The latest issue of our club’s Event Horizon newsletter is now available.
In this issue you’ll find…
Download your copy from the newsletters section.
Photo credit: Partial Solar Eclipse of Oct. 23 by John Gauvreau.
Hot off the press, the 2015 Hamilton Amateur Astronomers Celestial Calendar is now available!
Calendars can be purchased at any club event or general meeting for $15 each or two for $25.
Packed full of beautiful astro-photos from club members, each month will inspire your own astrophotography or visual observing sessions. Each month also includes upcoming celestial events so you can stay up-to-date on great sky events. Any revenue generated from sales goes back into the club to help support club activities.
Be sure to grab your calendar or pick-up a few as gifts before supply runs out.
Well, it’s been almost two months since I took a picture of the Moon, and you’re probably saying to yourself, “Gee, I wonder if John is feeling all right.” Not wanting you to think that there’s something wrong with me, here is a shot of the moon that I took tonight. Yup, John’s a geek and all is right in his world. Now, go outside and look at how beautiful the moon is.
Bill imaged the Sun again today, just before an X3.1 flare was released. Sunspot Region 2192 appears to be be forming a new sunspot group. Check it out…
The largest sunspot region on the sun has now been dubbed the largest sunspot region of the current solar cycle. Here is a closeup view of the area from today (Wednesday, Oct. 22). Image was created by Bill Tekatch with a stack of frames from video shot with a monochrome Grasshopper 3 camera through a double stacked Lunt solar telescope.
This region should add considerable interest to images taken of tomorrow’s partial solar eclipse.
Today, Bill imaged the new, active, sunspot region which is just coming into view on the sun. This region was responsible for an X1.1 solar flare on Saturday, October 18. It will be interesting to watch for possible further developments as this sunspot region rotates into view.
Unbelievably, the rain stopped, the sky cleared, and when I arose at 4am this morning (which was also fairly unbelievable), the moon was bright and full and headed towards the Earth’s shadow and a total eclipse.
I observed with Jim and we had some beautiful views of the eclipsed moon in the brightening sky as dawn came. The moon was red and dark this time, but part of that could have been due to it being so low in the sky.
Here are a few pics that I took. I hope you got out and enjoyed the eclipse this morning, and if you missed it, there will be another next year.
The public night held at Bay Front Park on Saturday night turned out to be a successful event. Even though the weather conditions looked threatening right up to the 7:30 start time of the club’s public night, we lucked out in the end. Just moments before 7:30 the skies cleared and stayed clear for the most part. I counted 8 scopes setup, both members and one scope brought by a couple with a scope they had just purchased, and needed help to setup and use. Of course they got the help from several club members. We didn’t get the crowds we get at some public events, due to the cold temp’s and the cloud cover before we started, but I think we still had 35 to 40 people come out to see us, as well as many members that came out without a scope. Several members gathered at a local Tim’s for coffee later of course, and discussed the fun time we all had.
The latest issue of our club’s Event Horizon newsletter is now available.
In this issue you’ll find…
Photo credit: Comet Jacques (C/2014 E2) by Bob Christmas
Extended Sky This Month
Matthew has been interested in astronomy and space flight for as long as he can remember having several 60mm scopes during the 70’s and and taking his first moon photo through one of them around 1977. Matthew can remember watching a launch blow up on the pad when he was about 5 years old and asking his mom “if that was what was supposed to happen?”. Then in the 90’s Matthew and his wife spent evenings sitting on various beaches while camping learning the constellations and trying to find objects through a 60mm birding scope. It wasn’t until 2003 when Matthew bought an 80mm refractor that his observing really took off. Matthew continued learning the sky on his own until 2008 when he joined the HAA. During that first year Matthew made the mistake of looking through a 12 inch scope at Saturn and needless to say, that led to another scope purchase. Matthew joined the council 4 years ago as Membership Director and then moved on to his current position as Observing Director.
