Join us this June 8^th 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.

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Join us this May 11^th 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.

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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…

• H.A.A. 25th Anniversary Celebration
• H.A.A. Astrophysics Group Report
• The Sky This Month for May 2018
• Noise Analysis of Nikon D5300 DSLR Camera
• Nikon D5300 ISO Invariance Testing
• Eye Candy

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…

• The Sky This Month
• Astrophysics Group Report
• Find the Girl in the Nebula
• Upcoming Events
• Special Cartoon Corner Tribute
• Eye Candy

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.

• 1:30pm, Barry Shermann, Introduction to Telescope Types
• 2:00pm, Matthew Mannering, Introduction to Eyepieces
• 2:30pm, Kevin Salwach, Binoculars Astronomy
• 3:00pm, Sue McLachlan, The Beginning Astronomer’s Library
• 3:30pm, Bernie Venasse, Approaches to Astrophotograhy

Admission is free so bring your family and friends!

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Join us this April 13^th 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.

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

In this issue you’ll find…

• The Sky This Month
• Astrophysics Group Report
• Upcoming Events
• Cartoon Corner
• Eye Candy

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

Photo credit: Waxing Gibbous Moon by Matthew Mannering

Join us this March 9^th 2018 at 7:30pm – Admission is free and everyone is welcome!

Following up Jim Wamsley’s introduction to telescopes in Part 1, John Gauvreau now guides you through what a beginner can expect from their very first views through that scope. From planets to galaxies, small scopes and large, find out what you can really see out under the night sky and how best to see it. Bernie Venasse will then speak about note-taking: why should I bother? and what do I record?

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

In this issue you’ll find…

• The Sky This Month
• The December 2017 General Meeting
• The January 2018 General Meeting
• Cartoon Corner
• Eye Candy
• Upcoming Events

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

Photo credit: Crescent Nebula by Peter Wolsley