When I mentioned a few weeks ago that Gail and I were looking for company, on a camping trip to Silent Lake Provincial Park, I got four immediate takers. Stewart Attlesey, Cindy Bingham, Marg Walton and Bruce Peart all knew the park well and, by the designated weekend of September 7-9, Steve Germann and Don Pullen would also book sites.
For those not familiar with this spot, the park is located about twenty minutes south of Bancroft and, more importantly, in the middle of a large ?blue zone? on the light pollution map which means the night skies are really good.
I thought we might be pushing our luck weather-wise but, apart from gusty winds Friday afternoon and rain showers late that night, it was perfect for camping. The lake was warm enough for swimming and we would canoe, bike, fish (but not catch), and hike when we weren?t socializing at one camp or another. Friday night was warm enough to sit around in t-shirts and there were no mosquitoes.
Saturday night the temperature dropped but that only made for a perfect night of observing. Out at the day-use area, Steve and Don set up at dusk and were soon joined by the rest of us. By 9pm, the Milky Way was a broad highway of stars and we set to work collecting photons in Steve?s 16? Lightbridge, more commonly known as the ?great white scope? (GWS).
One of the first objects was M82. The folks that live in that galaxy must have been partying on Saturday night because the entire cigar shape was so bright it was as if they all had their lights on! Aperture definitely rules.
We also had good views of Uranus, Neptune, and NGC 7009 which is the Saturn Nebula – an object that exemplified the winning combination of a large mirror, premium eyepiece, and a dark sky. It would be our most modest equipment, though, that would reveal the rarest sight of the night. The Pleiades cleared the tree-line just after midnight and I turned Gail?s Starblast, a 4 ½? reflector with a 3 degree FOV, toward them. The whole asterism fit nicely in the eyepiece and after coming to a sharp focus I noticed a haze around the cluster. Being well-acquainted with the effects of dewed optics, I switched oculars. The haze remained so I pulled out my 10×50 binoculars and found that the effect was even more pronounced due to the greater contrast from the wider FOV. I called Gail, Steve, and Don over to confirm and there was no doubt; it was the famed Pleiades Nebulosity, often photographed but very elusive to the visual observer.
By the time we packed up, we?d also spotted several satellites and about a dozen bright meteors which didn?t appear to have a common radiant. We also caught a deer, in the headlights, as we drove back to our camp.
It was a great weekend and I can think of at least eight HAA members who can?t wait to go back.

I had such a busy day today so I finally just got around to doing some image processing. So here is my late report…

THe picnic was great and the solar system hike was a lot of fun. It was nice seeing all the members and their families. During the afternoon many scopes were set up for sun spot and solar flare viewing. As the evening wore on, the Binbrook scenery started to get very pretty.

After getting my scope and AP gear set up and aligned I started to image M17 (swan/omega nebula). I never really had an interest in imaging this target but I decided to give it try anyway especially since it won’t be high in the sky for long… and really I am so happy that I did. I experimented a bit to see what the results would be like if I used the 6in SCT without the focal reducer… so I was imaging at f10 instead of f6.3. making my scope a 1500mm lens. Because of this, it made it harder to get good tracking (with DSI on the 80mm as autoguider) on the stars so I had to limit my exposures to only 2.5 min each. I collected over 1 hour of data. Because of the long focal length, M17 took up a decent portion of the frame, so I only had to do a bit of cropping. I’ll post the higher res and full frame version on my website when I get the chance.

M17 Swan/Omega Nebula

KerryLH

Here is a a widefield composite of the lower south sky containing the Lagoon, Trifid, Swan, and Eagle nebulae and a couple of clusters. Imaged at the HAA picnic – multiple 4 minute exposures stacked and stitched – shot at 135mm f/5 x 4 minutes each @ ISO800.

It is easy to conceive that Binbrook Conservation Area is an under-used resource when you only see it at night. That illusion was shattered, in a nice, way, when HAA members showed up on the Sunday afternoon of Labour Day Weekend for a picnic. The beautiful weather had brought families out in droves and it was fortunate that the HAA had the foresight to reserve a pavilion for the day.

