I posted five of my images I took at Starfest earlier this month. If you go to my HAA Gallery page, these are the five thumbnail images on the top row. Click on each for larger views.
Even larger versions of these will be posted on my own web page in the not-too-distant future.

Open cluster NGC6939 and galaxy NGC6946 imaged Thursday night from home with my 80mm scope.
20x3min+darks stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in PS.

By KerryLH
Link to the widefield version gives you an idea of how small they are. http://www.weatherandsky.com/Astronomy/August2007/ngc6939_6946.jpg

While imaging I was enjoying more DSO hunting through the 15×70 celestron binoculars… I was really happy to see M33 which wasn’t even that high in the sky.

That night I saw more meteors than on the peak day. Also noticed one that made an extremely bright flash. I wonder if this is the same one that Tim mentioned when he was up in Tobermory… We both noticed it at around the same time (around 12:30)

The HAA Traveling Road Show made two stops this past weekend and entertained would be amateur astronomers from Hamilton at the Parks Canada Discovery Centre (PCDC), and from Brantford at the Brantford Tourism Centre (BTC).
Friday night at the PCDC saw a crowd of about two dozen guests enjoy presentations on observing by Tim Philp, Glenn Muller, and Mike Spicer. Gusting winds outside made observing difficult, but not impossible, and Glenn, Mike, Steve G, and Kerry LH provided views of the Moon, Jupiter, M13 and Albireo.
The highlight of the evening was the bright overhead pass of the ISS and Space Shuttle combination.
On Saturday, a crowd of about thirty guests who had read Tim Philp’s astro-column in the Brantford Expositor joined HAA members at the BTC to find out more about astronomy and the HAA. On the display table were information booklets and examples of Tim Harpur’s beautiful astrophotography.

Tim P gave an informative presentation and Glenn spoke on the benefits of joining a club.

The weather was even less cooperative than Friday night but the Tekatch’s, Don Pullen, and Glenn set up their scopes anyway for a Q&A session.

Thanks to all those members (mentioned or not) who showed up with their knowledge and equipment. Your efforts were appreciated by all who came out 🙂

Help me identify this object! I got home last night in time to go out and watch the International Space Station and the shuttle go past, and stayed outside afterwards with my binoculars for some observing. The ISS/shuttle configuration was dazzlingly bright at about mag.-4 and right on time (of course!) passing nearly overhead at 9:57pm, but then 6 minutes later another satellite of about magnitude -2 (best guess) went by, following a nearly identical inclination. It started in the NE and traveled up towards the summer triangle but passed just NE of Deneb, when it faded as it passed into the Earth’s shadow. So what was it? I don’t know. Although there are lots of things flying around up there, I cant figure out what else could have appeared so bright. It was not in the same orbit as the ISS (during the 6 minutes since the station passed, the Earth turned to the east so any object following in the same orbit should appear west of preceeding object, right?). Suggestions are more than welcome. And yes, the rest of the night was lovely, with many object appearing beautifully in my binos and even Jupiter’s moons showing very nicely. There are more opportunities for you to see the ISS and shuttle tonight and a lovely overhead pass tomorrow night. Check heavens-above.com for times and maps.

So I spent 4 late hours imaging the Milkyway using an 18mm-125mm zoom set to 30mm f/4 – 6 frames – each frame is a set of 3 x 10 minutes at ISO 400 stacked. Then spent 2 days rotating, stitching, blending, colour balancing…. to get the following image (reduced to less than 2% original size):

Personally, unless printing large scale, I prefer the single frame 10 minute exposure using my 10mm-20mm ultra-wide zoom set to 10mm f/4 (image posted a few days ago) – it looks as good on small scale, no blend lines, and saves quite a bit of time.

Images taken over the past week…. By KerryLH

***Starfest (Friday August 10th)***
Getting set up for a night of observing, astrophotography and meteor scatter

NGC 6992 – Network Nebula ‘part of the Veil’
Canon 300D, C6-SCT, f6.3 focal reducer
9×3-5min + darks
Autoguided with Meade DSI on the Sky-Watcher 80mm Equinox

M16 – Eagle Nebula
Canon 300D, C6-SCT, f6.3 focal reducer
9×3-5min + darks
Autoguided with Meade DSI on the Sky-Watcher 80mm Equinox

***Persied meteor shower night (Sunday August 12th)***
Distant Thunderstorm

***Home in Grimsby (Monday August 13th – last night)***
M31 – Andromeda Galaxy
Canon 300D, Skywatcher 80mm Equinox
15x3min + 4 darks
Autoguided with Meade DSI on the c6-SCT

During this year’s (2007’s) Starfest, we were very fortunate to have gotten clear skies for two nights, and part of a third night, during our stay at The River Place.

The only rain was a few minutes of sprinkles Thursday morning.

IMHO, I’m not a huge fan of tenting, but the spectacular clear skies on the Wednesday and Friday nights, and excellent cameraderie amongst fellow astronomers and fellow club members, not to mention a gazillion Perseid meteors, including a few bright bolides, made the camping part of it well worth it.

