Follow Us:
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| Next Meeting: |
Friday February 10, 2012 7:30pm
We normally meet on the second Friday of each month except July and August. |
| Speaker: |
Ian McGregor from the Royal Ontario Museum
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| Topic: |
Maya Cosmology and 2012
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| Speaker: |
John Gauvreau
| | Topic: |
The Sky for February 2012
| | Location: |
The Hamilton Spectator Building is located at 44 Frid St, near the junction
of Highway 403 and Main St West in Hamilton. Admission is free. Everyone is welcome!
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| Also: |
There will be a draw for door prizes at the meeting... a free door prize ticket to all who arrive before 7:30 start time!
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| HAA supporting our community: |
| The HAA is collecting donations of non-perishable food for the
Hamilton Food Share program.
We are currently collecting at every general meeting.
There will be a drop-off box located near the entrance to the auditorium.
All donations gratefully accepted. Please help.
Thanks to your generousity, we have collected over 300 pounds of food so far. Let's keep up the great work.
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| HAA Merchandise For Sale: |
HAA Logo Winter Fleece Jackets
The HAA is providing an opportunity for members to purchase quality Fleece-jackets with the HAA logo on it.
These are very warm and great for a cold night of observing or running around town. They are made from
100% polyester anti-pill spun fleece, 8.1 oz./sq yd/273 gsm. 100% polyester taffeta lining.
Front and back contoured side panel seams. Raglan sleeve with coverseam stitching.
Inside pocket. Adjustable shock cord at hem.
| Men's Jacket | Women's Jacket |
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 Jacket Colours
click for larger picture |
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Men's colours available(4): Black, Midnight Navy, Tundra, Heather Charcoal. Sizes: S, M, L, Xl, XXL, 3X, 4X, and 5X.
Women's colours available(4): Black, Midnight Navy, Heather Charcoal, Deep Periwinkle. Sizes: S, M, L, XL, XXL, and 3X.
Cost for any size is $65. Optionally you have can you name embroidered for $10 more. Taxes are already included in these prices.
This is a great price when you consider jackets of this quality start at $75 without any personalization.
Sizing chart is available as PDF or JPG
They can be ordered and pre-paid at the Jan or Feb meetings for pickup at the following meeting, or by E-Mailing the secretary at secretary@amateurastronomy.org.
Orders will only be accepted if accompanied with advance payment.
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| HAA 2012 Calendars: |
HAA 2012 Calendars SOLD OUT!
Thanks to the overwhelming response of our members and non-members, we have sold out of our 2012 calendars.
Regrettably, we are not planning on printing any more calendars.
Our thanks to The Printing House, Hamilton for their co-operation and support in printing our calendars this year.
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NEWS (click on the pictures for more information):
December 9, 2011
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December meeting roundup
Here's what you missed at the December meeting:
- HAA Chair Bob Christmas welcomed everyone and provided some opening remarks.
- EH Editor Ann Tekatch, provided an update on the Telescope Making Group and invited interested
members to visit a meeting to see how it's done.
- Club secretary Jim Wamsley thanked the membership for their continued good support of the local food banks.
He also notified us that HAA member Les Webb has generously donated an excellent pair of Pentax 10x50 binoculars for the
scope loaner program.
- Our guest speaker, John Crowdis, provided a fascinating talk about how ancient understanding of astronomy influenced
early religions.
- HAA Observing Director, John Gauvreau detailed upcoming celestial events, including the
Geminids and a great series of Jovian moon transits, then told us about several great clusters to
observe this time of year, including the double cluster in Perseus, the Pleiades, the Hyades, and the
Alpha Persei Association.
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November 11, 2011
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November meeting roundup
- HAA Chair, Bob Christmas, gave the opening remarks for the evening, including:
- an announcement of the availability of the HAA's 2012 Celestial Events Calendar
- a reminder of our Telescope Clinic coming up on Friday, November 25th at the Spectator Auditorium
- a notice that the telescope making workshops are underway, having kicked off this past Monday
- Our guest speaker, Charles Baetsen, discussed the benefits of an "Ultra-Light Travel
Telescope" and presented some great information on how you can build one of your own.
