Observing

Great shot Ann well done

Nicely done Ann & Bill.

Wonderful! Even if it didn't show up visually through the light pollution of the city, it certainly shows nicely in your photo, even sporting a clearly visible tail! Well done!

Good report Matthew. Thanks for posting.

Nice image Mike and Therese.

I have to echo Matthew and Don. Amazing image! Well done!

Well done Ann!

Nice going Ann!

Update: October 25/11

Keith Mann and his family were at our alternate observing site (Tyneside Road)last night. Here are their observations of the aurora:

Date: 24 Oct 2011
Time: Approx. 2130-2300
Location: HAA Binbrook Site 2 (Tyneside Road) 43.114755, -79.879906

Weather: Clear
Temp: Approx 8C dropping
Humidity:
Moon: None
Darkness: Good, light pollution to north
Seeing: V. Good (4/5)

Observation #: 1
Time: Approx. 2130
Object: Aurora Borealis
Instrument: None
Position: Entire northern sky

First visible as we drove to site. Shimmering curtain-like aurora
visible across entire northern sky, especially western half, above
light-pollution to at least 60 degrees declination. Colour lightening
from bright green (lower) through white (higher). Visible for about 15
minutes. Suzanne's notes:

"Late in the evening, between 9:00 and 10:00, Keith and I drove along
Tyneside Road. I just happened to look up to my right and saw the most
amazing lights: like drapes – green on top and red on bottom – they
seemed to cover the sky no matter where I looked."

Awesome! So great so see aurora agin, Nicely done, Dave!

That's an excellent photos. It really captures the essence that Aurora's are green!

What a beautiful photo, Dave. I love the eerie reflection in the water.

Looks like another calendar photo to me. (hint, hint)

Wow!! Congratulations for capturing the M51 supernova Dave!

Nice images Dave and well done on capturing the supernova.

Anyone have a clear sky? Not me.

Hi Steve, Maybe you could mention at the meeting that cherry springs star party is now taking reservations.

This link takes you to an interesting list of the Messier objects, in numerical order, and photographs

Here is a link to a website that will let you create customized messier lists, to plan your observing.

Here's a link to a chart of messier objects sorted by magnitude, brightest first.
Each one has a clickable link to the wiki page for the item.

The dates for the Cherry Springs Star Party in 2011 have been announced! It'll be May 26th through the 30th, which is memorial day weekend! It'll run thursday through monday, so there's a sunday night included in the star party.

Here's a link to their website

Here's a link to a page showing a record of cases where meteorites have struck things and animals.

Here's a chart of the information on the observing certificate. You can cut&paste this into notepad and print something to use.
If you have already seen the item, check it off. If you see it in the future, write in the date.

It's the first step to making an observing log, something you will treasure for all your life.

Star: Polaris Sirius Vega Betelgeuse
Constellation: Leo Orion Sagittarius Big Dipper
Near Sky Object: An Aurora A Meteor The ISS A Satellite
Star Group: Alberio Gamma Andromedae Coat Hanger E.T. Cluster
Deep Sky Object: The Perseus Double Cluster Andromeda Galaxy M13 M57

Solar System: (you need all of these)
The Moon Mars Jupiter Venus Mercury Saturn Plieades


Bring your paper to the next meeting and we can compare notes!

Wow that's a really nice image!!!

Excellent, Matthew! Friday night was the one clear night that we had, and we watched the Ganymede transit too. The shadow looked very black, and the moon was visible beside it, in front of Jupiter. Glad you had such a good observation, seeing Ganymede as an actual sphere instead of a point of light. That's quite a treat. Thanks for sharing!