Old HAA News from 2007

Comet Holmes Movie by Bob Christmas

Click here or on the picture to watch a movie of this past year's outburst of Comet 17P/Holmes. [611 KB]

This is an animation of six (6) still pictures taken by HAA member Bob Christmas from October 30, 2007 thru November 30, 2007, inclusive.

Article on Mars in The Hamilton Spectator

Click here to read the latest article on Mars in The Hamilton Spectator.

The LOFAR II Radio Antenna is Up and Running! [Updated]

The LOFAR II Radio Antenna, crafted and built by HAA member Mike Jefferson, is now operational and receiving signals!

Click here for more information on the LOFAR II antenna and project, as well as reports for November and December.

November meeting roundup

• Greg Emery talked about the sky for November.
• Don Pullen updated the Club about grazing lunar occultations, one of which is coming up on November 17.
• Mike Jefferson updated the Club on the LOFAR II radio antenna project.
• Club Chair Mike Spicer talked about Comet 17P/Holmes.
• Ray Khan talked about his astronomy experiences. He also gave a comparison of the Celestron and Meade hand-held sky locators.

Read more details of the November meeting here.

See pictures in the Meetings Gallery.

October meeting roundup

• This was the HAA's Annual General Meeting, in which a brand new club council was elected for the upcoming year.
• Mike Spicer presented the “Sky This Month” for October. pdf [1.2M]
• Glenn Muller gave his “Into The Mystic” talk.

Read more details of the October meeting here.

Lagoon Movie by Tim Harpur

Click here or on the picture to watch a movie of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) by HAA member Tim Harpur.

NOTE: This is a Windows Media Audio/Video file [2.6M]. Web link was tested using Windows Media Player 10.

2007 Telescope Contest

It's time for the 2007 Hamilton Amateur Astronomers / Brantford Expositor Telescope Contest!

Read more in the August 18, 2007 astronomy article in the Brantford Expositor.

More details to follow.

September meeting roundup

• Mike Spicer presented the “Sky This Month” for September. pdf [2.4M]
• Jackie Fulton updated us on the trip on Saturday, September 22 to the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill.
• Dr. Paul Wiegert, Professor at the University of Western Ontario's Department of Physics and Astronomy, gave his talk on Meteorites. A meteorite is a rock that arrives at the Earth from Space. Dr. Wiegert discussed the origins of meteorites, dangers they may pose, and had meteorite samples on hand, which were passed around at the meeting.

2007 HAA Silent Lake Camping Trip roundup

Read stories from HAA members' camping trip to Silent Lake this September 2007:

• Glenn Muller's blog report
• Steve Germann's blog report

HAA Photos in the News! August 28, 2007 Lunar Eclipse

Click here to view Hamilton Spectator news item about the August 28, 2007 lunar eclipse, featuring images taken by HAA member Mike Spicer.

Certificate of Appreciation from NASA's "The Space Place"

NASA's "The Space Place" recognizes HAA for its community involvement in science and technology education and inspiration.

Click here to view Certificate of Appreciation from NASA's "The Space Place".

Animated Lunar Eclipe

Starfest 2007 roundup [Updated]

Click here to see pictures from Starfest 2007 in our Starfest 2007 Gallery.

Also, see images and stories from HAA members who attended Starfest 2007:

• Members' blog report 1
• Members' blog report 2
• Members' blog report 3
• Members' blog report 4

Organize The Universe From Home!

Galactic scientists are requesting help in cataloguing millions of galaxies. You can make a meaningful contribution to science by logging on to www.galaxyzoo.org and identifying the structure of galaxies from file photos. A tutorial is provided but, for amateur astronomers, this should be an easy task.

Well, what are you waiting for - spirals on the left, ellipticals on the right, irregulars go in that box over there ;)

Toronto Skyline

Click on the thumbnail for the magnificent full-size version.

June meeting roundup

• Mike Spicer presented the “Sky This Month” for June and July. pdf [2.6M]
• Ann Tekatch talked about the silent auction for the astronomical estate of late Honorary Chair, Jim Winger.
• Mike Jefferson reported on the Club’s LOFAR II project, bringing in his .9 metre antenna, which is close to operational state.
• Club Chair Glenn Muller moderated the HAA Astronomy Trivia contest.

Read more details of the June meeting here.

See pictures in the Meetings Gallery.

An Astronomical Estate Sale

Those who set aside time to attend the Jim Winger astronomical estate sale were well-rewarded on June 9th. The brilliant morning sunshine cast a cheery light upon the rows and rows of books, magazines, and other paraphernalia collected over a lifetime by a man whose interest encompassed cosmology, physics, and electronics.

Read more here.

See pictures in the Jim Winger Memorial Silent Auction Gallery.

Imaging Clinic roundup

Imagers from all over the region converged on the Spectator Auditorium Saturday evening 2 June for the annual Imaging Clinic of Hamilton's very active astronomy club.

