Join Us – All Welcome for the Annual Perseid Meteor Shower Event this Saturday, August 11, 2017
Free Admission
Watch the Perseids meteor shower with the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers at the Binbrook Conservation Area from 8 to 11 p.m. on Saturday August 11. Admission is free so bring the whole family for a fun evening under the stars!
The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find…
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: Omega Centauri by Leslie Webb
Join us this June 8th 2018 at 7:30pm – Admission is free and everyone is welcome!
PixInsight, has become a popular image processing software package in recent years, especially for deep-sky astrophotography. Ron Brecher has used PixInsight for all of his deep sky processing since 2009. In this demonstration, Ron will show you how you can reveal the hidden treasures in your deep-sky images with just a few processing steps: crop bad edges, correct gradients, balance the colour, supress the noise, “stretch” the histogram and adjust colour, brightness and contrast. He will also take a few side trips to talk about using masks, deconvolution and sharpening, and managing noise in your images.
Join us this May 11th 2018 at 7:30pm – Admission is free and everyone is welcome!
This talk is for people who are just getting into astrophotography. It will cover various equipment setups, camera sensors and settings and the purpose of lights, darks and flats. The talk will also cover how to choose targets that match your capabilities and your equipment. This is not a talk about image processing however I will touch briefly on image stacking. Please note that although astrophotography can be accomplished with video, Digital SLR or CMOS/CCD specialized cameras, this talk will only cover the use of a Digital SLR camera.
Astrophotography is a hobby within hobbies. To succeed, you need to have at least some experience with cameras and lenses, telescopes and mounts, image processing and a reasonable amount of knowledge regarding the night sky. Even if you can satisfy all of these prerequisites, your learning curve will still be very steep. Hopefully, this talk will help you get started on the path to becoming an Astrophotographer.
Join us for a BBQ and Star Party to celebrate the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers 25th Anniversary. After dinner there will be a brief Night Sky Tour followed by an evening of star gazing. So come prepared!
For full details and to buy your tickets online…
Photo credit: Don Pullen
The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find…
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: Milky Way, Saturn and Mars, by Susan MacLachlan
The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find…
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: Moon, Venus, and Mercury by Bob Christmas
Join the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers this April 7 for our Spring telescope clinic! This year our format is a little different and we’ll have scope-stations setup each covering different aspects of telescopes. Move from station to stating to get a comprehensive understanding of many telescope types, eyepieces, and approaches to astrophotography. Bring your questions and curiosity as many amateur astronomers will be on hand to help you either get into astronomy or expand your existing experience.
Admission is free so bring your family and friends!
Join us this April 13th 2018 at 7:30pm – Admission is free and everyone is welcome!
For millennia, people (including our First Nations) have used the sky as a clock, calendar, and compass. Astronomy thus became deeply rooted in their spirituality, mythology, and culture. This profusely-illustrated, non-technical presentation will describe the astronomy of civilizations ranging from the Polynesians who navigated the vast Pacific Ocean, the builders of Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt, and the Chinese, Indian, and Islamic astronomers who preserved and developed astronomy through Europe’s “Dark Ages”, leading to the Copernican Revolution and our present conception of the universe.
The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!
In this issue you’ll find…
Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.
Photo credit: Waxing Gibbous Moon by Matthew Mannering