- More details on Charles' scope can be found in the
October 2011 issue of Event Horizon and drawings are available under the "Tools" page.
- Kevin Salwach presented another installment of "Today In Astronomy"
- HAA Observing Director, John Gauvreau told us about the highlights of
"The Sky for November 2011", including some great tips on observing the ever-popular M31
(and, as an added bonus, his tale of the launch of STS-1)
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October 15, 2011
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October meeting roundup
- HAA Chair John Gauvreau gave the HAA's annual Chair's Report for the past year, and thanked all members of the outgoing HAA Council.
- Don Pullen gave the annual Treasurer's Report, and presented a preview of HAA's 2012 Calendar.
- Jim Wamsley gave his Secretary's Report, informing the audience that more than 300 pounds of food was collected over the past year for local Food Banks, and gave more details about the HAA's Loaner Scope Program.
- The HAA's new governing council for the next year was affirmed.
- Mike Jefferson informed the HAA that the LOFAR II radio antenna has been retired, after some 20 million observations.
- Kevin Salwach gave a talk about various astronomy and space-related events that happened on October 14th in history.
- Tim Philp talked about Observatories, ancient, modern and future, and gave some interesting insight about some of them.
- Steve Germann talked about the sky for October.
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September 10, 2011
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September meeting roundup
- The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Laura Parker of McMaster University, gave a very interesting talk about Dark Matter and Gravitational Lensing. Laura spoke about the types of gravitational lensing, showed some cool examples of gravitational lensing in deep-sky images, and explained how gravitational lensing can be utilized to detect "dark matter" in and around galaxies and galaxy clusters. Laura's talk was so captivating, it elicited numerous questions from our audience!
- HAA Chair John Gauvreau talked about the sky for for September 2011.
- HAA Secretary Jim Wamsley brought in several meteorites to show us.
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June 11, 2011
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June meeting roundup
- The HAA had its astronomy trivia night. A good time was had by all!
- Our observing director, Steve Germann, talked about the sky for for Summer 2011.
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May 16, 2011
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May meeting roundup
- Tim Philp talked about the 13 greatest discoveries in astronomy, from the motion of the planets as seen from Earth, to the accelerating universe.
- HAA member Kevin Salwach gave a brief presentation about what astronomy and space related events took place on this day of the meeting, May 13th.
- Our observing director, Steve Germann, talked about the sky for May 2011.
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April 9, 2011
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April meeting roundup
- The HAA's own Don Pullen talked about the various types of telescopes, eyepieces and telescope mounts available on the market to amateur astronomers and gave some tips to astronomy newcomers on trying out new equipment (and what NOT to buy!).
- Kevin Salwach talked briefly about various astronomy and space-related events that happened on April 8th, 9th and 10th in history.
- Our observing director, Steve Germann, talked about the sky for April 2011.
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March 12, 2011
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March meeting roundup
- The main speaker of the evening, Robert Godwin, founder of Apogee Books, gave a very interesting talk about the history of astronomy, science, science fiction, and space flight.
- Our observing director, Steve Germann, talked about the sky for March 2011.
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February 12, 2011
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February meeting roundup
- The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Ralph Chou, Associate Professor of Optometry at the University of Waterloo, gave an fascinating and informative talk on optometry, the optics of the human eye, and what happens to our eyes as we age. Given his background in both astronomy and optometry, his presentation was given from the unique perspective of astronomical observing, and particularly, the limitations of what older amateur astronomers can see through the telescope eyepiece.
- Our observing director, Steve Germann, talked about the sky for February 2011.
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January 16, 2011
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January meeting roundup
- The main speaker of the evening, Dan Falk, a science journalist who has written for the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, The Walrus, the Boston Globe, the Independent (U.K.), COSMOS, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Sky News, Nature, New Scientist, and Cottage Life and many other newspapers and magazines, gave a fascinating talk about the concept of Time, appropriately entitled "In Search of Time". He outlined the history of human perceptions of time, from the Old Stone Age to the modern age of String Theory and multiple universes.
- Steve Germann talked about the sky for January 2011.
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