Here are more images from Starfest that I took from two of the clear nights. I will post larger versions of these and other images soon:

The Lagoon Nebula (M8) in Sagittarius, from the Wednesday night (August 8, 2007):

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31), as well as its two dwarf-elliptical companions M110 (above) and M32 (below), from the Friday night (August 10, 2007):

When it was all over, on Sunday Morning, it was time to pack it in. Some of us, including a fellow HAA colleague whose tent here says it all, had our work cut out for us, taking everything down and packing it away.

But we all managed to get packed before an approaching cold front from the west brought in rain Sunday afternoon (…what timing!).

Ad Astra!

Bob C.

Starfest gave a number of clear skies – no rain (at least it hadn’t hit yet when I packed up and left at 8:00am Sunday morning). A number of us spent Friday night imaging into the wee hours – and then casual observing on Saturday night – walking around and checking out the other equipment – it was quite a pleasure looking through a 25″ telescope! A few very brilliant meteors were spotted – one that lasted about 3 seconds as it flashed and pieces broke off was a treat.

I’m up in Tobermory for a little more observing – tonight’s forcast for the meteor shower is very promising here.

Tim’s Images from Starfest:

Part of the Milkyway

Veil Nebula (or at least the west part – NGC6960)

M31 (Andromeda), M32, and M110

CLEAR SKIES (and so far NO rain)

Greetings from HAA’s Active (pre-registered) members at Starfest: Today’s beautiful skies will be followed by a grand night of observing (we hope – see the attached CSC). We’ve had one great night already – Wednesday was phenomenal with Kerry and Bob getting some nice images, Glenn and Gail getting the last object needed to complete their Messier list (M74), and Steve Germann discovering faint galaxies like NGC 404.
The most moisture we’ve had was the heavy dew on Wednesday night but we know how to cope and didn’t have to pack it in until 2:30am.
According to Alex Tekatch, Starfest is the most wonderful time of the year.
That’s all for now – stay tuned – your fellow observing members: Alex, Tim H., Ann, Bill, Anthony, Steve, Kerry, Glenn, Gail, Bob, Mike J., Cindy, Stewart, Jackie, Jim, Doug B., Doug W., Marg & Bruce.

PS, did we mention there is no sign of rain…

M16 By KerryLH from Wednesday night @ Starfest

The GWS with fancy new shroud (made by Ann) and improvised counterweight system

Update By Kerry
Currently we are expecting good sky conditions through the weekend!!!!!

Update by Bob Christmas
I arrived at Starfest on Wednesday afternoon (August 8, 2007), about 2-ish. I had my digital imaging setup ready to go at dusk that night, and, here’s one of my results from Wednesday night (2007/08/08). This is the Trifid Nebula (M20), as well as open cluster M21 above it. — Photo by Bob Christmas

*FRIDAY NIGHT*

What a fantastic 2 nights for observing and astrophotography. After the cold front went through Friday evening the skies became crystal clear. I wasn’t able to join the gang in Binbrook so I had to do my observing from the driveway. Since Glenn and Gail live a very short distance away, they opted to keep me company rather than make the long trek out to Binbrook. While my telescope, camera and computer were doing all the work of imaging, I was enjoying the views of many deep sky objects through their 6in dob, and both my 15×70 and their 10×50 binoculars.

Viewed objects: (list provided by Glenn)
-31 Cygni – small blue and gold double stars
-NGC 6940 – open cluster in Cygnus
-M27 – Dumbbell Nebula
-M71 – open cluster in Sagitta
-NGC 6934 – small globular in Delphinus
-NGC 7789 – the Magnificent Cluster – open cluster in Cassiopeia
-M13 & M92 – glob’s in Hercules
-NGC 6210 – planetary in Hercules
-Albireo – blue and gold double stars
-NGC 6543 – “Cat’s Eye” planetary in Draco
-tons of satellites

*SATURDAY NIGHT*

Another great night. I’m surprised that I’m not burned out yet. Anyway while hubby was doing some radio dxing I decided to set up again on the driveway. Another beautiful night!!!! I had problems with my images from Friday night so I decided to try my targets again. M51 and M71. In between exposures I was viewing many targets in my 15×70 Celestron Skymasters.

Viewed Objects in 15x70s:
-m27 dumbell nebula
-m71 glob cluster, in hazy air I was barely able to see this in the my 6in
-m81/82 a very nice pair to look at in binoculars
-m31 Andromeda Galaxy still pretty low in the sky
-m51 surprised I could see this
-m101 – again another surprise to find in binoculars
-various clusters and nebulas above Sagittarius
-various open clusters and doubles in Cygnus, Casseopia, and Lyra

Both nights I was able to make out mag 6 with averted vision at zenith.

M51 By KerryLH
13×3-5min exposures @ iso 800
Canon 300D, 6in SCT on the CG5-GT
autoguided with DSI and PHD Guiding
diffraction spike – copper wire