Too bad, not tonight.
Saturday evening Steve Plummer, an amateur astrophotographer, joined us at the Centre to share his hobby. We had hoped for clear skies to allow for some actual stargazing but Mother Nature had other plans and blessed us with a snow storm instead. However all was not lost as the organizers had arranged a great chilli dinner, followed by Steve's presentation (indoors, of course).
Over the next couple of hours Steve talked about his progression from being a simple telescope user to now being able to take spectacular images of deep space objects that are millions of light years away. He described the technology he used (complicated) and shared with us numerous photos he had taken of the sun, moon, planets, various nebulae, and distant galaxies. And he answered dozens of questions on everything from the technology he used to what can be seen with binoculars, the naked eye, or even a basic cell phone camera. (If you want a simple free app that maps the night sky in real time, check out Skyview Lite, available on Apple and Android app stores.)
I expect all who attended came away with a great appreciation of Steve's skill in creating the images he shared, but probably more so with a deeper respect of the vastness of the cosmos and the unimaginable number of deep sky objects that exist both within and beyond our own Milky Way galaxy. Perhaps some will even dust off that old telescope (moi) while others may look at the night-time sky with a greater appreciation of it's beauty and boundlessness.
Thank you Steve. And thank you Jacqueline for arranging this Live 'n Learn session.
And thank you to all the DWLC volunteers who prepared the meal and some fabulous desserts, acted as busboys, and did kitchen and cleanup duty.
