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Good Morning Photon Boy! I may have missed them, but do we have detailed instructions to get to this site? I will definately be coming, along with my daughter Catherine (of course assuming clear skies). Later... Richard

Just got confirmation and more details for the session on Saturday at Conroy Pit. I will prepare a map that I will post tomorrow. The organizer told me: -There are 8 Beavers aged 5 & 6 ( moon likely to be their favourite ) -There are 10 Cubs aged 8 to 10 ( Moon & Saturn prob.) -Their parents would be driving the kids there. -One of the parents has a scope and would join us. ( no idea of name ) -There might be other passerby and car traffic. We are asked if we could possibly set ourselves up by 6:30 pm and then the kids and their parents would arrive around 7pm. For the younger kids they'd be finished at 8pm at the latest. My idea was to set up just beyond the metal car gate ( you'll see when you park there ). That way we would not obstrut traffic and people could see us from the partking area. As of now, Janice, Richard, Attilla and myself have expressed interest. With the extra parent's scope, that should be more than adequate. However, anyone else who's interested would be most welcome as well. Now let's hope the weather's decent for Saturday nite... Sharing the Photons Rol

I've been playing with the code that generates the satellite pic on the OAFs mainpage. (I'm not actually sure that anyone uses it, but WTH.) I've tried to indicate which way the clouds are moving. That bizzare blue streak on the image always has one end over ottawa. The streak represents the path along which clouds are moving towards ottawa (at least according to my not-too-brilliant cloud-matching algorithm). I suppose I should draw it as a cute arrow or little chubby iconic faces blowing wind, but I havent figured out how to do such stiff the the graphics library ive got. Usually, that blue streak will approach ottawa from the west, since thats where the weather usually comes from. But when the weather is nasty, clouds can approach from anywhere. Then, the streak may come from the east or curl bizzarely. The algorithm I use wont work when clouds are forming or disipating more than they are being blown around by the wind. Its my hope that the blue streak will tell us if that tasty little clear patch (hypothetical, certainly not tonight) is approaching us or not. If this turns out to be useful, I can add a second streamline for, say eguuleus observatory (assuming I can figure out exactly which pixel it corresponds to). Clear skies bearing 47 Mark 2. -ad

Hi All, I know most of you and only wish to observe and learn. I'll be monitoring for observing opportunities..I'm, in dire need of some observing! Ciao 4 know...my dinner is ready. Marc

Just wondering about whether anyone knows if a finderscope can be used safely to project the image of the sun onto paper. Isn't a finderscope like a tiny refractor? It should be able to project a clear enough image of the sun to see sunspots. What I don't know is if such a procedure would eventually damage a finderscope or not. I guess it depends alot on the apeture of the finderscope. One of my books "City Observing" ( Sky & Tel press ) says that inexpenive "refractors" 40mm to 60mm should present no problem. Just be careful not to look through it though. Later, Rol

Greetings, I asked around last night at Cadets and I have 14 cadets and 2 staff (plus myself) who REALLY , REALLY want to go out to Equuleus and do some observing....of course the BIG question is WHEN??? You pick a date with good weather ( not asking much, am I?)and we'll supply the kids and staff....as well as one small, itsy bitsy little 8" Newtonian..... Jean" Photon-deprived" Dorais

Mike, I've advised the Squadron that the 14th is our GO date...of course we'll be crossing our fingers for good weather and the final Go-NoGO decision will be yours to make....I'm guessing the cellular network will be humming on the 14th! Again, I can't thank you enough for this....the kids are sparked right up as are the 4 members of the staff interested in going... Jean

