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Two days before our scheduled public event in Burlington, an urgent plea for help was received via our website:

“I'm looking for some help. I purchased a telescope for my wife. We have not gotten any pleasure out of this as we can't get it to work properly.”

The email was quickly circulated by our ever-vigilant webmaster, Bob C., and Jackie responded with an offer of help. She suggested the couple bring their telescope to our Burloak Park event where a multitude of HAA members could likely diagnose and solve the problem. Alas, the afflicted couple, Dave & Diane, could not attend at Burloak. What was Jackie to do??? She turned to the HAA TELESCOPE SQUAD, of course!

Jim W., Jackie and myself arranged to meet Dave & Diane at the Binbrook alternate site. We armed ourselves with tools, spare batteries, eyepieces, charts and binocs and headed out to fix that telescope!

When we got to the site, Dave & Diane had already arrived. The telescope was quickly set up and inspected: a nice 130mm f/5 reflector on an equatorial mount! Collimation was within acceptable limits, so we left that task for another night. We determined that the plastic sleeve connecting the motor drive to the RA shaft had been snapped off at some point in time and the motor was not driving the scope. A screwdriver was produced, the RA motor removed and the slow motion control knob installed. We set the mount’s latitude adjustment to about 43 degrees and turned the scope to face north. Beautiful views of the gibbous moon were enjoyed by all and it was easy to track the moon by simply turning the RA slow motion control knob. A new battery was installed in the red dot finder and the Squad began the hunt for the night’s prize: Saturn.

Jim W.’s eagle eyes spotted two bright spots just above the hydro lines across the road and we swung the scope into action! First Mars appeared and a quick glance was all it took to see just about all there is to the red planet right now: its colour. Finally, the jewel of the sky slid into the eyepiece and the view was offered to the telescope’s owner who had waited two years for this moment. “SATURN!” cried Diane. High fives all around! Various eyepieces were shared and their views compared. (Another benefit of joining an astronomy club: the chance to try out different equipment without having to buy it first!)

Finally, to top off a night of firsts – a view of Jupiter and its moons. Two happy telescope owners have finally gotten pleasure out of their telescope!! Chalk up another successful rescue mission for the HAA Telescope Squad!

Ten HAA members braved threatening skies to bring astronomy to the people of Burlington last night. Despite heavily overcast skies and occasional light showers, close to 100 members of the public were on hand, some from as far away as Toronto after seeing the event posted on our website!

At first, we entertained the crowd with glimpses of ship & channel marker lights on the lake; distant park signs and whatever else we could find. Most of the visitors had very thoughtful questions about the equipment, astronomy and our club. John G. brought a meteorite and spent some time doing “show and tell”. Steve G’s remote controlled UFO was a big hit with the kids! Heather displayed some fantastic images of Jupiter taken earlier in the week.

Miraculously, about 10:00 p.m., the clouds began to break up and we spotted the moon. Lineups formed at the 6 telescopes and 2 pairs of tripod-mounted giant binoculars we had set up. Two visitors had brought telescopes in the hope someone could show them how to use them. We helped and the telescopes were soon put to good use! The clouds continued to dissipate until Jupiter and other objects came into view. Natasha, an eight year old aspiring astronomer, spotted the only meteor of the night!

Matthew and Brenda were busy all night long offering views through their giant binoculars. Jackie set up her borrowed Starblaster reflector and I used Alex's Astroscan telescope as examples of very kid-friendly telescopes. Steve G.’s giant 16” Lightbridge attracted a lot of attention as did the computerized GOTO telescopes of Heather, Jim and Ed.

What a fantastic event! It was the perfect way to put our new banner to good use. We’ll definitely be going back to Burlington!!

P.S. I'm hoping others will add to this post and attach any photos they have.

Jim proudly displaying our new banner

Heather & the crowd ignoring the rain

Installing a rain filter.

From John,

The magic that so often accompanies our observing sessions followed us to Burlington and as Ann so capably described, gave us and our many guests great views of the sky on a largely rainy night. I had the pleasure of meeting many interesting and interested people including a youngster half my height (and far less than half my age!) who very properly explained to me why Pluto is not considered a planet any more. I asked if he thought Pluto's demotion was a good thing or whether he would like to see it considered a planet again. He said that the current status he had explained to me, was correct. I told him that I liked Pluto anyway. The enthusiasm of the youngsters was infectious. Here are a few pics:

Undeterred by rain, enthusiasts gather at dusk for a night of astronomy.

A line up waited to look through Steve's 'scope.

One of our smallest visitors sizes up our biggest scope.

Tired but happy HAA members relax after a very successful public event!

JULY 12TH - WIND, RAIN, WAVES OF CLOUD...

The thunderstorm threat kept me from driving to the Burloak Public Night (how did that go?). I took the wet shroud off the pier mount and attached a 6" Mak while standing on a soggy carpet. As evening wore on the gibbous Moon emerged from waves of windswept cloud, enough for me to marvel at two craterlets in Plato and the terraced walls of Copernicus.

Once it was dark, I dodged cloud banks to capture a dozen 30 second images of M27 to compare with those taken with the 80mm apo a few nights ago. By 11:30 Jupiter had cleared the trees and I showed banding on the planet's disk, 4 beautiful moons and the about-to-be-occulted star to some neighbours who dropped by.

All in all, not too bad for a thunderstorm evening.