Me and astronomy

I have been interested in astronomy for a long time. In university, I took a full-year astronomy course for an elective science credit, and did a couple of projects involving astrophotography and spectroscopy.

In the summer of 2016, I borrowed a Tamron SP 500mm lens from a friend and quickly realized that it was effectively a 2″ telescope. After trying it out, I made him an offer, which happily he accepted. If you look through the Astronomy category on my blog before June 2017, you’ll find photos that I took with it.

At the end of June 2017, I made the decision to acquire a telescope, so I headed off to Focus Scientific and ordered a Celestron NexStar 6SE. Since then, I’ve been using it for both visual observing and astrophotography.

In September 2017, I rejoined the Ottawa Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, which I hadn’t been a member of since university. It’s nice to be back!

I’ve brought my telescope to a couple of public star parties with the RASC and the Ottawa Astronomy Friends (OAFs), which have been a lot of fun. It’s great to be able to show people something like Saturn through a telescope for the first time and watch their reactions. 🙂

Sky conditions

Printable sky maps

The best free printable sky maps I’ve come across are from Skymaps.com. If you’re planning a sidewalk astronomy session, print some of these up so you have some handouts for people.

Interested in going to a sidewalk astronomy session?

If you’re interested in going to a sidewalk astronomy session, there are several groups in Ottawa that host them. They tend to be announced at the last minute via @OttawaAstronomy on Twitter…