Has anyone else been viewing or photographing Eros during its current close approach? I found it in Leo the other night using 7x50 binoculars in less-than-perfect skies. Over three hours, I could definitely detect motion against the stars. I could see mag 4.5 stars unaided and mag 9 stars in the binos, so the mag 8.5 asteroid was just visible.

Note to software users: make sure you update the orbital elements if making your own finder charts!

Submitted by nikki72

Anyone who’s met me knows this to be true: I don’t shut up. I’ve seen or heard the words “too chatty,” “talks too much” and “chatterbox” more times than I can count. Worst still is when friends or family ask me about the universe. But observing? That has always been a lone activity for me.

For the second year in a row, I visited two provincial parks on consecutive days. On June 29, I drove from my home in Melville, Saskatchewan, the 3.5 hours to Greenwater Lake Provincial Park, where I met with one of the park interpreters. She and I set up my telescopes on the lawn in front of the concession -- always a good place, since it's on the direct line from the beach to the ice cream! I estimate that 150 people viewed our Sun that day through both H-alpha and white light filters.

Submitted by BWeir

Ever since I was young and got my first telescope I’ve always wanted to see the sun. Of course you can’t actually look at the sun, at least not directly. My first telescope was something that might have been featured on the “Cheap Astronomy” podcast—a three inch Newtonian but it came with a projection screen eyepiece attachment. I tried in vain to see sunspots and I guess, since then, that’s been my obsession. I’ve wanted to see the sun and learn as much as I can about it.

Submitted by JPKulczycki on Thu, 2012-01-12 12:37

This year began with an effort to get into astrophotography while fully appreciating the limitations of m my Celestron  Advanced GoTo mount. There was no way I would be able to use my 9.25 tube from my observatory deep in suburban London, Ontario.  I was able to find another RASC member who had a larger mount but wanted more image scale for his own astrophotoraphy endeavours. I came  away from this trade with a nice Stellarvue 102mm ED refractor. It just loves riding on the mount.

Well 2011 for myself started off with a Bang! I should say for my daughter, Kathryn Aurora Gray it started with a Bang and for me began a ride of a lifetime. You see on January 2^nd of 2011 Kathryn discovered her first supernova, 2011lt, at the ripe old age of 10, yes 10! This would make her the youngest person to make such a discovery and would lead her on a path we could not have imagined.