Astronomical League Observing Programs and Master Observer Progression"

by Craig Lamison

The Astronomical League has produced many observing programs and recommended a progression of programs to optimize their value to the observer. The League’s programs cover visual, astrophotography, and scientific observing. This presentation shows how these can benefit you, whether you choose to formally complete programs and follow the progression or not. It explains the progression, provides an overview of how the programs work, gives general guidelines on program requirements and further describes some the programs. These Astronomical League resources are fun and informative, hopefully this presentation will inspire you to take up or continue your observing progression. If you’ve been out at the dark site on a good weekend night, you may have heard some of your fellow HAS members talking about the observing programs they were working on.

Craig Lamison will describe the AL observing programs and how you may participate in them. He will also describe the required and optional observing programs you must complete in order to gain the title of Master Observer.

Our Speaker: A member of HAS since 2013, Craig is a retired subsea and pipeline engineer. An evening star party run by the Austin Astronomical Society inspired him to see what Houston had to offer. He was excited to find HAS had a dark site at which the Milky Way was visible. That had never been true anywhere he had lived. He was further hooked and introduced to observation logging by the TX-45 list developed for HAS by Rene Gedaly.  His current, somewhat long term, astronomical goal is to complete the Astronomical League’s Master Observer program.

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This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. To attend, you must register for the meeting. You can do so using the link below. You will receive an email with the details of the meeting and a link that will allow you to join in.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpcOqopj8qHNTCkh4f7wLq_tILWJaCKdjF 

You only need to register once!

Join us Thursday, June 1st, 2023 at 7:00 pm CDST. See you then!

HAS Monthly Meeting – via Zoom

Friday June 2^nd at 7:00pm CDST

"Camera Trackers for Astro-Imaging"

By: Don Selle

Camera trackers have become a very popular piece of equipment for astro-imaging since their recent introduction to amateur astronomy. For those new to the hobby who are interested in learning astrophotography, they can be a good place to start. They are versatile and low cost. In addition to wide field astrophotography, which is a standard of smaller sized equatorial mounts, they can support several different types of night sky photography such as nightscapes and time-lapse photography that a small equatorial mount cannot.

For the past several years, Don Selle using camera trackers for different types of night sky photography. He will discuss the pros and cons of using a camera tracker, outline how to use them to capture different types of photographs, and share several tips and tricks he uses.

If you are considering getting started in astrophotography, or if you have already been bitten by the astrophotography bug, this presentation should help you decide if a camera tracker is a good alternative for you.

Speaker Bio: Since 2003, Don Selle has been an avid amateur astronomer, astro-imager and HAS member. Starting out with only a basic knowledge of photography, he has learned the ropes and has become a competent astrophotographer and nightscape imager. After 20 years of learning the craft, he is still striving to complete that perfect astroimage that knocks the sox off those who view it and wins multiple awards.

Don acquired his first camera tracker in 2017 after his equatorial mount bit the dust just weeks before the Great American Solar Eclipse. The camera tracker realized his plans to photograph the event and did a fine job to boot. In 2019 he won a second camera tracker as a star party door prize. This windfall sealed his interest in using camera trackers for astroimaging and he has been perfecting his technique ever since.

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This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. To attend, you must register for the meeting. You can do so using the link below. You will receive an email with the details of the meeting and a link that will allow you to join in.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErdu-trjwtE9PJKViyCO_64ZBweSQKUdD4 

You only need to register once!

Join us Friday, June 2^nd, 2023 at 7:00 pm CDST. See you then!