October Members Meeting

Please join us on Friday October 17th for our monthly meeting.  The meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm at St. Matthew’s-on-the-Plains Anglican Church at 126 Plains Road E. in Burlington.  

Our speaker this month is Matteo Statti.  Matteo is a student at York University and he will be speaking about an antique telescope that he purchased in 2022.  His presentation includes how he found the telescope, the process of cleaning the lens and how he determined who the maker of the telescope was.  The maker, Revered Daniel Brand Marsh, was a significant Canadian Astronomer who contributed to the astronomy world in the late 1800’s and was in fact the founder of the Hamilton RASC. 

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October 2025 Event Horizon Newsletter

The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!

In this issue you’ll find;

  • 2025-2026 Event Dates
  • HAA Explorers 2.0 — DIY Space Experiments!
  • The Sky this Month for October 2025
  • 5 Smart Scopes Reviewed and Compared
  • Report from Starfest 2025
  • Eye Candy
  • Upcoming McCallion Planetarium Shows
  • Upcoming Events
  • Plus More

Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.

Photo credit: The Pacman Nebula (NGC281), by Alex Kepic

September Members Meeting

Please join us on Friday September 12th for our monthly meeting.  The meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm at St. Matthew’s-on-the-Plains Anglican Church at 126 Plains Road E. in Burlington.  

Our speaker this month is Dr. Chris Jillings Senior Research Scientist at Snolab.  Dr. Jillings’s talk is entitled “How to Tell the Sun from a Hole in the Ground”.  His talk will include a discussion of the solar neutrino puzzle and how we know with quite good precision exactly how the sun shines.  

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September 2025 Event Horizon Newsletter

The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!

In this issue you’ll find;

  • 2025-2026 Event Dates
  • 2026 HAA Calendar Image Submissions Are Now Open
  • Other Announcements
  • HAA Explorers 2.0 — The Moon’s Influence on Tides
  • The Sky this Month for September 2025
  • Report from Starfest 2025
  • Eye Candy
  • Upcoming McCallion Planetarium Shows
  • Upcoming Events
  • Plus More

Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.

Photo credit: Eagle Nebula (M16), by Ken Leedham.

Public Perseid Viewing Event

Join us this Saturday August 9th for our annual Perseid viewing event. The gates at Binbrook Conservation Area (BCA) will be open from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM to allow the public access to the park.

The BCA is located at 5050 Harrison Rd near Binbrook. Please note that Harrison Rd is closed so you must access the park from the south. The recommendation is to take hwy 56 to Hall Rd, then turn onto Harrison Rd.

June Members Meeting

Please join us on this Friday May 9 for our monthly meeting. Doors open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm.

First on the agenda this Friday is a vote on the resolution to file the articles of incorporation to change the HAA from an association to a not-for-profit organization under the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (2009).  For details please see the email dated Saturday May 10, 2025 or contact Sue MacLachlan at chair@amateurastronomy.org.  Voting will take place in person and over Zoom.  Please consider joining us on Friday and participating in the vote.  

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June 2025 Event Horizon Newsletter

The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!

In this issue you’ll find;

  • 2026 HAA Calendar Image Submissions Are Now Open
  • Other Announcements
  • The Sky this Summer 2025
  • NASA Night Sky Notes
  • Eye Candy
  • Upcoming McCallion Planetarium Shows
  • Upcoming Events
  • Plus More

Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.

Photo credit: NGC 4631 and NGC 4656, by Marc Fitkin.

May Members Meeting

Please join us on this Friday May 9 for our monthly meeting.  Doors open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm.

Our speaker this month is Thomas Deere. Tom holds a BA in Anthropology, BEd, specialists certification for teaching Iroquoian languages and Environmental Education.  He has a deep interest in researching the astronomical knowledge of the Hodinǫhshǫ́:ni, and for many years has been interviewing elders, and investigating anthropological native language texts to identify astronomical wisdom. With this traditional knowledge, he helped to develop a show for W. J. .J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University based on the Hodinǫhshǫ́:ni origin story of the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) constellation.  On Friday, Tom will be discussing the origin stories of the Big Dipper and the Pleiades constellations as well as well as the ceremonial calendar of the Six Nations’ people.

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May 2025 Event Horizon Newsletter

The latest issue of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Event Horizon newsletter is now available for download!

In this issue you’ll find;

  • The 2025 HAA Dark Sky Star Party
  • Announcements
  • The Sky this Month for May 2025
  • NASA Night Sky Notes
  • Eye Candy
  • Upcoming McCallion Planetarium Shows
  • Upcoming Events
  • Plus More

Download the latest issue or visit the newsletters section for past issues.

Photo credit: Crab Nebula (M1), by Bob Christmas.

April Members Meeting

Please join us on Friday April 11 for our monthly meeting.  Doors open at 7:00 pm and the meeting will begin as usual at 7:30 pm at St. Matthew’s-on-the-Plains Anglican Church at 126 Plains Road E. in Burlington.  

Our speaker this month is Dr. Samanthan Lawler.  Dr Lawler is a professor of astronomy at the University of Regina in Canada. She completed degrees at the California Institute of Technology, Wesleyan University, and the University of British Columbia, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Victoria and NRC-Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre.  She studies the orbits of Kuiper Belt objects as well as light pollution from satellites.  She has been advocating for regulation of satellites as her research telescope data and her dark prairie skies have increasingly filled with bright satellites over the past several years, and recently helped to publicize two separate SpaceX debris falls that occurred in Saskatchewan. 

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