An illustrated talk by Lee Coombs titled “Animals of the Deep Sky” will be presented at the September meeting. Lee will discuss the use of common names associated with deep sky objects with special emphasis on those names associated with the animal kingdom. Common names are sometimes associated with the constellation in which the objects are found and others by their similarity with recognizable objects. Common names are used almost universally at star parties. An observer, when asked what they are observing, instead of saying “IC 5146,” states they are looking at the Cocoon Nebula or the “Veil Nebula” instead of NGC 6960. The use of common names is universal and used both by the amateur as well as the professional astronomer. I Googled “Common Names for Deep Sky Objects” and found six, single-spaced pages listing the many common ones! Come with your imagination and join Lee in ferreting out some of these animals of the deep sky.
The second part of Lee’s program will be the description of how he processes his astrophotos using Photoshop. Lee prefers the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach in processing the images he takes with a DSLR camera. Those who may be interested in doing some astrophotography in the future, or may be doing some now, should benefit from some of the short cuts Lee uses to obtain his images. Unlike using high end CCD cameras requiring the taking of many dark frames, bias frames, flat fields, etc. followed by many hours of post processing, using a DSLR greatly reduces these requirements. Lee hopes that those astrophotographers in attendance will share their methods as well.
Our meetings start at 7pm
Meeting Location: United Methodist Church
1515 Fredericks Ave, San Luis Obispo.
General Information on our Meetings and Public Talks:
Our meetings include time for show-and-tell, telescope setup questions, special introductory content for newcomers, socializing time, and in-depth astronomy content for our more experienced members… in short, something for everyone!
Visitors are welcome and encouraged to attend. You do not need to be a CCAS member to attend meetings. Folks are welcome to bring astronomy equipment, books and photos to share with the group. We like to assist in answering questions or help with equipment operation techniques when needed, BUT FIRST, please contact the CCAS to discuss this, as meetings are sometimes already booked solid with topics, or, there may not be anyone at the meeting who is knowledgeable of the item you need help with.
If you have questions about bringing something to a meeting, or wish to ask specific technical questions, or about meetings in general, just let us know.
