Space dishes! An Astronomy club's way to fund itself.

Space dishes. Fun way to fund own astronomy club.

As a way to fund my Astronomy Club, I made some Space dishes!
I team up with a friend of mine who is a great drawing artist to make this series.
We decided to make coffee mugs, bowls and breakfast plates.

This was a great way to collect funds for our coming events and to buy better gear for the club.
Family and friends participated and bought the dishes to help us with our hobby.

Of course I have my own set at home and it is wonderful to eat in these unique mugs and plates that remains me always of astronomy, space and beyond...

This project was facilitated by the fact that my girlfriend has a pottery shop and we could use the expertise of the workers at the shop.

I want to Thank Essi, Julia and Vesa for making this project a success, without them it would certainly have been only an idea.

Here are more pictures of the dishes.

Read more about Astronomy Club Toutatis, Kustavi, Finland.

Astronomy Club Toutatis: 4 days in a row

Star trail of the western night sky in Kustavi, Finland. 22.08.2015
The dense Milky Way can be seen in the middle of the picture.
Credit: KTY Toutatis/S. Lamoureux.  

Fall brings great dark skies in Finland. Also it offers warmer temperatures to enjoy the night sky.
On the 22.08.2015 was the 4th day in a row that we looked at the night sky. We moved to a more open space where the western (and eastern) sky can be seen without obstruction from trees and buildings.

We continued on the theme of the Milky Way, this time I took a star trail with my fish eye lens on my canon 550D. The picture seen above.

Also we manage to edit the 60 photos into a GIF animation of the movement of the Milky Way in our night sky. We saw many shooting stars, planes and satellites. We spent 1,5 hours enjoying the mysteries of our Universe.

Here are what we got this time.

GIF animation of the movement of the Milky Way in our night sky.
Took on the 22.08.2015 Kustavi, FInland.
Credit: KTY Toutatis/S.Lamoureux.

Caption of the GIF animation. The Milky Way.
Credit: KTY Toutatis/S.Lamoureux.

Me and Birgit sitting on the star terasse. Kustavi, Finland.
Credit: KTY Toutatis/S.Lamoureux.

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Astronomy Club Toutatis is in the house.

Astronomy Club Toutatis opened its doors for the youth in Kustavi, Finland. It staged a 3 night watch of the night sky. Participants were all young adults who had the chance to observe the universe through a camera lens. Here is the result. We had 3 activities.
1. Star trails. Showing how the stars revolves around the pole star (Polaris).
2. Have a sense of the movement of the night sky with a GIF Animation.
3. Introduction to the Milky Way Galaxy and Star hopping.

Here is what we got.

GIF Animation of the movement of the Milky Way Galaxy in our night sky.
Duration: 1 hour. Credit: KTY Toutatis/S. Lamoureux.

The Milky Way in the Trees.

Star trail with Polaris at the top of the picture.
Notice the smudge-like star trail of the Milky Way between the trees.

Want to do the same photos and animations. Have a look at these links:

• Simple GIF animations with GIMP.
• How to make Star trails with Photoshop.

Read more about Astronomy Club Toutatis, Kustavi, Finland.