lunar eclipse (Toronto)

While housesitting for some friends working in Europe, a lunar eclipse unfolded. I fired up the telescope in the backyard and shot some bracketed photos. This is the best exposure and focus.



location: High Park area, Toronto, Ontario
camera: Pentax SP-II
film: Kodak Gold 100
exposure: 1/15

North is up; east is left.

using MyStars! shareware

David Patte from Ottawa has written a little shareware application called MyStars! I have version 1.1a. Comes on a 5¼" or 3½" diskette.



This Windows software let's you look at the sky from any location at any date or time (unregistered version limited to the current year). You can control how many stars are shown by adjusting the magnitude option. It can show the planets, their names, and the ecliptic (again, you need to register it to get the Moon positioning to function). Toggle on or off constellation names or codes. It even has an animation feature. Slick!

My favourite part is that it supports the mouse. Click in the celestial sphere and it would centre the view at this point.