Old HAA News from January 2006 thru December 2006

Make your own Hubble holiday cards!

December meeting roundup [Updated]

• Mike Spicer - The Sky This Month
• Mark Gemmell - Scope Modifications. Followed by many member comment. Also, check out this link to building your own dew heater (submitted by Tim Harpur)
• Tim Philp - Snips and Snails or Sugar and Spice; What are Little Stars Made Of?
• 
  Doorprize

HAA in the news yet again!

Our club has once again been mentioned in the Brantford Expositor on Saturday November 11, 2006.

Cable 14 airing HAA segment

November meeting roundup [Updated]

Mike Spicer gave a presentation on "The Sky for November". Followed by Bill Harris of McMaster University speaking on "The end of the world".

Dr. Harris mentioned the Sir Isaac Newton link at McMaster.

See photos here and here .

Catch the transit on the web!

Origins Public Lecture - 3D Film Nights - "OUR SUN: WHAT A STAR"

The Origins Institute is proud to present a 3D movie entitled "Our Sun: What a Star" at a series of showings at the McMaster 3D theatre (in MDCL 1110). The program will begin with a short film featuring Allison Sekular, Department of Psychology, and Ken Sills, Department of Physics and Astronomy, which describes how a 3D theatre works and how we "see" in 3D (about 16 min). The 3D movie made by Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will follow (about 20 min.). A question and answer period will follow. This project was supported financially by the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Research and High-Performance Computing Support Department, with technical support by the Learning Technologies Resource Centre, RHPCS, and Classroom Audio Visual Services.

October meeting roundup

• Professor Doug Welch of McMaster University talking about "I-Pod Astronomy"
• Mike Spicer's presentation on "The sky this month"
• And Tim Philp's "Cassini Mission" presentation

Telescope Contest [Closed]

The HAA's Second Annual Scope Contest is now closed. The HAA thanks all contestants for their submissions. The prize is a Meade 70mm refractor on an alt-az tripod with an electronic drive, battery pack, and hand paddle control. It also comes with a 6x30 finder, 2 quality eyepieces and a 90° diagonal.

Check our website for the announcement of the winner on or before December 1, 2006!

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image

Planetary Systems and Prospects for Extraterrestrial Life at MACafé Scientifique

Please join us at the next McMaster Café on Planetary Systems and Prospects for Extraterrestrial Life featuring discussion leaders: Dr. Doug Welch, and Dr. Ralph Pudritz both from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, on Wednesday October 4, 2006 at the King Paisley Pub, 1019 King Street West, Hamilton, Ontario at 5:30 p.m. 905-527-7533

Audio Astronomy course online

"Slacker Astronomy" latest podcast

Check out these show notes and latest MP3 podcast from the informative and always entertaining Slacker Astronomy.

Moon libration animation

Several members were interested in where the animated GIF of the phases of the Moon and libration came from.

September 8th Meeting Summary [Updated]

Mike Jefferson updated us on his spectroscopy work.
Glenn Muller described the building of his "dobservatory".
Greg Emery talked about "The Sky this Month".
Mike Spicer gave his "Observing the Moon" talk.
Heather Neproszel gave her talk about this year's lunar occultations of the Pleiades.

HAA in the news yet again!

Our club has once again been mentioned in the Brantford Expositor on Saturday 2 September. The Expositor announced Nina Darrell as the winner of the Expositor's astronomy essay contest. Nina won a Meade telescope donated by HAA's Mike Spicer.

JOHN KIDNER remembered

John Kidner passed away a few days ago and I know several of the HAA members knew him and certainly dealt with him at Perceptor in Schomberg.

Read the full memorial here

The asteroid Phocaea

10th magnitude asteroid Phocaea moves south through Pegasus in September-October 2006, passing by bright stars and many faint galaxies.

Click here to view the finder chart.

StarFest 2006 photos

See some of our photos from StarFest 2006 here.

Chi Cygni: A powerful star

Our club has again been mentioned in the Brantford Expositor recently.

Public Perseid Party

At the Binbrook Conservation Area. A slide show followed by tours of the night sky through member's telescopes at the pavillion. See images here.

Brantford meeting [Updated]

Check out pictures and summaries here and here from the Brantford meeting.

Free A.A.V.S.O. CD

Free for the Asking from Mike Spicer... a 2 CD set from the A.A.V.S.O. with 5,000 variable star charts and a complete AAVSO observer's manual. Something essential for the variable star observer.

Pluto's three moons

Pluto (Visible in 12 inch scopes) now has 3 moons: Charon (visible in 20 inch scopes), Nix and Hydra (visible in 60 inch scopes).

Charon is mag 19. If Nix and Hydra are 1/5000 as bright, that makes them mag. 28. This image is from the Hubble Space telescope.

Dr. Doug Welch on Quirks & Quarks

June Meeting Summary

Click images.