May meeting roundup

Door prize

"The Sky This Month" was presented by Tim Philp Main speaker: Mike Spicer "Looking in on Eyepieces" How does an eyepiece work? What is a good eyepiece? What are the various designs of eyepieces? How does one calculate the magnification, field of view and eye relief of a particular eyepiece? These and other thorny issues were dealt with. Download the the presentation here [pdf 1.5M]. Read more with pictures here. See more pictures in the Meetings Gallery.

Astronomy Day - a huge success [Updated]

International Astronomy Day is a celebration to highlight ways the general public can discover the wonders of the Universe. It is an opportunity to view our neighbours in the Cosmos like never before, and to get answers to questions about equipment and astronomy in general.
During the afternoon, HAA members set-up specially filtered telescopes to search for sunspots and view solar flares. In the evening, a wide range of equipment was available for viewing showpieces of the night sky.
Three 45 minute multi-media presentations titled "Into The Mystic - A Voyage Of Celestial Navigation" by Glenn Muller were given in the PCDC Theatre throughout the day and night.

April meeting roundup

• Mike Spicer presented: The Sky This Month pdf [2.8M]
• Rob Cockcroft presented: Extrasolar Planets
  Does life exist on other planets? Perhaps before trying to answer that question we need to ask several more: what kind of planets exist outside of our Solar System, how do planets form, where are planets most likely to be found, what are the methods that we can use to detect them? In his presentation, some of the answers to these questions were covered as well as a broad overview of the current knowledge concerning extrasolar planets.

Unihedron receives IDA award

HAA Members Night at the McCallion Planetarium

On Friday, March 23, the HAA had its Member's and Guest's Night at the soon-to-be-renovated McCallion Planetarium on the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton. Read more Here.

New Saturn images

Here are some new images of Saturn

March meeting roundup

• Mike Spicer presented The Sky for Messier Marathon March
• Tim Philp presented a talk entitled "A Matter of Gravity" which summarized the history of theories of gravity up to and including those of Sir Isaac newton.

Globe at Night

The Globe at night program is an international event taking place during March 8 - 21, 2007 to identify how dark the skies are.

See the writeup in Sky and Telescope online, an HAA member is pictured there.

The Little Red Spot: Closest View Yet

Here is an article and 5 incredible photos/videos in today's IE news that New Horizons just took of Jupiter and environs. This stuff is nothing short of amazing!

Lunar eclipse event [Updated]

The HAA held a Lunar eclipse event on March 3rd at the Parks Canada Discovery Centre from 6pm-10pm. Members set-up scopes and provided information on the Lunar eclipse. A slide show presentation was given in the theatre, and admission was free.

See photos here. Read more here. Lunar photos here.

The Hamilton Spectator mentions the HAA

Jim Winger

HAA in the news yet again!

Dark Matter Observed

I heard this news about dark matter on the BBC news yesterday. There is an amazing digital recreation of the event in it here and a recent story here.

February meeting roundup

• Mike Spicer presented The Sky This Month
• The Celestron Skyscout; The Personal Planetarium
  

  Ray Khan, of Khan Scope Centre, demonstrated and talked about the merits of the Celestron Skyscout Planetarium device which has recently garnered many awards in North America for product ingenuity.

  Ray Khan is an entertaining speaker on astro-related subjects.A member of the RASC Toronto Centre, Ray is also an entrepreneur - the owner-operator of Khan Scope Centre, an astronomy retail store on Dufferin Street in Toronto. If he doesn't have what you want, Ray can find it for you - much faster than any astro-boutique in southern Ontario!

HAA in the news yet again!

Our club has once again been mentioned in the Brantford Expositor on 20 January 2007.

January Scope Clinic roundup

Planetarium Show at McMaster University, Thursday 8th February 2007

Rob Cockroft will be giving three public shows 18:45, 20:00 and 21:15. The show is split into two sections: the first half guides you through some of the constellations we can currently see in the night sky over Hamilton. The second half will look at the exciting area of astronomy concerned with extrasolar planets - planets outside our Solar System! - and where we are currently at and going to in this field. For more information, see the attached poster. If one show is sold out, it may be that one of the alternative times still has seats available. Unfortunately, the planetarium is not currently wheelchair-accessible but the science building is in the process of being refurbished so that it will be within the next year. We are also anticipating an upgrade for the projector, so this may be your last time to see the planetarium with its current one.

January meeting roundup [Updated]

• Mike Spicer - Presented The Sky This Month
• Eric Briggs - Gave a presentation of his work on "The Moon for Microsoft Flight Simulator", results to be seen in the future at AVSIM Online. Bio: A mild-mannered salesperson at Khan Scope by day; at night Eric is an avid observer, talented astro-imager, and member of the Toronto RASC for which he does the Sky This Month presentations.