may not be up to the task with out lots of headaches and it may be time to upgrade to a heftier mount especially if I want to image with lots more focal length 🙁

Anyway, once I finally got everything working, my plan was to spend some time concentrating on imaging the Bubble nebula and region. What a surprise to see so many objects in a 400mm focal length image. To capture this region I had to image over two seperate nights. In total I got about 5 hrs of data but had to throw out about an hours worth of subs due to encrouching cloud cover and poor tracking. I still should add more time to it… perhaps next week at a really dark site.

Below: M52, Bubble Nebula, NGC7538 and some sharpless objects which I am not sure of… I need a good star map. Thanks to the Astronimik CLS clip filter for helping me bring out the red regions a little easier with my stock 40D camera.
Larger version: http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=2098&g2_imageViewsIndex=2

The first night I also set everything up to image the California nebula once the bubble region was out of reach. I then went to bed while it ran and was able to pick up 3 hours worth of data. In the morning I was happy to see that no disasters occured with my scopes and mount considering I didn’t do a meridian flip. I’ll post the results after I add just a bit more time to it.

KerryLH

The indications were good for observing last night and for the first time in eight (8) weeks Gail and I opened up the dobservatory.
Our main target was Jupiter and, though it was fairly low, we could still see a fair amount of banding with our 6″ Newtonian. And, there was an extra feature – just below the NEB was the tiny but distinct black dot of Europa’s shadow. The moon itself was still in transit and not visible against the planet, however, Cartes Du Ciel indicated that with a little vigilance we would soon see it emerge from the planet’s limb.
We continued tracking the shadow while I got our 12″ ready for some DSO’s until, eventually, a small blip began grow on the edge of Jupiter. Slowly it gained definition as pale round spot until it separated completely and the moon began to “drift away” from its host.
By then it was dark enough for decent views of the Ring nebula and M13 with the 12″ dob – and a testament to the steadiness of the atmosphere over Grimsby, this night, was how well resolved the individual stars of that cluster were, even at low power – we’ve rarely seen it prettier.
We nabbed a few more favourites after that but, being a worknight, didn’t stay out too late. Fall is approaching and we’ve high hopes for many more such nights in the next few months 🙂

I had a chance to catch the moon rise last night. I had hoped it was going to rise above the Skyway but unfortunately it rose just to the left from my vantage point.

Arriving at the Conservation area, rainsoaked clouds seemed to threaten our night, but as 8 p.m. approached, the clouds dissipated and drifted off to the east, leaving us a beautiful clear sky. A rainbow gave us promise of a great evening to come.
People started to arrive early, even though the skies were still threatening. As scopes were being set up, John G gave a very entertaining presentation on meteor’s to the 25 or so early arrivals. This was well received by adults and kids alike. As the skies darkened, people lined up at the scopes to catch early views of Jupiter and the Moon. We then began serious meteor watching. Throughout the evening, a lot of meteors were seen by many thrilled people. By 10:30 kids were getting cranky, and most of the public observers were leaving. Most club members in attendance, hung in there for some late observing. Wow!! this was another extremely successful HAA public night.

A fisheye view of the HAA Perseid Public Event (taken by Tim Harpur)

About 40 HAA members and members of the public came to Binbrook Conservation Area, were greeted by members at the gate and directed to the pavilion area where we had set up about 6 scopes and plenty of lawn chairs. John gave a very fine presentation on meteors and what to expect in the night sky, also involving some of the audience members in demonstrations of star and planetary orbits. It was an excellent 20 minute talk as the skies darkened and the real show in the sky began.

The moon was up and fogged the sky sufficiently to prevent seeing some of the stars in the little dipper and presumably also washed out some of the dimmer meteors. As Mike mentioned, the meteors are very quick, coming and going within a second. I saw about 10 fireballs over the course of the evening but missed a few beauties that garnered exclamations from some of the crowd members lucky enough to be looking their way.

I set up the GWS in hopes of being able to find Boattini 2008 but it was way too faint to be seen when the moon is up, and the moon did not set until after 1 AM. However the GWS did come in handy for examining a few well-known double stars, Jupiter, the Moon and M13, which looked fine.

I was able to point another members scope at M13. It had a finderscope but the field of view was too small for me to orient on the sky. I groped my way to Alcor and Mizar, then put my laser against the scope tube, adjusting it to point in the direction of Alcor and Mizar. Then i swung the whole scope, laser and all, to M13 and ended up on target.

I served my assigned time at the gate, greeting and dismissing visitors, and then returned to the main crowd in time to help with some of the take-down. After waiting for a couple more fireballs to round out the evening, and providing a feast to a plethora of hungry mosquitoes, i packed up the GWS and left at about 1:30 AM.

I also had a great time despite the weather. We were lucky to have ‘astro celebrity’ Susan French and husband Allen French setup beside us. Both her and her husband were really wonderful people and so nice to talk to. THey definately got me more excited about observing, and checking out the objects that people typically overlook. I was also happy to have had the support of my fellow HAA friends during the Starfest International Salon of Astrophotography. I recieved an honourable mention (3rd place) in the deep sky category for my M42 image (the one I took back in the fall). It was pretty nerve racking at first especially after hearing the critiqing of each of the images. About 45+ images were submitted, which apperently was on the low side of what they were expecting so they had to combine the beginner and advanced categories into one.