"AstroPhotography from the Urban Backyard" presented by Paul Mortfield Its not always convenient to drag our imaging equipment to a distant dark sky site. Paul showed the tools and techniques used to capture spectacular deep sky images from the convenience of the light polluted backyard. Paul Mortfield has been imaging the sky for almost 40yrs. His images have appeared in Sky & Telescope magazine, NASA publications, plus several books and newspapers. His Comet Hale-Bopp portraits were featured on the CBS Evening News. Paul uses his backyard observatory for research projects and photography.

"Observing Jupiter 2006 Project booklets" by Mike Spicer were available free of charge at the meeting or by downloading here.

Amazing Facts about Australia's Southern Skies

This excellent book written by Dr. Doug Welch for children and adults is loaded with pictures and facts about the planets and many other sites in the night sky.

Orders via email to: bookstr@mcmaster.ca
By phone: toll free 1-800-238-1623 ask for ext 22632
                or    905-525-9140 ext 22632

HAA in the news!

Our club has again been mentioned in the Brantford Expositor on Saturday 13 May, mentioning the HAA observing session May 7th at Binbrook and including an image captured of the Comet 73P/M57 from that event.

Astrophotography Clinic

On Saturday, May 13, 2006 the HAA met at the Teamsters Hall for the Astrophotography Clinic. An informal evening of show and tell where all aspects of astrophotography were discussed and demonstrated. Demonstrators included Tim Harpur, Mike Jefferson, Darrell and Sandy Maude, Mike Spicer, Ann and Bill Tekatch.

HAA May 12 meeting Summary

Radio Astronomy Supplies

Are you interested in Radio astronomy? Here's a site that sells many devices for the radio astronomer.

Astronomy Day [Updated images 2006-05-09]

In recognition of International Astronomy Day (Night), members of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers set up their telescopes in the parking lot at the Hamilton Bayfront Park for a public viewing. Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon were in clear view.

HAA member's pic in the news!

The Brantford Expositor published a photo taken by an HAA member, as part of Tim Philp's Astronomy column 22 April 06. 315K jpeg file

Starry Night Contest

Starry Night's May 2006 newsletter advertises a "contest" where you can send in a photo best demonstrating "Astronomy Day" sentiments.

The prize is a Starry Night Pro 5 DVD set.

Sign up for their May 2006 newsletter here.

Changes in the sky near Comet 73P

Comparing last night's 73P image with the Palomar Sky Survey image from 50 years ago, it appears there have been some changes in the area... possibly there are some variable stars and I have marked the 3 most obvious ones on the comparison image.

Meeting Summary [Updated]

Three speakers and a full house. Mike Spicer "A report on Periodic Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3", Dr. Doug Welch "Adaptive Optics", and Dr. Cliff Burgess "The Drake Equation - Calculating the odds of alien life."

Read more details here, photos here.

HAA Astro Challenge

Raptorfest

Meeting Summary

Greg Emery: The HAA observing database Glenn Muller: Creating a spreadsheet observing log Tim Philp: Books that changed the Universe

Rare Variable Star Outburst

This variable (RS Oph) has brightened to naked eye level for the first time in 21 years!

See the charts here.

New Type Ia supernova

There is a new Type Ia supernova in the Virgo galaxy M100 called 2006X. It is still brightening and will likely get bright enough to be seen in amateur telescopes.

Meeting Summary (new pictures added)

Greg Emery: Observing February Skies Mike Jefferson: Spectra - Part 2 Ann Tekatch: Building a backyard "Sky Shed" Glenn Muller: Hubble's Tuning Fork

Saturn astro-image

New Member astro-images

Planets and Pretenders - Part Deux

"Slacker Astronomy" on iTunes

Want to learn about the latest happenings in astronomy at a fun and informative level? Slacker Astronomy carries weekly 10-minute "podcasts" about interesting and current astronomical stories. You can subscribe through iTunes or download individual MP3 files from the website to listen to on your computer or MP3 player.

Meeting Summary

• Debra Ceravolo: Hunting Supernovae.
• Mike Jefferson: The skies over Costa Rica, and Spectrographic images.
• Mike Spicer: Imaging Saturn and its moons. See the full presentation here
• Free door prize ticket to everyone who arrives BEFORE 7:30pm.

New images by Tim Harpur

The colourful Moon

This picture [description updated Jan 8, 2005] is a composite of many images stacked with Registax photographed by HAA member Hal Mueller.

• Moon Storms
• Moon Fountains

Telescope clinic

The HAA telescope clinic was a real success, read more here.

Cloudy days and Cloudy nights

Have you been imaging alternative subjects under cloudy skies the past 6 weeks? Good news, the sky is blue again! You may have a chance to see the Moon and Saturn this weekend!

Sky Quality Meter mentioned in Feb 2006 Sky and Telescope!

The February 2006 edition of Sky and Telescope contains an article titled "Measuring Skyglow with Digital Cameras" by Tony Flanders on the page 104 which mentions the Sky Quality Meter made by HAA members Doug Welch and Anthony Tekatch.