Gail and I arrived about 2:30pm, left a Club cheque at the gatehouse to cover costs, then politely asked a family to vacate the afore-mentioned pavilion on which we hung the HAA banner. Turns out, though, that it was my white scope that members homed in on as they arrived shortly after.

By 4:30pm, just over a dozen of us were scanning the Sun for spots (two tiny ones) and flares (3 nice ones) after which we went on a Solar System hike. This consisted of hanging small placards, representing the Sun and planets, from tree limbs along a trail at intervals to scale with their actual distances. While the inner planets were all within 2 dozen paces Pluto was over half a mile away. It was a great way to explore areas of the park we had not previously seen. As we retraced our steps, we saw other strollers stopping to read the cards, their interest obviously piqued.

Everyone had brought a picnic supper, and some extra nibblies to share, and it was nice to see a couple from Brantford, who wished to join the Club, fit right in.

By 7pm, several more members showed up to take advantage of the exceptional conditions for observing and imaging until shortly after the Moon rose, about 11:30pm. While I only remembered my camera as the Sun set (see picture below), I hope that others will post their pictures of what was another memorable HAA event.

Update by Tim Harpur
We couldn’t have asked for a better day (and night) for the HAA picnic.

After taking a short walk through the solar system and eating – I set up for imaging through my 135-400mm telephoto APO lens. I mainly imaged wide field of the lagoon, trifid, eagle, and swan. The following image is the Eagle (top) and the Swan (lower) imaged at 168mm f/5.6 – 2 minute exposures stacked.

I opted to join Glenn and Gail at their dobservatory since they are only a couple of minutes drive away, and there would only be a limited time for DSO observing before the moon rise. As always it was a very relaxing evening. I usually bring the bare bones with me in terms of gear since Glenn has a really good line up of interesting objects to view through their 6in scope. That evening, I was really impressed with the incredible sky conditions especially considering they live right in town. I was able to clearly make out the milky way through most of the evening, even as the moon was getting up to 20 deg above the horizon. We ended off the observing session with the moon, where we spent some time along the terminator.

Tonight should be another great night and since I will be going to Binbrook tomorrow, I may just opt out again tonight and set up from home on the driveway. Nothing like the comforts of home and crystal clear beautiful night skies.

Glenn’s Addendum:

Gail and I always enjoy Kerry’s company and enthusiasm for astronomy. Our sessions take the form of conversation as we “stroll” across the sky stopping occasionally to take in items of interest.
Last night we compared views of objects we had seen at Starfest noting, in particular, how light pollution can give them a different look.
One new object, that I hadn’t logged before, was open cluster NGC 6802 in Vulpecula. Not what you might call a showpiece, perhaps, but still worth a look and an item I will likely check out for comparison if the skies cooperate at Silent Lake next week.

I awoke early and packed the car for the trip to Binbrook.

Then i decided to try to observe the eclipse from Burlington.
Starting at about 5 am, the moon was very bright and half obscured by
the Earth’s umbra. With my glasses on it was so bright i got double images
and a lot of glare.
As totality approached, it dimmed nicely until i could view it without
the glare. I forgot that due to the size of the earth, the umbra is large compared to the penumbra. Probably the earth’s penumbra is about as wide as the moon, considering the geometry of a solar eclipse.

I quickly constructed my tripod and put my finder-scope on it,
equipped with a zoom eyepiece. The moon was setting fast behind
the houses and trees.
I was able to view the eclipsing moon clearly as totality approached, and
even managed to snap a few time exposures with my pocket camera.
Alas it came too fast for my DSI so that’s going to have to get first light on another occasion.

I noticed Orion and the M45 overhead, and that the sky was starting to brighten for dawn.

The edge of the moon still illuminated was very bright and sharp,
but it also had a kind of shimmering nature to it, as if the
sharp edge of the moon against the sky was moving just a little,
like the surface of an ocean.
The time scale of the motions seemed to be 1-2 seconds, not the rapid
scintillation i am used to from stars.

The moon faded into low cloud just after totality, and i lost it,
but i did get a good impression of the rapid dimming towards the end.
I was surprised to note that even though it was all within the umbra, parts were still darker in the middle of the umbra. The moon lit by a circular
arc of sunsets from half the world made a nice sight.

