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.

Selling Meteorites

Since there seems to be an interest in meteorites, I have decided to sell some of the ones I found this month. I found about 19 altogether of different shapes and sizes from the Buzzard Coulee fall on Nov. 20, 2008. I will post some photos soon. In the meantime, below is a list of all the sizes I have to sell. The weights are all in grams and the price is $15 per gram. Here is the list - 3.4, 4.3, 6.9, 7.0, 7.8, 7.9, 8.5, 9.4, 10.4, 13.3, 15.8, 16.1, 25.7. If you're interested, you can post a comment here.

Meteorites Through the Microscope

Thanks to my friend Bob of Blackholes and Astrostuff who photographed the meteorites below through his Celestron LCD digital microscope. They look really astounding. These meteorites belong to the Buzzard Coulee fall of Nov. 20, 2008 (see earlier posts for info on this meteorite). I'm not sure what all the features are called, other than the chondrules (?), but they look fantastic anyway. The meteorites were collected by myself on May 2, 2009, near Marsden, SK. The bottom photo is of Angrite. The picture was sent to me by Bob. It looks amazing. Enjoy.

Saskatchewan Meteorite Hunt

Well, it happened yesterday - I got to hunt for meteorites. The meteor fell on November 20, 2008. We left at 6:00 a.m. and drove for three hours to a place called Buzzard Coulee, near Marsden, Saskatchewan. There was a group of nine of us walking the farmer's field. We walked in a straight line, about an arms length apart. We each had long dowels with strong magnets on the ends to pick up the pieces. The pieces contain a lot of magnetic iron. The "leader" of the group has a GPS unit plotting our course. Each time one of us would find a meteorite, he would put the coordinates in the GPS to keep track of the "hot spot". I believe the meteorites are called H4 iron chondrites.

I must say that it was completely exciting finding the first one. This is a "rock" that has travelled millions of miles to get here. It has not been touched by any other human in history. I was the first one to touch the first piece I found, as well as subsequent pieces. In total, I was fortunate to find 11 pieces. They are all numbered and will be weighed. Half of the pieces will go to the farmer as "payment" for access to his land. This is a strange concept because no one actually owns mineral rights like that. It's not technically the farmer's, but such is life I guess. Anyway, below are some pictures from the hunt.

This is a picture of the moose that ran by us in the field.

Meteorite Find

Well, the search teams were full last weekend unfortunately, so I was not able to get out searching for meteorites. However, my Dad was able to go. He found a number of good pieces. They are visibly burned from entering the atmosphere. The pieces he kept were about 74 grams and 215 grams. I'm still hoping to get out this coming weekend and find some pieces of my own. I'll post something if I'm able to do so. Anyway, below is a picture of my Dad's meteorite.

Hunting for Meteorites

On November 20, 2008, a large meteor fell just south of Lloydminster, SK at around 5:30 p.m. It broke up into thousands of pieces and spread over many kilometers. My Dad was fortunate enough to go out last weekend and was able to find a couple of pieces from the meteorite. They are quite obvious as they are definitely burned/charred. They are very interesting indeed. So, because I was unable to go with him, I checked about going out this weekend. So, I'm just waiting for the stamp of approval from the guy heading up the search. I'll post some photos of my Dad's pieces. In the meantime, below are some photos of the meteor that fell, captured by a CTV News camera. The bottom photo is from a police dashboard camera.