Starry Nights @ SFU: September 6 2008

Starry Nights @ SFU: Blogs & Pics - September 6 2008

High-resolution copies of selected celestial images are available for download from these blogs,
and print nicely on inexpensive photo paper with a basic colour or B&W printer.

First Star Night of the 2008 Fall Term!

We kicked off the fall 2008 semester with a starry-night gathering on September 6, in the very first week of class! We were fortunate to have a very good turnout, with about 30 guests, four telescopes, and several binoculars. Thanks especially to our members from off campus Leigh Cummings and Michael Levy, who brought their telescopes, to Yaroslav Litus, who brought his new binoculars and guidebook to astronomical objects (and used them with great skill), Gwen Eadie, always present with her scope, and Aaron Springford, whose hawk eyes were as sharp as always. Thanks also to Ron Jerome of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for joining us, and newcomers Jake and family, Erin, Kasia, and Louis.

We gathered just east of the Academic Quadrangle, across from Strand Hall, so that we could catch Jupiter low to the south, although the "seeing" conditions in that part of the sky were poor. We did enjoy viewing a variety of deep sky objects, through many combinations of the instruments on hand, including the Ring Nebula, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, the Double Cluster in Perseus, and the Andromeda Galaxy (all of which are great targets for new telescope users, since they are relatively bright and close to prominent stars, which makes them easy to find by "star hopping"). The best part of the night was the many interesting and animated discussions we had whilst taking in the marvels of the cosmos!

Starry-eyed
@ SFU since Nov. 2007