Cypress Hills Summer Star Party (SSSP 09)

This year's edition of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Saskatchewan Summer Star Party (SSSP 2009). We left Saskatoon and it looked to be a promising weekend for star gazing. Apparently the weather had other ideas. We arrived on Thursday night in the rain. It rained and was foggy/hazy most of the day on Friday and that night. It was cold and windy on Saturday until it started raining just after lunch. It poured buckets the rest of the day and all night. It continued to rain all day Sunday until we arrived home. 300-400 people with telescopes and not one got used. It was the first time in 15 years that the entire weekend was rained out.

The picture below is a shot of the weather on Sunday just before we left.


And wouldn't you know it, back to work Monday, was clear, hot and sunny. Now tonight, it's cloudy and going to rain. We just can't win this summer. I don't know who is being punished, but man they must have done something bad to deserve this.

On the bright side, there were some great speakers, good food, fantastic door prizes and good times getting to know other astronomy enthusiasts. For example, Alan Dyer was there. He is a wonderful film maker, astronomer and photographer. I bought a copy of The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, co-written by Alan Dyer. He had a book signing, so I got mine by him. The other bonus was staying in a condo with my family. Always good times when you hang out with family. We played mini golf as well.

One cool thing I got to do was be involved with the door prizes. My Dad was able to get a huge amount of door prizes. I was able to donate two of them - a Galileoscope and one of the meteorites that I found from the Buzzard Coulee fall from November 20, 2008. Below is a picture similar to the one I donated.


The people were the highlight of the weekend. There were lots of great people who are very smart and fun to hang around and have a good time with. So, all in all, even though the skies didn't agree, the weekend turned out to be fun.

Another New Mini Telescope

While researching the Celestron FirstScope, I stumbled upon the Galileoscope. The telescope is called a Cornerstone Project of the International Year of Astronomy. The idea behind this telescope is to help educate people on what Galileo Galilei first observed with his telescopes, namely Jupiter's moons as well as discoveries involving the Sun, Moon and Venus. The telescope itself looks really neat.


Another important aspect of this international telescope project is to assist those who wouldn't normally be able to afford a telescope with being able to do so. This project is endorsed by the United Nations and UNESCO and the aim is to help stimulate worldwide interest in science.


This refractor telescope comes as a 30-piece kit with simple instructions for no-tools assembly. Apparently, it can be assembled in 5 minutes or less. It is constructed from ABS tubes that snap together. Its achromatic optics include a 50 mm objective lens of focal length 500 mm, an eyepiece of focal length 20 mm (magnification 25x), and a 2x Barlow lens, effectively increasing the magnification to 50x. It accepts almost any optical accessory that has a standard 1¼-inch barrel, which means that a camera should be able to be mounted to it with a 1¼- inch T-ring adapter. The only part needed is a tripod.


Below is an image of the Moon taken through the Galileoscope. Looks really good. I'm excited to receive mine. They are supposed to be shipped in early June, so hopefully that doesn't change.