Hi Bruce, Here's something that happened to me not long after I got my SCT8"... If ever you defocus a star for the purposes of star testing, using, for example, a 10mm eyepiece, you may not see a perfect star pattern. It took me a while to notice what "heat plumes" look like. I know you may think you let your scope cool down, but if ever you get a pattern that forms a kind of a "V" shape, with the point of the "V" being close to the center of your "out of focus star" and the two arms of the "V" being at the outer edges of your "out of focus star", there's a good chance you may have a heat plume going on. How would you know? Try the following: Make sure that with the diagonoal in, your eyepiece is pointing skyward ( straight up ). If from this angle, the view of the out of focus star in your eyepiece shows the two arms of the "V" pointing visually up ( heat rises ), you probably have a heat plume. No amount of collimation can fix that. However, as you fiddle with collimation, it seems to improve a bit ( as it is cooling). Note that your body heat can "reheat" your scope a bit, and cause such a plume. That happenned to me a few times before it clicked that in cold conditions, I had to be careful about where I place my body, so as not to transfer heat to the tube. Also, temperatures are changing alot between day and night, so unless the temperature is stable for an hour or two, you have no guarantee that one hour cooling or even two hour cooling will work. Two hours "at the same temperature" should cool it though. Anyway, such a pattern could be some kind of optical aberration, I guess, but at first impression, it sure sounds alot like a heat plume to me. I hope that's the case, as that's not much of a problem. Best of luck with your new scope! Roland

Richard Taylor send an eMail to RASC members stating that the large sunspot he observed recently (I observed it as well and posted here), is now near the middle of the sun and is large enough to be seen using just your eyes (through an appropriate solar filter of course). Now's the time, if you have solar filter! Solar max is active again but it won't last forever! ;-) Photons Rule! Rol

Anyone feel like a communial cloud cursing seesion, with fellow oafs, at a restaurant tonight? Would Kanata or west end be a good location for most people? If so, Issacs is a has very good food (though, they are not cheap). It seems it may clear much later in the evening. (Or is that wishful thinking?)

Just a note to say that this evening's ( Sat. March 31st ) observing session at Conroy Pit with beavers and cubs has been cancelled due to the weather. So it goes... Thanks to everyone who offered to help out!! We both got home late from work last night, and so did not get the message re: possible friday nite dinner until around 8pm. It sounds like a great way for a "muddle of OAFs" to spend a cloudy evening. So maybe we can try for that again real soon. B.T.W.- I would like to bestow honorary OAF-hood (any OAF has the power) upon Mike Zeidler's wife, for coining the phrase "muddle of OAFs". This term, especially when applied to a dozen amateur astronomers, milling about in total darkness in Mike Wirths' observatory, is most apt! Photons for breakfast, Photons for lunch, Photons for dinnertime!... Rol ( & Jan ) P.S.- The Meaning of Life was on TV last nite. Janice and I watched and got to hear the "Galaxy Song" a couple of times. "Right... So, can we have your liver?"

Ho Sir Attilla! Um... I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything, but have your weather-prediction maps on the OAFs home page gotten more um ... "sophisticated" recently. What do these three colours mean again? Are you sure you haven't just found a way to interface an old red Etch-a-Sketch to an ATI computer graphics card? Looks mighty suspicious... ;-) Anyway, some kind of short Coles Notes "Weather-Map Squigglys Explanation for OAFs" would really be nice, if that were possible. Hope you are feeling better from the flu bug... NI! Sir Rol of Photon

Unfortunately I will have to miss dinner again, as I do almost every month. The leader of the SMARTScope software development team has decided, and most members agreed, that dinner before each RASC meeting is the ideal time to discuss progress and plan the way ahead. Normally on Friday nights it's my daughter's dance class that interferes, but I thought I might escape on a Saturday. Oh well... Rick

I have a big NC on where we go just want clear instructions on how to get there from here, or over there, or something like that. A beer, not a bear, would be a bonus. Mike Z

It is 15:00. Outside my office window it is BEAUTIFUL!! 75% clear. Is there any chance that a session this evening at the Kanata Chapters would be possible, or are the clouds scheduled to arrive with the sunset? Hint hint....any takers!! Richard

--- In OAFs@y..., "Richard Harding" <rharding@i...> wrote: > It is 15:00. Outside my office window it is BEAUTIFUL!! 75% clear. > Is there any chance that a session this evening at the Kanata > Chapters would be possible, or are the clouds scheduled to arrive > with the sunset? Hint hint....any takers!! > Richard Hi Richard! Unsure conditions, eh? If the weather at 6:30pm looks at all hopeful, I'd be game for a sidewalk session in Kanata at 7:00 or so. Here is Orleans, it looks 90% covered at this point in time ( 4:50pm ), so I probably won't go unless it clears up to 50% clear or better, over the next hour and a half. Better check the weather maps! Any other takers? Share the Photons... Roland

