by Joe Carr
Observatory Project
The roof is on the observatory, and the building phase of the project is coming
to an end. There are a few details to take care of, then the installation
of the steel pier will happen. At that point, we move into the next phase of our
Observatory Project - deciding on a
telescope, and installing our Paramount ME along with the computer systems.
We continue to be under budget and on time for this project, thanks to our
dedicated group of volunteers.
Observing
The Total Lunar Eclipse on Feb 20th
was a wonderful event. Several Victoria Centre members setup at Cattle Point in
Oak Bay, and there were several other dedicated observers setup at other
locations. The Moon rose in the east already partially eclipsed, with totality
beginning at 7:00pm PST. The weather cleared literally an hour before the
Moon rose, so I believe everyone saw a very good show. Check out the
RASC Victoria
Centre Lunar Eclipse 2008 Photos online gallery for photos and observing
reports from several of our members.
On a personal note, I have just returned from observing in Costa Rica.
Gary Seronik, Contributing Editor for Sky and Telescope magazine (and a
Victoria Centre member) has coordinated a five day "Southern Sky Fiesta" tour at
a dark site on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica for the last five years. I
decided to travel down there this year. The site is indeed very dark
(magnitude 6 or better), and since the location is only 10° above the equator, a
good portion of the southern hemisphere's sky is visible. It was a real
treat to observe wearing a t-shirt in February! For those of you who want more
details, please read my JoeTourist blog
http://joetourist.blogspot.com/ - click on the "First week..." link on the
right side.
Events
International Astronomy Day
will be celebrated on May 10, 2008. The venue for this year's event
will be the Centre of the Universe (CU), atop Observatory Hill. In past
years we have held the daytime event at the Royal BC Museum and the night time
event at the CU, but this year we will run the whole day at the CU. This
represents a fresh start for this annual event, so please stay tuned for more
information about the exciting program we have planned for this year. As
always, we will need lots of volunteers to make this day special for the public
(as well as ourselves), so please mark this day on your calendar.
Other events coming up:
