Astronomy Cafe – April 29, 2024

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Meeting transcript video

  • Observatory Tour video for GA – David Lee
    • Would like some live video
  • RASC General Assembly – May 4 & 5, 2024 – Lauri Roche
    • $15 for whole event
    • Bill Weir & Randy Enkin giving presentations Saturday morning
    • Gather Town – Saturday evening
  • Eclipse photos for 2025 Observers’ Calendar – submission deadline tomorrow
  • Street Lighting in Uplands – Dave Robinson
    • Dark sky friendly fixtures in original design, but overruled by Oak Bay Council after public hearing
    • Victoria Centre held a one hour meeting with councillors
    • Issue being taken back to council to reconsider a better option
    • Possible impact on Cattle Point dark sky site if planned fixtures are installed
  • Vancouver Island Science Fair – Randy Enkin
    • 63rd regional science fair for Vancouver Island
    • 100 participants this year
    • Transiting Exoplanet Data project, and two other astronomy related project
    • Prize from Victoria Centre awarded – youth memberships
    • Sending plants into high orbit using a balloon – Nathan Hellner-Mestleman
  • Cosmic Wonder – Nathan Hellner-Mestleman
    • Book launch event at Bolen Books on May 7th – Bob MacDonald interviewing Nathan
  • Chris Gainor
    • May 8th speaker for May 8th UVic meeting? Possibly a members’ night instead.
    • James Webb Space Telescope – beautiful new image of Horsehead Nebula
  • Astronomy Day – May 18th – Randy Enkin, Lauri Roche
    • Planning is going well
    • May 14th is final planning meeting, so email will be used for event planning
    • Royal BC Museum – daytime 10AM-3PM
      • Victoria Day weekend means traffic in the will be very congested, so volunteers should plan accordingly
      • Need volunteer to let cars have access for unloading on Saturday morning – contact Lauri Roche (roche.lauri@gmail.com)
    • Observatory Hill – evening 7:30PM-11PM
      • Tickets will be available two weeks ahead of time – event
      • Presentation – Looking for precious metals at the end of the galactic rainbow – Dr. Trystyn Berg
      • Cosmic Wonder – book selling – Nathan Hellner-Mestleman
      • Refreshed shop with lots of stock
      • Volunteers with telescopes needed – contact Aimee Rawson (arawson@centreoftheuniverse.org)
      • Three Vesper telescopes – digital telescopes for outreach
      • Trainees for 16″ telescope – Sherry Buttnor is the teacher – contact Lauri Roche
  • Beginners SIG – now being held on May 15th – David Lee
  • Eclipse Topics – Randy Enkin
    • Dorner Telescope Museum visit at RASC in Toronto – hosted by Randall Rosenfeld
    • Tables of the Moon and Sun – historical book by Jean Meiss with Peter Broughton’s 1982 notes and letter
    • A Sign in the Sky: Dating the League of the Haudenosaunee – by Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields – eclipse report from Indigenous Mohawks (possibly Aug 22, 1142)
  • Astronomy History
    • Wray-Bryden telescope – more information and video presentation is needed for the Centre of the Universe – contact Lauri Roche (roche.lauri@gmail.com)
    • Gonzales Observatory – history
    • Looking Up – Peter Broughton – book of the history of RASC
  • FDAO Star Party – May 4th 7:30PM – Bob McDonald presenting

Three Astronomy Cafes left before summer.

Astronomy Cafe – April 22, 2024

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Video transcript of meeting

  • General Assembly – Lauri Roche
    • Invitations sent out by email to all RASC members
    • $15 for two days of online activities
    • Speaker on Saturday night
    • Gather Town – meet and greet
    • Sunday Night Astronomy Show – from New Brunswick
  • Voyager 1 & 2 – Garry Sedun, Chris Gainor
    • Voyager 1 now communicating again, once a fix was installed
    • Launched in 1977
    • Now in heliopause – outside influence of the Sun
  • Regional Science Fair – Lauri Roche (roche.lauri@gmail.com)
  • Astrophotography – Dave Payne
    • Triangulum Galaxy – by John McDonald
    • NGC 2403 – about the same size bur further away
    • Markarian’s Chain of galaxies in Virgo
      • 18 hours of exposure
      • Tried 50 hours of exposure to find more Ha data
  • David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
    • Beginners’ SIG – moved to 14th
  • Recurrent T Coronae Borealis
  • John McDonald
    • Some good books by Carlo Rovelli, cosmological physicist
      • Seven Lessons on physics
      • White Holes – time reversed version to Black Holes
      • Books available in local bookshops,online and audio versions
    • 2024 Total Solar Eclipse – Composite photo of a series from partial to Totality
  • Uplands street lighting – update from Dave Robinson
    • Met with involved parties in Oak Bay
    • Will meet further with mayor and engineer to try to head off the poor choices to try to get responsible night lighting when heritage street lights are replaced
  • Garry Sedun
    • Lava Lake on Io, moon of Jupiter
    • Recent Solar Eclipse caused time shifts for satellites
  • Chris Gainor
    • Alan Dyer’s Chasing the Cross-continental Eclipse
      • Texas to Ontario to Quebec to successfully photograph the eclipse
    • Being President – odd emails
      • Where is George Ball’s observatory?
      • RASA 14″ telescope – owners want to install it at our site on Observatory Hill
  • Inflatable planetarium available – contact Lauri Roche (roche.lauri@gmail.com)
  • International Astronomy Day in Victoria – Lauri Roche
    • Posters and other graphics to share event with others
    • Contact Lauri or Randy (pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca) to volunteer
  • Astrophotography SIG – this Wednesday – Dave Payne

