RASC Montreal Centre - IKW Lunar Observing Group

The IKW Lunar Observing Group

OUR MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 24 , 2007

So far we've always been lucky with the weather. We only had to put up with one "white-out" this summer, when our Lunies meeting of June 26 was moved to my baclony, and we had munchies and softdrinks instead of setting up our telescopes.
Our first autumn meeting didn't feel like autumn at all - it was a warm, clear night with temperatures around 20°C, even at night. To shake things up a bit we met at our newly installed library at John Abbott College and began the evening with browsing through our Moon atlases. Around 8:30 we reassembled outside on the "Oval" in front of the main building and set up our telescopes. The Moon was at 95% illumination, and everyone tried their Moon filters. Logbooks are filling up!

The next meetiing will be held at my place again, to accomodate those who don't live on the West Island. Mark your calendars for October 22, 2007, 7:30pm. The Moon will be in a waxing gibbous phase.

Bettina Forget
Director of the
IKW Lunar Observing Group

PICTURES OF THE LUNIES MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 24, 2007
To see a larger version of the image, please click on the thumbnail.

1 - Lloyd Coffin, Kevin Kembal and Bruno Paul Stenson admiring a lunar atlas (no at all posed!)
2 - Frank Tomaras studying an astronomy book
3 - Ray and Richard Latulipe leafing through stunning plates of the lunar surface

4 & 5 - Bettina Forget's "Underwater Moon" - this image was made by holding her cheap digital camera to the eyepiece

6 - Bettina Forget, Bruno Paul Stenson and the Latulipe team at their telescopes on the Oval

Photos by 1 - 5 by Bettina Forget, photo 6 by Kevin Kemball

If you took pictures or made sketches during one of our meetings, please e-mail them to me at
stardust@bettinaforget.com

RESOURCES

Seven Easy Steps to Sketching the Lunar Surface in Real Time
JRASC article by Brian McCulloch, August 2006 edition
read the on-line html version

Download the IKW Lunar Observing Programme Booklet (pdf format)
Download the Deluxe Observing Form (pdf format)
Download the data sheet Moon Fraction Illuminated (pdf format)
Download the data sheet Moon Phase Times (pdf format)

Useful weblinks:
Antònio Cidadao's CCD Images of the Moon
http://www.astrosurf.com/cidadao/moon.htm

Inconstant Moon - a lunar encyclopedia
http://www.inconstantmoon.com

The Consolidated Lunar Atlas, Lunar and Planetary Institute
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/cla/ - Consolidated Atlas of the Moon (photography)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/ - Lunar Map Catalog (photo & contour maps, colour)

US Naval Observatory (data for sunrise/sunset, transits, Moon phases, eclipses, and more)
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/

Virtual Moon Atlas www.astrosurf.com/avl
This is a LARGE download(s) (many ancillary databases available), all told, about 1Gb.

QUICK NOTES

Next Meeting:
Mon. October 22, 2007
for Lunar Observing

7:30pm
Bettina Forget's Place
81 Belvedere Circle
Montreal
tel: 514-878-3663
stardust@bettinaforget.com

For a Google map to Bettina's place click here.

You'll need:
a telescope (3.5" minimum),
the RASC Lunar Program Booklet,
a Moon atlas, a logbook, note-taking tools (pencils and/or camera)

More on the IKW Programme:
www.rasc.ca/observing/moon.html

Signed up:
Lloyd and Lynda-Jean Coffin
Andrew Fazekas
Bettina Forget
Kevin Kemball
Ray Latulipe
Santiago Lopez
Chris Novak
Mina Reyes
Marc Ricard
David Shuman
Paul Smith
Bruno Paul Stenson
Frank Tomaras

See pictures from our previous meetings - click here

See sketches of Moon craters - click here