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)

The HAA Traveling Road Show made two stops this past weekend and entertained would be amateur astronomers from Hamilton at the Parks Canada Discovery Centre (PCDC), and from Brantford at the Brantford Tourism Centre (BTC).
Friday night at the PCDC saw a crowd of about two dozen guests enjoy presentations on observing by Tim Philp, Glenn Muller, and Mike Spicer. Gusting winds outside made observing difficult, but not impossible, and Glenn, Mike, Steve G, and Kerry LH provided views of the Moon, Jupiter, M13 and Albireo.
The highlight of the evening was the bright overhead pass of the ISS and Space Shuttle combination.
On Saturday, a crowd of about thirty guests who had read Tim Philp’s astro-column in the Brantford Expositor joined HAA members at the BTC to find out more about astronomy and the HAA. On the display table were information booklets and examples of Tim Harpur’s beautiful astrophotography.

Tim P gave an informative presentation and Glenn spoke on the benefits of joining a club.

The weather was even less cooperative than Friday night but the Tekatch’s, Don Pullen, and Glenn set up their scopes anyway for a Q&A session.

Thanks to all those members (mentioned or not) who showed up with their knowledge and equipment. Your efforts were appreciated by all who came out 🙂

Help me identify this object! I got home last night in time to go out and watch the International Space Station and the shuttle go past, and stayed outside afterwards with my binoculars for some observing. The ISS/shuttle configuration was dazzlingly bright at about mag.-4 and right on time (of course!) passing nearly overhead at 9:57pm, but then 6 minutes later another satellite of about magnitude -2 (best guess) went by, following a nearly identical inclination. It started in the NE and traveled up towards the summer triangle but passed just NE of Deneb, when it faded as it passed into the Earth’s shadow. So what was it? I don’t know. Although there are lots of things flying around up there, I cant figure out what else could have appeared so bright. It was not in the same orbit as the ISS (during the 6 minutes since the station passed, the Earth turned to the east so any object following in the same orbit should appear west of preceeding object, right?). Suggestions are more than welcome. And yes, the rest of the night was lovely, with many object appearing beautifully in my binos and even Jupiter’s moons showing very nicely. There are more opportunities for you to see the ISS and shuttle tonight and a lovely overhead pass tomorrow night. Check heavens-above.com for times and maps.

So I spent 4 late hours imaging the Milkyway using an 18mm-125mm zoom set to 30mm f/4 – 6 frames – each frame is a set of 3 x 10 minutes at ISO 400 stacked. Then spent 2 days rotating, stitching, blending, colour balancing…. to get the following image (reduced to less than 2% original size):

Personally, unless printing large scale, I prefer the single frame 10 minute exposure using my 10mm-20mm ultra-wide zoom set to 10mm f/4 (image posted a few days ago) – it looks as good on small scale, no blend lines, and saves quite a bit of time.

Images taken over the past week…. By KerryLH

***Starfest (Friday August 10th)***
Getting set up for a night of observing, astrophotography and meteor scatter

NGC 6992 – Network Nebula ‘part of the Veil’
Canon 300D, C6-SCT, f6.3 focal reducer
9×3-5min + darks
Autoguided with Meade DSI on the Sky-Watcher 80mm Equinox

M16 – Eagle Nebula
Canon 300D, C6-SCT, f6.3 focal reducer
9×3-5min + darks
Autoguided with Meade DSI on the Sky-Watcher 80mm Equinox

***Persied meteor shower night (Sunday August 12th)***
Distant Thunderstorm

***Home in Grimsby (Monday August 13th – last night)***
M31 – Andromeda Galaxy
Canon 300D, Skywatcher 80mm Equinox
15x3min + 4 darks
Autoguided with Meade DSI on the c6-SCT

During this year’s (2007’s) Starfest, we were very fortunate to have gotten clear skies for two nights, and part of a third night, during our stay at The River Place.

The only rain was a few minutes of sprinkles Thursday morning.

IMHO, I’m not a huge fan of tenting, but the spectacular clear skies on the Wednesday and Friday nights, and excellent cameraderie amongst fellow astronomers and fellow club members, not to mention a gazillion Perseid meteors, including a few bright bolides, made the camping part of it well worth it.

Here are more images from Starfest that I took from two of the clear nights. I will post larger versions of these and other images soon:

The Lagoon Nebula (M8) in Sagittarius, from the Wednesday night (August 8, 2007):

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31), as well as its two dwarf-elliptical companions M110 (above) and M32 (below), from the Friday night (August 10, 2007):

When it was all over, on Sunday Morning, it was time to pack it in. Some of us, including a fellow HAA colleague whose tent here says it all, had our work cut out for us, taking everything down and packing it away.

But we all managed to get packed before an approaching cold front from the west brought in rain Sunday afternoon (…what timing!).

Ad Astra!

Bob C.

Starfest gave a number of clear skies – no rain (at least it hadn’t hit yet when I packed up and left at 8:00am Sunday morning). A number of us spent Friday night imaging into the wee hours – and then casual observing on Saturday night – walking around and checking out the other equipment – it was quite a pleasure looking through a 25″ telescope! A few very brilliant meteors were spotted – one that lasted about 3 seconds as it flashed and pieces broke off was a treat.

I’m up in Tobermory for a little more observing – tonight’s forcast for the meteor shower is very promising here.

Tim’s Images from Starfest:

Part of the Milkyway

Veil Nebula (or at least the west part – NGC6960)

M31 (Andromeda), M32, and M110