RASC Niagara Centre
4848 Victoria Ave L2E 4C5 Niagara Falls, ON, Canada

Niagara Centre member Glen Pidsadnick took this picture of several of the brightest nebulae in the sky near the bright star Alnitak in the constellation Orion. The Flame Nebula is bright orange at top. It certainly looks a lot like a campfire. In the centre, NGC 2023 reflects the blue light of nearby stars. Below centre, the Horsehead Nebula casts its shadow in front of glowing red hydrogen gas.

Niagara Centre member Rob Lenz took this picture of the constellation Orion in February 1998, during a trip to the island of Curacao to see a total solar eclipse. The long exposure creates star trails that bring out the colours of Orion’s stars. A few cacti are in the foreground.

Niagara Centre member John Dean took these aurora pictures from Nome, Alaska, last week. The northern lights were so bright that they turned the snow green! John is quite possibly the RASC’s most northerly permanent resident. Nome at 64 N is farther north than the Canadian territory capitals of Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit.

The sun’s spots are getting larger and more common this year. Niagara Centre member Glen Pidsadnick took this picture of the Sun on January 31, with sunspots 2936 and 2938 looking especially large.

This is the February picture from our 2022 calendar. Niagara Centre member Ivan Rosenbreyer took these images in 2021. The Orion Nebula is at left, the Andromeda Galaxy is at top right, and the Leo Triplet of galaxies is at lower right.

Niagara Centre member Bob Lewis took this picture of Comet Bennett in March 1970, using slide film. Bennett was one of the brightest comets of the 1970s, peaking at magnitude 0.

Our first general meeting of the year will be on Thursday, January 20. We will have a video and discussion about choosing and using eyepieces. Beginners will have their session at 6, and the regular meeting starts at 7.

As we exit solar minimum, sunspots are getting larger and more frequent. Niagara Centre member Glen Pidsadnick took this picture of the sun on January 8.

Happy New Year! This is the January picture from our 2022 calendar. Niagara Centre member Philip Downey took this picture of the Pleiades star cluster, also called Messier 45, on January 5, 2016. The blue glow is starlight reflected off dusty clouds.

It wasn't even close: this was our most popular post of the year. Public star nights will resume in March 2022, after the clouds and cold of winter pass by. Keep looking up!

Niagara Centre member Bob Lewis took this picture of Venus on December 19. If you look in the southwest after sunset, you’ll find Venus. It’s the brightest thing out there. In a telescope, it shows the same phases as the Moon. For the next week, Mercury will be in view under Venus. Saturn is above and left of Venus, and brighter Jupiter is the same distance farther away from Venus.

Niagara Centre member Glen Pidsadnick took these pictures of the Sun on Friday. An evenly spaced series of similarly sized sunspots is at lower left.

SkyNews magazine has a monthly image processing contest. Each month they present a free set of data from the RASC’s remote controlled 16 robotic telescope in California. Anyone can download and process the images and enter the contest. Niagara Centre member Philip Downey used the data from the November competition to produce this image of spiral galaxy NGC 7331. Several small galaxies can also be seen behind the galaxy. If you want to learn more about deep sky image processing, SkyNews has a video series called Subs and Stars that explains how to process and prepare these kinds of images.

Our monthly meeting is on Zoom on December 16. Our guest speaker is Robert Jedicke, a researcher at the University of Hawaii and a Niagara Falls native. His talk is Einstein vs. Santa. Dr. Jedicke will present an entertaining look at Mr. Claus's annual trip from the physicist's perspective. In the process, he will introduce the audience to the bizarre effects that take place in a relativistic universe. Beginners have their session at 6 p.m., and the general meeting starts at 7.

The sun was sporting some of its biggest sunspots of the year in the last few days. Niagara Centre member Glen Pidsadnick took this picture of Sunspot AR 2781, which grew and broke into several smaller spots last week. Solar cycle 25 has begun, and with it, there will be more and larger sunspots in the next few years. The sun has an 11 year cycle. 2020 was a deep minimum. so scientists will be watching to see what happens at the next maximum in 2025.

Niagara Centre member Glen Pidsadnick took this picture of Mars on Halloween. The South Polar Cap can be seen at the bottom. The North Polar Hood of clouds over Mars’ north pole is at top. Mars is still extremely bright and can be seen overhead in the south on any clear night this month. You will need a telescope and high magnification to see any details.

Here’s the November picture from our 2020 calendar. It’s a gallery of galaxies by Rob Lenz and Philip Downey.

The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft will be doing its touch-and-go maneuver at asteroid Bennu today, sometime after 5 p.m. NASA TV will be streaming it live. The spacecraft will be grabbing a handful of dust, dirt and stone from the asteroid, and will return it to Earth in 2023. https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

The RASC Toronto is streaming a talk by Paul Delaney on Wednesday night. https://rascto.ca/content/speakers-night-35

Niagara Centre member Philip Downey produced this picture of the Helix Nebula using data from the RASC’s Robotic Telescope in California. The Helix Nebula is one of the largest planetary nebulae in the sky. It can be seen with binoculars or a telescope low in the south during fall, in the constellation Aquarius. A planetary nebula is formed at the end of a star’s life, as it ejects huge clouds of gas and dust away from itself.