Please enjoy this guest post from Astronomy magazine Columnist Stephen James O’Meara:
Just wrapped up with a successful and fun George Moore Astronomy Workshop at Camp Maskepetoon near Pigeon Lake in Alberta. The Edmonton Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada sponsors the event and hosted me.
Aside from meeting old friends, like Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Alister Ling, who gave a wonderful presentation on how best to use the Sky Clock to maximize your chances of heading outside on a great starlit night, we had a full evening of starlight. Larry Wood of Edmonton set up his 12-inch f/5 reflector and treated many of us to views of obscure planetary and reflection nebulae.
Variable star guru Rick Huziak of Saskatoon shared some wonderful views of the Veil Nebula and other deep-sky delights through his 10-inch 5/5.6 reflector. Most impressive, however, was something I had seen for the first time: four geosynchronous-orbit satellites in a z shape (the brightest of which was 3rd magnitude). We viewed this pattern through Rick's scope at high power. We turned off the drive and watched the satellites stay in the field of view while the stars zipped by “behind” them. Awesome!
Kathleen Houston had fun finding M81 and M82, and a special guest — Sverir Rrudmundsson of Iceland — shared the wonders of observing from his home country and provided an international flavor to the event.
Thanks, Steve!