Hi Everyone! December’s meeting is being held on December 3rd, at 7pm. We have some amazing presentations in store. David Pianosi of Belleville will be telling his story of his love for Astronomy and his connection to Sudbury. Brian Colville returns to give us part 3 of his series of talks on Solar Astronomy, this time focusing on Hydrogen-Alpha filters and the types of equipment one can use.
Agenda:
1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward
2. David’s Astronomical Adventures – David Pianosi & Alan Ward (15 min)
3. Show & Tell (10 min)
4. Break (10 min)
5. Introduction to Solar Astronomy: H-Alpha, Part 3 of 3 – Brian Colville (45 min)
6. What’s Up Doc?
7. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge
This month’s Presentations:
David Pianosi will join us from Belleville recounting his passion for astronomy chronicled from his childhood spanning over 50 years! Alan will add a Sudbury connection to David’s story.
Also in tonight’s program will be returning champ Brian Colville with part 3 of his talks on Solar Astronomy, this time extolling on us the virtues of Hydrogen-Alpha filters and equipment.
Note: You must be on the mailing list to receive the Zoom meeting invitation. The meeting links will not be posted in the newsletter, or the website. This is for security purposes. To request being on the mailing list, please contact us using the contact form via our website, or contact Patrick on Facebook. For those subscribed, look for the invitation link to be followed later after the newsletter. If not found, please check your spam folder. Thank you.
Hard to believe, but November 5th marks the anniversary of our club’s 40th Anniversary! This RASC Centre, as the Sudbury Astronomy Club, was born in 1981. We’ve had an amazing 40 years, and to celebrate, we will be presenting a number of things related to our club’s history over the coming months. This month, Stargazer Steve will be giving us an overview of the amazing things we’ve accomplished together. Come along for the ride! November 5th, 7pm.
Agenda:
1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward 2. Four Amazing Decades! Steve Dodson – Description on the page below. (45 min) 3. Show & Tell (10 min) 4. Break (10 min) 5. Brian Colville on White Light Solar Observation 6. What’s Up Doc? 7. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge
Featured Presentation: – Stargazer Steve
Four Amazing Decades: A Journey in 40 Years!
This is our 400th meeting! Join Stargazer Steve on a journey as he show us that our Four Decades of Friendship and Bold Initiatives have brought many outstanding successes!
And this is only the first part in a series celebrating our rich 40 year history! Join us as we celebrate.
Note: You must be on the mailing list to receive the Zoom meeting invitation. The meeting links will not be posted in the newsletter, or the website. This is for security purposes. To request being on the mailing list, please contact us using the contact form via our website, or contact Patrick on Facebook.
Due to conflicting events at this time, there will be no meeting held this Friday. We will regroup in November, with the possibility of a Hybrid zoom/in-person meeting. This will coincide with a very important anniversary for our club. Details will be forthcoming.
Photo by Colin Durocher as seen from his own telescope and beamed all over the world!
For several months in Winter – Spring 2021, the North Bay Astronomy Club worked with Graham Jones of the international website timeanddate.com to plan a live broadcast of the June 10th Annular Eclipse of the Sun from Northern Ontario. This broadcast can now be viewed through the Time and Date website, or directly through Youbtube (found here). Bill Montague and Dave Roscoe of the North Bay club along with Graham spread the idea to Sudbury RASC, where Linda Pulliah inspired the key people to get involved.
Shortly after 3:00 AM on June 10th, teams from the North Bay Astronony Club and Sudbury RASC Centre gathered at sites with a clear view of the Northeast. North Bay found clear horizons on a hill-top near Trout Creek, while Sudbury RASC set up at Dynamic Earth.
Sudbury RASC’s setup at Dynamic Earth. – Photo by Norm Hey
The North Bay team included Club President Bill Montague, Dave Roscoe, Randy Currie and Bob Chapman. Bill was interviewed by Reuters International and by Graham Jones. Both North Bay and Sudbury Teams provided live feeds of the Eclipse from their telescopes to international webcasts through NASA and Time and Date. The New York Times post-eclipse article cited the work of both the North Bay and Sudbury teams.
Luc Boulard streaming to NASA. – Photo by Norm Hey
The Sudbury Team included Linda Pulliah, Olathe MacIntyre, Norm Hey, Colin Durocher, Luc Boulard and Alan Ward, who set up two of his refractors. They started off focused on setting up, adjusting, and polar aligning their telescopes. Then there were computers, cameras, and internet connections to check out.
With all the equipment running as smoothly as possible, in the remaining darkness, they offered views of Jupiter and Saturn to visitors, and engaged in outreach activities. There was even a man who showed up with full welders mask to view the eclipse directly.
Most enthusiastically reaching out to visitors before and during the Eclipse was Linda Pulliah. She advised on viewing safety and handed out Eclipse glasses. Olathe set up a Hydrogen Alpha Scope to bring out detail in the otherwise bland surface of the un-eclipsed part of the Sun. Norm set up his filtered 5-Inch Refractor for solar viewing (the second setup for the night for him! – He had earlier night been imaging the Asteroid Vesta from his driveway!)
Luc mounted a computer-interfaced Canon camera on Linda’s 4-Inch refractor and prepared to track the Sun with his Skywatcher motorized mount. He covered the Eclipse for NASA, received comments in many languages mentioning him by name on NASA’s website. Colin had a similar setup with his computer-interfaced Canon camera mounted on his 9.25-Inch Celestron SCT. He made the upload link from his computer to the world-wide-web with his cell phone!