We did have a fantastic clear Friday night where I decided to setup for some imaging. I had lots of issues and one of them included a broken dew heater, but I did manage to capture about 14x3min of M31 (widefield) with the Canon 40D and 100-400mm lens, unguided on the cg5-gt mount.

Canon 100-400mm @200mm f5.

Larger version: http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=2080&g2_imageViewsIndex=3

When I needed a break I would pop over to Steve G to see what he was up to. One of the highlights was finding and seeing Comet Boattini 2008 in his scope (the GWS). Pretty amazing since it is mag 13.5…. think of all the other comets that can be found in 16in of aperture.

My relatively inexpensive Costco tent held up alright with some leaks during the monster rainfalls. I also realized that the tent doubled as a ‘poor mans’ Astro tent. I was able to fit my 12in LB under the vestibule and observe most of the lower southern sky from there. It had good protection from the dew, sun and a rain (well sort of). Steve took some pics so perhaps he’ll send me a few so that I can post one.

Overall the talks were really informative and that alone makes it worthwhile to go to Starfest. I unfortunately got home sick and packed up and left right after the dinner and final presentation.

KerryLH

I arrived on Wednesday evening and set up the GWS and my tent, with plenty of time to spare. I started out viewing Jupiter through clouds so thick that at times it could not bee seen with the unaided eye. I was able to see bands on the planet and moons when the clouds were not too thick. Some neighboring campers from Sarnia were there, and we toured the sky comparing views in her 8 inch and my 16 inch for various galaxies.

Don had staked out our prime territory on the hill and i moved in effortlessly. We erected a network of poles and ropes and soon had our HAA banner flying high and proud. We tried making a tarp into a picnic shelter. It held fine but had no wind resistance and soon was flapping. I took it down late at night, just as the lightning was approaching.

A visit to the local hardware store the next day for some pipe clamps perked it up enough to stand all day despite the wind, but when the rains came, it was too much for it again. This time, the pegs were tearing out of the ground. Bring on the spiral tent pegs for next time. With multiple pegs at each corner, it was again standing, but the fatal blow came when the grommet ripped out of the corner of the tarp. We got our $1 worth from it, but it was beyond repair given the tools we had.

Wednesday evening had lots of clear intervals and i stayed up until about 2:30 AM checking various directions for deep sky objects, and watching for early Perseid meteors. It rained overnight and i got a little bit of water in the tent, but fortunately, i had put my air mattress in the lowest part of the tent, and the water collected under it, harmlessly. Thursday evening was also good, with plenty of sucker holes to provide a window to the sky beyond. I tarped up the GWS in time to brace for Friday’s storms.

Friday night was clear almost all night, and i was still up at 5 am when the sun started to rise, chasing Orion into the sky. There were low clouds to the East by then, so it was not worth it to keep observing. Steve, Kim, and Alan from BC were visiting family at the park, and strolled up the hill. It was nice to show them the sky, and i fished up a lot of DSO’s from memory, but needed help to find M17, which Dave provided. The SQM read about 21.02 in the darkest parts of the sky, and 20.7 elsewhere.

I looked for IC289 and was able to find it in the GWS, but it’s pretty faint. Perhaps i will see it again at LSPP and the darker skies will show it more definitely. On Friday i was able to fish up 2 boattinis and Uranus and Neptune. Pluto evaded me. It’s going to be a binbrook object, or perhaps something to find at LSPP.

Saturday night was cloudy at first, but after the entertaining and informative talk about the LHC, there was a giant sucker hole (space between the clouds that blows away) in the sky which gradually expanded to almost the whole sky. It was pretty hard to keep dew off things though. It’s time for me to make eyepiece heaters for the GWS to get things more secure.

I had a long chat with Attilla who came up the hill where he could see an uncovered big Dob out after midnight. I learned a lot about many topics. The upshot is that a bigger scope does better than a smaller scope, and that atmospheric seeing does not degrade the view in a big scope. Bigger really is better. I was very happy to hear that.

Electricity was intermittent, probably due to water getting into the circuits and tripping them. It’s a real convenience to have electricity, and noticeable when it’s gone. For a while I plugged into the VW for power, but eventually, just ‘roughed it’. I was able to get internet connections at intervals, and have a big thank-you for Kerry who upgraded my CDC to have comet display in it now.

Saturday night was much cooler than the previous few nights, and i think i will augment my list of gear for LSPP to handle ‘cold weather’ camping somewhat.

A few days ago I had the opportunity to image this very small 13th magnitude comet. I was only able to capture about 7 x 5 min frames with the 40D and C6 SCT @f6.3 before clouds thickened and it became invisible. Since the comet moved over the course of 35 minutes, I had to use Deep Sky Stackers comet stacking method where it allows you to keep the comet and background stars from trailing. You can see in the image that there is a very small tail.

I’d love to get a visual but haven’t had the chance yet… but I have a feeling that it may be too faint for my 12in from home.

Canon 40D, c6 SCT @f6.3 ISO 800, 7x5min

Location of the comet after 11pm

KerryLH