Time to mention some great people who helped me

I am working on the book on my adventures that I intend to publish next year. I spent an evening outlining my adventures in Belize and Guatemala and the events of one morning made me smile, over and over again.
I met this wonderful man who actually helped me to get to Guatemala on time when I missed the local plane. I trusted this man my rental vehicle at the end. He caught the bus that was living the country and arranged everything so I could be in Tikal on time for the full moon.
I don’t believe that in the hurry I was generous enough with him – but he was happy. I believe because of his wonderful nature and dedication to services he provides to the tourists. This was rare and special.
He is extremely connected with everybody around and he was honest with me. If you or your friends are ever in Belize city, or on the Cayes, or Maya ruins in Altun Ha, don’t hesitate to contact him.
His name is Leon Khan and he runs the following services:
General tours/Accomomdation/Free tourists info/
Packages/Tour guiding/Yacth Master/Dive Master & general supplies(Gift Shop)
His phone numbers are 011-501-223-7611/011-501-624-2859.
I meant to do this a year and a half ago – I don’t know how it happened that I forgot. It’s better late, than never.
Thank you Leon, you made that trip much better and if it were not for you, who knows, maybe the chain of events was different and I wouldn’t be able to take a picture of the full moon eclipse aligned with the Temple I.

Night Photographers Club

Finally!
After two years of planning and thinking about it, I started a club for Night Photographers.
Since I am in Toronto at the moment, this is a local club for Toronto shooters.
It's a big city with lots of talents and I think it has a lot of potential for promoting Night Photography here.
The group is just a week old, but it is growing. 63 members as of today.
Join if you are in the area, it is open to everybody who lives in the GTA:
http://www.meetup.com/Night-Photographers/

The Elmore R. Chatham Memorial Award

I am honoured to receive a PSA Journal Chatam award for my publication in 2009.

Received an email from the Journal editor - I couldn't make it to the conference this year with my yet another relocation hiatus.

This award is presented annually to the author of the article considered to be the best feature story in the PSA Journal for the prior calendar year. The award was named for Elmore R. Chatham who served the Society as the Mid-Atlantic Zone Director from 1987 to 1994.
This year’s recipient is Tatiana Slepukhin-Zamachnaia of Canada, for her memorable article Surreal Twilight in the June 2009 issue of the PSA Journal. Tatiana, who
specializes in night photography and light painting, has a talent for sharing her knowledge and expertise.

My Aurora Article

My article on Aurora chasing is published in the August issues of the PSA. I made a cover too.

Right in time! We should observe a fair amount of activity in the next 2-3 years as Solar Cycle 24 intensifies.

In fact, we just had quite an eruption on the sun and coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field on August 3rd.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture it. I relocated to Toronto last month and couldn’t stay up all night. The good news is that I am outside of Toronto and I have a clear view to the North from my place.

Stay tuned for fantastic pictures of the Cycle 24.

Series of past storms

It's been finally stormy, with a big storm on April 11th. Unfortunately, it coincided with the overcast sky.
I just recieved notification that the PK is 5 and the sky is clear. Might worth getting out, although the storm watch in effect for the high latitude.

While I didn't chase this series of the storms, it all looks promising - we are FINALLY getting some activities as we are hitting solar maximum. Better later than never - I was discouraged, but it looks there will be some activity on the sun.

Blue Moon and Happy New Year

First time in almost 20 years - we have a new moon on New Year's Eve!

Those who are in Europe are twice as lucky - there will be an eclipse at 19:24.

The blue moon happens once in ~91 years, so make sure you do catch it!

Happy New Year!

Email and Site Disruptions

I learned that the email on my websites didn't function for almost a month and nobody could contact me. There was an issue that is related to the hosting company.

Apologies for the disruption and late discovery - I was down with H1N1 for almost a month. Would not elaborate on details, but I enourage everybody to do vaccination - it is not something you would want to get.