Okanagan Astronomers’ Photo Made the Cover of the 2021 Observer’s Handbook

During the time of the Covid, stargazing and astronomy have become a very popular pastime.  We can all go outside and look up.  There is an active astronomy group in the Valley, the Okanagan RASC (Royal Astronomy Society of Canada), with a lot of talented observers.

RASC provides its members with an observer handbook (https://rasc.ca/handbook ) yearly.  The book assists amateur astronomers with their observations of the night skies.

“The Observer’s Handbook is a 352-page guide published annually since 1907 by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. With the expertise of more than 75 contributors, the Observer’s Handbook is regarded as the standard North American reference for data on the sky” (from the above website).

The front cover of the 2021 edition features a photo which was a joint project of Peter and Debra Ceravolo, Southern Okanagan astronomers.  Peter took the image and Debra processed it using PixInsight, an astrophotography software which removes noise from photos and aligns stars.  The image is of the Pleiades or Seven Sisters’ constellation.

The photo on the cover is a cropped version of this image: https://www.astrobin.com/et9lu2/?nc=user

Ceravolo and her husband are avid astronomers who enjoy viewing the night skies from their Anarchist Mountain residence in the South Okanagan.

They were able to catch the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which has not happened for 800 years, on December 22, 2020.  Some of Jupiter’s moons are visible in this shot (click on the image to enlarge).

Debra has put together a 3-minute video with music displaying all her work in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bDzF1BnOpg

Enjoy!

by Darrel Lewis