Another view of Luc streaming to NASA – Photo by Norm Hey
Graham and Anne launched the Eclipse Program on TimeandDate.com at 5:00 AM, and images of the brightnening twilight sky in the Northeast from Trout Creek appeared on screen at 5:15. The view from Dynamic Earth originating from Colin’s unfiltered SCT appeared a few minutes later. As sunrise approached, Colin’s uploaded video grew more and more colourful! Cloud near the horizon actually made Colin’s images more picturesque.
Live view from Colin’s unfiltered SCT
At 5:39 watchers of timeanddate.com saw the horns of the crescent-shaped eclipsed Sun poke above a distant cloud deck, a thrilling view! A minute later, the North Bay crew was showing the World the complete solar crescent in monochrome, the sun having risen out of the cloud.
At 5:41, Colin’s unfiltered view dramatically showed the solar crescent breaking free of the golden cloud layers. His video became the most compelling component of the Time and Date.com Eclipse Program. Colin’s images and video feed were also picked up and re-broadcast by NASA, and featured around the world. Rumor has it it was even featured on Jimmy Kimmel! Eclipse Hype was real!! Both Sudbury and North Bay views were unquestionably becoming viral!
As the Sun rose into the clear sky, all telescope operators were imaging through solar filters, and the uploaded images revealed rapidly-changing shape, width, and orientation of the partially-eclipsed Sun.
Around 7:20, with the Eclipse substantially over, the the broadcasts highly successful, Bill, Randy and Dave relaxed in lawn chairs, and chatted with Graham in an informal, but highly enthusiastic interview online from their remote hill top.
Bill, Randy & Dave interviewed by Time and Date after a highly successful event!
This is the first time Sudbury and North Bay Amateur Astronomers put together their knowledge of telescopes, imaging, and communications technologies to broadcast an astronomical event to the World, and it was an astounding success!
Sources: Both the North Bay Astronomy Club and Sudbury RASC Centre, and TimeandDate.com You all came together to make it happen smoothly and without a hitch. Hats off to all of you! We would also like to thank the media in giving us our 15 minutes of fame. Below are articles where both of us are mentioned.
At 5AM, on June 10th, there was an Annular Eclipse. If you didn’t get up in the early hours of the morning to see it, you can still watch it via a recorded live-stream.
Thanks to TimeandDate.com who organized the streaming event, RASC Sudbury Centre and our friends at the North Bay Astronomy Club, among several other organizations, footage of this Annular eclipse was beamed all over the world, including to NASA TV. The results were fantastic! Mother Nature it appeared, hadn’t crashed the party afterall!
More information about the Eclipse is to be found on TimeandDate.com
Have you ever wondered how a telescope mirror is tested? Find out how on Friday at 7pm in a live demonstration by Alan Ward as our featured presentation.
Agenda:
Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward
“LIVE” Testing of Astronomical Optics in the Computer Age – Alan Ward (40min) Description Below
Show & Tell
Break (10min)
From the Archives
What’s Up Doc?
Gearing Up for Solar Maximum: Part 1 – About H-Alpha Telescopes – Alan Ward (10min)
Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge
Featured Presentation: For over 100 years amateur & professional telescope makers have relied on a simple but very effective Foucault Tester for evaluating the surface quality of lenses and mirrors. Although highly accurate in its ability to reveal minute imperfections, the Foucault Test requires the user be highly skilled in his/her ability to properly interpret the characteristic ‘shadows’ it produces. This has always posed a problem in that readings taken by the human eye are subjective and prone to misinterpretation. Due to these misinterpretations, the test has been limited in its ability to produce repetitive measurements necessary for the production of high quality large aperture mirrors. Alan Ward will present “LIVE” the workings and advantages of his video / computerized testing system which produces consistent readings regardless of who is conducting the test.
Note: You must be on the mailing list to receive the Zoom meeting invitation. The meeting links will not be posted in the newsletter, or the website. This is for security purposes. To request being on the mailing list, please contact us using the contact form via our website, or contact Patrick on Facebook.
Hi Everyone! First of all, a brand new newsletter for you all, completely redesigned from the ground up. Will be tweaking it over the next several months. We have some great talks for you for this month. Trevor Chandler of KW RASC will be our main speaker, talking to us about the environments near Perseverance’s landing site. And in the Second half of the meeting, Alan Ward will be talking about the best possible optical design for both planetary and star images, that is both practical and economical. As usual, everyone is welcome.
1. President’s Address/Welcome – Alan Ward 2. Sudbury RASC Newsletter Rejuvenated – Patrick Dodson 3. Featured Presentation: Trevor Chandler (KW RASC) – The physiographic and paleo fluvial and lacustrine environments near the Perseverance Landing Site 4. Break (10min) 5. Alan Ward: What is the best telescope optical design which provides the sharpest star and planetary images possible that is both practical and economical to build? 6. What’s Up Doc? 7. New Product Reviews 8. Closing Comments/Open Discussion
Note: You must be on the mailing list to receive the Zoom meeting invitation. The meeting links will not be posted in the newsletter, or the website. This is for security purposes. To request being on the mailing list, please contact us using the contact form via our website, or contact Patrick on Facebook.
Heads up, there WILL be a Zoom meeting this Friday, at 7pm.
Recognizing that it is Good Friday, it will be a relatively short meeting, with updates, current news, etc.
Agenda:
Note: To anyone who isn’t already subscribed to our newsletter and would like to receive it, please use our contact form on our website (www.sudburyastronomyclub.com) with the subject ‘Newsletter Subscription’ and we will add you to the list. You will receive your invitation to the meeting separately via email. Or alternatively, PM Patrick on Facebook for a link. Remember, even if we are in isolation does not mean we still can’t share the wonders of the universe together.
