sidewalk session (Mississauga)

Wednesday nights, a friend has his kids at his home. On this particular Wednesday, I was to work in Mississauga, just a few blocks away from his house. The weather was looking favourable. I asked Malcolm if Courtney and Liam might be interested in seeing Saturn. Dad responded with a resounding "Yes!" Ulterior motive, perhaps? ;-)

I arrived Malcolm's house while he was picking up the kids from school. I considered setting up the 'scope but then realised it would be good to get them to help me. After dinner, we headed outside, unloaded the car, and began the assembly. We made the shotgun decision to set up at the end of the driveway. Partly in case the neighbours wanted to join in. And Malcolm and I were worried that the crappy, bright street light which floods the backyard might cause some interference.

We viewed a gibbous Venus, the Moon, Saturn, some double stars, and M42. Everyone enjoyed the show.

The Moon and Saturn were very close in the sky. In fact, they both fit in my binocular 7° field. And I could see a bright object, in the binos, near Saturn. Titan, perhaps? (Checked my notes later: I was probably seeing a field star.)

The Moon was very interesting in the telescope. There was one particularly large crater that was on the sun's terminator. It made the one side of the crater visible but cast the other portion of the crater floor into shadow. Then, the far crater wall rose back into the sunlight. It created a striking effect of this glowing, floating, C-shape. That was very popular.

I pulled out Haas's double stars and Pocket Sky Atlas books and we chased after a few. I showed them α (alpha) Gemini or Castor. Malcolm and his neighbour Lou really liked that, how close they were. We took a look at Polaris and it's faint companion. Auriga 14 was nicely coloured: I estimated pale yellow and orange. We also looked at Leo 54, another tight, colourful double. I showed Malcolm the Trapezium as well, nestled in the M42 nebula. σ (sigma) Orion was particularly interesting, the 1 pointer, 3 middle (sigma proper), and 3 widely-separated end stars forming a narrow triangle. Malcolm and I both really enjoyed that grouping!

Malcolm's kids enjoyed the direct viewing. Lou and his little girl Kira, Charlie and his daughter, Linda, they enjoyed the observing too. Kira was particularly interested in looking through the telescope and wanted to stay up late. I promised her I'd bring it back. In fact, I said if we did observing in the summer... when school was out—"I can stay up late!" she exclaimed. Smart kid!

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When setting up, I had spotted a plastic two-step stool in Malcolm's living room. I brought it out to the driveway. It proved very helpful for the kids to view through the 'scope without needing a boost from the parents.

I need to look into a portable version of something like this...

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When Lou asked me if I could take photographs with the telescope, Malcolm disappeared into the house. He emerged, out of breath, with his Canon PowerShot S2 IS digital camera (with stock zoom lens) and starting shooting (in Auto mode) through the telescope. Incredible! I had no idea if it would work. But he pulled a few rabbits out of the hat.

Warning! Full-size images are 2592 x 1944 pixels.

	Saturn. With some haze or glare. shutter speed: 1/8 second f-stop: 2.7 camera focal length: 6mm
	Saturn. Photographic proof! shutter speed: 1/8 second f-stop: 2.7 camera focal length: 6mm
	Saturn. Not a football nor UFO. shutter speed: 1/8 second f-stop: 2.7 camera focal length: 6mm

I couldn't help but wonder what we would achieve with a camera jig to hold it steady, to align the camera on axis, and to get it at the prime focus, and some light baffles.

Moon. shutter speed: 1/13 second f-stop: 2.7 camera focal length: 6mm

Regardless, we were impressed by the results. (Later, as Malcolm downloaded the pictures to his computer, he realised he had the camera operating at a low rez, 180 x 180 dpi, 24 bit depth.)

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Noticed my Kendrick dew controller was not in the astronomy box! Where was it? I must have taken it out at home...

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Malcolm's daughter left him a note. Remember, you gotta read this in your very best "tweener" accent:

"And the moon was—like—so cool!"