I put my pocket camera on my tripod and made this 4 second exposure near the start of totality.

One of the nice things about eclipses is that no two are alike. This morning’s lunar eclipse certainly had its own unique flavour.
I didn’t have transportation to the alternate site to join our fellow intrepid observers, so I observed from my neighbourhood here in Dundas. The partial phases were high enough in the sky to see from my home. I have always thought that a scope is the best way to photograph an eclipse, but binoculars often give a better view, so I used my 15×70 binos for some lovely views. As the moon got lower I was surprised to encounter my next door neighbour outside at 4 in the morning and let him look through the binos too.
As the moon got lower I set off on foot to view totality from a nearby cemetery that has a hill. I had hoped that the elevation would give me a good vantage point but I quickly abandoned it due to some very poorly placed trees (no, the spookiness of being alone at night in a cemetery was not a factor. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!) I walked on to a park at the base of the hill (I love the leisurely pace of lunar eclipses that allow you to wander like this) and found a spot to view and take a few pictures from. The spot had already been found by another observer who was armed with Canon 15×30 image stabilized binoculars. We traded views through our binos and although I have always been impressed with the IS binos, the view of the dim eclipsed moon was greatly enhanced by the larger aperture of my good old 15×70 Oberwerks.
In the light of morning I had my third encounter of the day when walking home. A gentleman was out tending his garden and upon seeing me walking by with camera bag, binocular and tripod asked if I had observed the eclipse. We had a nice chat during which he explained that he had just bought a cheap department store telescope but had not assembled it yet. I offered tips, cautions and, of course, and invitation. He, along with the others that I met, was given info on the HAA and encouraged to come out to our very friendly club. Amateur astronomy and amateur astronomers are all around us. How nice to come upon some of them by chance.
I don’t have one of these new fangled digital cameras, so you’ll all just have to wait until I get my film developed to see my pictures. I hope that your eclipse was as good as mine.

Ok… yes I am crazy! I woke up really early with the intention of going into Binbrook… if it wasn’t fogged in. At home it was perfectly clear until I drove out onto the road. Then a wall of fog hit. I called work (in Oakville) to see what the sky conditions were there and it was perfectly clear and fairly dry. So I decided to head in early so that I can set up in the parking lot. Turned out to be a great idea since I didn’t have to rush anywhere for my 7 am shift. A few people came out and enjoyed the view and told me how nuts I was.

Lunar Eclipse
By KerryLH
Canon 300D on the Sky-Watcher Equinox 80mm telescope

Update by Tim Harpur
I managed to image from my appartment balcony – it started clear – the middle was clouded – then ended clear again. I didn’t bother to use my tracking GT mount – instead I just set up my on my camera tripod and used my 400mm telephoto lens. I made a short video of shots taken roughly every minute, but even reduced to 200×200 it is 1.36MB so I can’t post it here (it has now been posted on the main page below the CSC) – instead, here are a couple single shots. (Note: Unlike Kerry’s images which show nice detail of the redenned eclipsed area, my images only show the shadow over-taking the moon. I had kept my exposures to 1/60th of a second to avoid trailing as I wasn’t using my tracking mount – I was just informed by Kerry that at these powers an untracked photo can be exposed for much longer – her shots are also untracked – but for 2 seconds. Good to know! I’ll have to do some more tests with un-tracked imaging)

I posted five of my images I took at Starfest earlier this month. If you go to my HAA Gallery page, these are the five thumbnail images on the top row. Click on each for larger views.
Even larger versions of these will be posted on my own web page in the not-too-distant future.

Open cluster NGC6939 and galaxy NGC6946 imaged Thursday night from home with my 80mm scope.
20x3min+darks stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in PS.

By KerryLH
Link to the widefield version gives you an idea of how small they are. http://www.weatherandsky.com/Astronomy/August2007/ngc6939_6946.jpg

While imaging I was enjoying more DSO hunting through the 15×70 celestron binoculars… I was really happy to see M33 which wasn’t even that high in the sky.

That night I saw more meteors than on the peak day. Also noticed one that made an extremely bright flash. I wonder if this is the same one that Tim mentioned when he was up in Tobermory… We both noticed it at around the same time (around 12:30)