Just got off the phone with Richard and things look fairly clear after all in Kanata. I will be joining him in Kanata at the Chapter's there (off the Terry Fox exit) for some sidewalk astronomy around 7:30pm. We'll give it a shot for as long as it lasts. Anyone else who wants to can join us there as well. Wish us luck! Roland

Dear (Starry Knights of) OAFs... Janice and I have had a chance to verify our schedules now, and find that we will be going to the RASC meeting next Saturday. So... we'd just love to join Rob, Frank, MikeZ, Richard and any other OAFs, any friends of OAFs (or anyone who's seen or heard a Photon and enjoyed it, for that matter) at dinner beforehand. Since this will be a Saturday, and not a Friday, perhaps we don't need to go to a "fast food" place like MacDonald's or Harvey's. Both suggestions of Lick's and Kelsey's sound good to us. I have to admit Rob's description of Lick's sounds interesting. If there are any other suggestions, let's hear them. Then, if we need to, we could set up a quick vote, maybe, and make a decision? Time of dinner ( 2 or 3 hours before RASC meeting? ) We're both looking forward to sharing dinner with you. Bring observing logbooks, photos, pictures of scopes, books, maps, articles, questions, whatever -- or not. Just be sure to bring yourselves! Looking forward to it! Photon Man (& Lady J)

This evening there will be a short double shadow transit on Jupiter. The OAFs home page has the following information (extracted from the calendar, I guess): The double shadow portion of the event(21:48 to 21:58) will be a challenging observation since Jupiter will only be 13 degrees up. 19:25 Europa's shadow appear 21:48 Ganymede's shadow appears 21:58 Europa's shadow dissapears 23:17 Jupiter Sets If you have acess or can get access to a low western view, you might want to try for it. See the OAFs home page, under Tuesday April 3rd, for other interesting details about this double transit. Good Luck! Photon Man

Attilla Danko, Roland Prevost and myself met under the wonderful sodium glow of the sidewalk in front of the Kanata "Chapters" for a spot of sidewalk astronomy. Despite dire predictions of cloud and wet snow showers for last night, the sky was only cloudy for about 20 minutes of the 2 1/4 hours we observed. I had the pleasure of giving "first light" to a new scope that I picked up yesterday. It is a Skywatcher 8" Dob, 1200 mm. F6. It came out of the box, was assembled in 20 minutes, and 1/2 hour later, it was on the sidewalk ready to go. Let's say that I did not have high expectations for this Synta product (it was really purchased as a scope for my daughter, and for "quick peaks"). I was pleasantly surprised by the level of finish, 2" metal focuser, super-plossel eyepieces and etched for collimation primary mirror. I was even more surprised at the quality of the images displayed last night. I believe the optics beat my C-8 Deluxe (collimation time!!). On the down side, I found the base "bearings" to be overly stiff, and a bit of a struggle at times. This will definately have to be corrected. We had about 85 observers at our little get-together. Many oohs and ahhhs were to be had. I found the level of enthusiasm better than average compared to our other sessions. I chalk this up to the warmer weather. Jupiter was particularly interesting as the 4 G. moons were in an unusual alignment on one side of the Planet. One of the moons disappeared onto the disc and this brought a lot of excitement from the people lucky enough to observe this. The combination of scopes worked well, Attilla's excellent 4" refractor on the moon, Roland's C-8 Deluxe on Saturn, and my humble scope on Jupiter. The inclusion of the inexpensive Dob, helped with the perenial question "how much do these cost"?? I was able to answer that costs range "from this Dob at $500 to expensive refractors above $5000". This led to many comments about the accessibility of the hobby etc. We packed up at 9:45. I had a great time!!! We are planning to be back out at Chapters Kanata this evening...weather permitting. We had MANY requests to be there so that "we can bring our spouses and/or children to see the telescope!!" I hope some of you can make it out with the three of us!! Richard "slightly less photonically deprived" Harding