Subject: Down and dirty astroimaging
Down and dirty astroimaging
July 22nd, 2014 at 1:50 pm EDTHello Friend, Many amateur astronomers eventually dabble in some sort of astrophotography. Some get hooked, and go on to become real experts. A couple of local Toronto people that come to mindare Michael Watson, and Lynn Hillborn. Now these guys do ...
M51 with spiral arms, observed from Downtown Ottawa
July 21st, 2014 at 11:07 am EDTHello Friend, Some might say that you can't believe much coming out of Ottawa these days. But they would be talking about Parliament hill. And I'm just not going to touch that one with any size pole. Imagine my surprise one day when I got an email ...
The Lazy Man's way to astronomy
July 18th, 2014 at 1:34 pm EDTHello Friend, Just to be clear, when I say "Lazy man", that applies to both genders, so no one is being excluded. :) Suburban astronomy, as I mentioned yesterday is sometimes overlooked, and folks only wait tillthey get out of the city, to the cotta ...
How to effectively stargaze from the city
July 17th, 2014 at 10:39 am EDTHello Friend, There is nothing that quite beats observing from a dark sky. Having said that, I know of several people that do the majority of their stargazing from suburban skies. And the fact of the matter is, that you actually can see many objects, ...
Well, ain't this just dandy
July 15th, 2014 at 12:18 pm EDTHello Friend, You will recall in yesterday's email, I had mentioned the song 'Don't cry for me Argentina', which I creditedto Pop Star Madonna, who had a hit with it in the late 90's. Well, turns out that reader Caroline Lane, who seems to be quite k ...
Don't cry for me Argentina
July 14th, 2014 at 12:02 pm EDTHello Friend, The past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride for World cup soccer fans. Ups and downs, that left many fans shaking their heads in disbelief. Pop star Madonna, had a hit with the song "Don't cry for me Argentina" many years ago, b ...
Stargazing on Manitoulin Island: A dark sky preserve
July 11th, 2014 at 1:11 pm EDTHello Friend, Some of the best skies are in Ontario's north. And if you head North to Manitoulin Island (about 7 hours NW of Toronto), you will reach "Dark Sky Preserve"country. My buddy, Paul Beduhn, is the manager of Gordons Park, which is a dark s ...
One of the smartest amateur astronomers I ever met
July 9th, 2014 at 12:58 pm EDTHello Friend, Many an amateur astronomer started out years ago with a Tasco telescope. Tasco is generally a brand name maligned by amateur astronomers, and sometimes people do make fun of themand I myself had a 60mm Tasco Model 9-t as my second tele ...
The eyepiece is 50% of your telescope
July 8th, 2014 at 10:26 am EDTHello Friend, Sounds incredulous doesn't it? However, it's true. When I think back to the first Tasco refractor I used many years ago, and how difficult it was to use,what I remember most of all was struggling to look through the eyepiece. The basic ...
When Elvis met Richard M. Nixon; When two stars collided!
July 7th, 2014 at 2:23 pm EDTHello Friend, Some stories are hard to believe, and this is a true one. Back in 1970, the late singer Elvis Presley flew to Washington, DC with the intention of meetingthen President, "Tricky Dick", Richard M. Nixon. Presley checked into a hotel, and ...