A medley of Astrophotography!

I went to the meeting expecting to learn from those who have done it, and to see some of their works. I imagine there were many more at the meeting with the same expectations.

Kurt's talk covered the basics of equipment, and was delivered in a manner which everyone who owns a camera could understand. He must be asked to do follow up talks.

The next speaker, whose name I did not catch, gave a very well informed description of what a CCD chip is, and how they work. Unfortunately quite a number of the audience found the talk to be far too technical and "over their heads".

Bruce then gave a very brief and honest comment on his experiences with his CCD camera.

Chris Stewart would have shown us some of his slides, but the projector lens was missing, (a victim of the recent burglaries?).

I think that quite a fair number of the large audience were somewhat disappointed with the evening.

In the "book for suggestions", I noticed a request to explain the back page of Canopus. To most of us - especially the committee members - the data is so obvious that we cannot imagine that someone might not understand these tables. It is evident that we are not addressing the needs of our new members. We must keep in mind that not everyone has our knowledge, which we only acquired by asking "silly" questions, and having someone able to appreciate our needs. I suggest that this is a major factor in the high turnover we have in our membership.

On the subject of planetarium software. There are some really strange names given to star groups in these programs. Two which caught my eye recently were the "Bear Claw cluster" and the "Salt and Pepper cluster". After a bit of bother with the actual position of the cursor relative to the items, I found that the Bear Claw cluster is NGC 2537, and the Salt & Pepper item is NGC 2099. At the time I was only able to observe the latter cluster. It consists of a group of faint stars, and does actually look like a spill of salt on a dark surface. The Bear Claw was hidden behind the Library building, so I don't know how descriptive the name is.

We all have our favourite items, which we look at every time we do any observing. This can result in missing something nearby. A case in point is NGC 104 (47 Tucanae). This common favourite has a close relative only three degrees away, but which is possibly unknown to many. Also a Globular cluster, NGC 362 is smaller version of 47 Tuc., but just as pretty. I also discovered this while looking at my program. Try observing NGC 362, 104, and 5139 (Omega Cen.) in that order. (spring & autumn)

Another worthwhile pastime is to browse the classic observing handbooks, such as Burnam, and Hartung. Those of you who own these books might like to look up Sigma Orionis, then point your 'scopes there.

No prize for this, but what is NGC 1976 more commonly known as?

On a different note, may I ask the Editor to explain what & where "Scorpio" is? I cannot find any reference to it in any of my books and planetarium programs.

Here is another gripe! Please can we have space news other than NASA? Did you know that there was an Ariane 5 failure last December. There IS life outside the b$^%# USA!!! How many of you know what Ariane 5 is?

Melvyn Hannibal

Apologies Melvyn and All - It appears that "Scorpio" is hidden somewhere within the confines of Scorpius - one of my regular errors this - and the spell checker allows it through without complaining! Regarding the news from other Space Agencies - they seem to be far less inclined to advertise their prowess than their colleagues across the Atlantic and thus I have less to fall back on from them vs. NASA. If you find ANY news whatsoever that you would like published ( as long as it isn't copyrighted or previously published in a magazine ) please pass it on it to me and I'll get it into Canopus. I do take articles as coming from the person who forwarded them to me unless they specify the actual source, and will always credit them accordingly Ed.