Old HAA News from January 2010 thru December 2010

December meeting roundup

• Steve Germann talked about the sky for December.
• The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Doug Welch of McMaster University and a past HAA Chair, talked about Supernova Light Echoes, which are rings and bands of light eminating from recent and not-so recent supernovae, detectable by using ingenious imaging techniques. He discussed and showed fascinating images of light echoes found around such supernovae as SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Cassiopeia A and Tycho.

November meeting roundup

• Steve Germann talked about the sky for November.
• The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Brady Johnson of KW Telescope, gave an interesting and informative talk about the principles of autoguiding for astrophotography. Brady and his business partner, Brian Dernesch, also brought with them a couple of telescopes, as well as numerous accessories and gadgets for observing and astro-imaging. They talked about these, and fielded lots of questions about them.

October meeting roundup

• Don Pullen gave the HAA's annual Treasurer's Report for the past year.
• The new governing council for the HAA for the next year was elected.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for October.

September meeting roundup

• The main speaker of the evening, HAA member Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn (pictured below), talked about her longtime experiences in taking and producing her astrophotos, including how she got started with astrophotography by way of a high school science project! She described how her astrophotography hobby has grown and evolved from simple shots with film to the sophisticated techniques she employs today.
  
  During her talk, Kerry showed numerous fantastic images of deep-sky objects, comets and the moon she has taken, as well as other stunning images on which she collaberated with other astrophotographers.
  Click here to visit Kerry's Weather and Sky website.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for September 2010.

June meeting roundup

• Mike Jefferson announced that we, the HAA, are now a member of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA).
• The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Peter Brown of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario, talked about the Southern Ontario Meteor Network, as well as the Great Fireball of September 25, 2009, fragments of which fell in Grimsby. Dr. Brown explained the various data that the SOMN picked up from this meteor, and he showed amazing video of the fireball from several all-sky cameras located all over Southern Ontario.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for June 2010.

May meeting roundup

• Mike Jefferson gave a brief summary about his recent trip to Australia and New Zealand.
• The main speaker of the evening, HAA Treasurer Don Pullen, talked about Space Science, the latest interesting news in astronomy, cosmology, and various space missions.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for May 2010.

Kerry-Ann's and Stefano's Cone and Fox-Fur Picture appears on APOD!

HAA member Kerry-Ann Lecky-Hepburn's and Toronto astrophotographer Stefano Cancelli's collaborative image of the Cone and Fox-Fur nebulas in the constellation Monoceros, was selected as NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) for April 6, 2010!

Click here or on the thumbnail picture to see their Picture of the Day at the APOD web site.

April meeting roundup

• The main speaker of the evening, Alan Friedman, current president of the Buffalo Astronomical Association, spoke about his famous imaging & post-processing techniques of solar, lunar and planetary images.
  
  During his talk, Alan showed numerous gorgeous images of the sun & solar prominences, craters, mountains and craterlets on the moon, as well as images of Jupiter and Saturn.
  Click here to see Alan's astronomy web site.
• Bob Christmas talked about the sky for April 2010.

March meeting roundup

• The main speaker of the evening, longtime HAA member Ray Badgerow, spoke about his adventures of chasing solar eclipses all around the world, including his most recent eclipse trips to China. See some of Ray's Africa and Iceland eclipse pictures here.
• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for March 2010.

February meeting roundup

• John Gauvreau talked about the sky for February 2010.
• Mike Jefferson showed various charts and graphs showing the recent solar flares picked up by the LOFAR radio-antenna.
• The main speaker of the evening, RASC Mississauga Centre president Randy Attwood, gave a tantalizing talk and audio-video presentation about the Apollo 11 moon landing, and gave insights as to the various occurrences and events that almost made the first manned moon landing fail. Fortuately, the landing succeeded!

January meeting roundup

• Steve Germann and Ed Smith gave a demonstration of their equatorial scope platforms.
• Mike Jefferson gave a talk about the LOFAR radio-antenna, and showed a time-lapse movie of LOFAR curves obtained over the month of March 2008, which showed one obvious solar flare.
• Don Pullen talked about Space Science, including interesting tidbits from around the world of astronomy, cosmology and aerospace engineering.
• John Gauvreau talked about the Sky for January 2010.