Astronomy Cafe – March 25, 2024

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Video transcript of meeting

  • MMT Observatory – Kali Salmas, Queue Observer
    • Mount Hopkins, 55km south of Tucson, Arizona
    • Originally had six 1.8m mirrors, 4.5m collecting area
    • Now a single 6.5m mirror with 3 secondaries: f/5, f/9, f/15 (adaptive)
    • Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory facility on the mountain
    • Instrumentation
      • Binospec – wide-field opitcal spectrograph
      • Hectochelle/Hectospec – 300 fibre optic spectroscope, robotically reconfigured
      • MMIRS – Infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen cooled
    • Magellan and MMT share instrument designs
    • Operating Staff
      • Telescope Operator – 3
      • Queue Observer – 3
    • Data acquisition
      • Weather, tracking, seeing, turbulence, lenticular cloud formation
      • 7.5-12 hours observing time
      • Moon phase
    • Target Considerations
      • Both manual and automated queue scheduler
      • Sensor being used
      • Magnitude range: 11-26
      • Moon phase
    • Setup on Target – telescope operator and queue observer work together
    • Taking Data – calibration frames, guide stars, check data, add notes, move to next target
    • Q&A
  • Astro-tourism in Northern Arizona – Dave Payne
    • Flagstaff area
    • Barringer Crater – Largest meteorite at 150′ across
    • Lowell Observatory
      • Many domes
      • Original observatory built in 1894
      • Historic 24″ Refractor
      • Privately financed by Percival Lowell to map Mars
      • History of discoveries and innovations by other astronomers at the site
      • Clyde Tombaugh – discovered Pluto with a 12″ telescope
      • 5m Discovery telescope – currently being used, has 5 instruments
  • Recurrent T Coronae Borealis – David Lee david@victoria.rasc.ca
  • Chris Gainor
    • Chandra X-ray space telescope may go dark due to impending budget cuts – 25 years of work done. Save Chandra
    • David Lane, past president of RASC has died. He was the author of Earth Centred Universe planetarium software, operated a popular robotic telescope from his home in Nova Scotia, and was on staff at St. Mary’s University until his retirement.

There is no Astronomy Cafe on April 1 due to Easter holiday. The April 8 meeting will be online only, since many members will be away to observe the Total Solar Eclipse from the path of Totality.

Astronomy Cafe – Mar 11, 2024

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Video transcript of meeting

  • Astrophotography – Dave Payne
    • Orion Nebula, M78 – reflection, emission and dark nebulae
    • Triangulum Galaxy M33
    • Monoceros (next to Orion) – Fox Fur Nebula
  • Barbara Lane 1955-2024
    • Memories of Barbara shared by Randy Enkin and other members
    • Hosted Astronomy Cafe along with her husband Kurt
    • Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation in 2022 for her contributions to Victoria Centre
    • Past Secretary of Victoria Centre, creating wonderful annual reports
    • Kurt and Barbara were a team, volunteering at public outreach events
  • New Crescent Moon of Ramadan 1445 – Randy Enkin
    • Muslim months start at the first glimpse of the New Crescent Moon – beginning of Ramadan
    • Observing a very new Crescent Moon is tricky!
  • They Promised Her the Moon – Dennis F
    • A local play by St. Luke’s Players
    • Originally, women were being tested for the Mercury Program
    • Chris Gainor added to the history of women in space
  • Chris Gainor
    • Canada Post 2024 Eclipse stamp – available this Thursday from your local post office
    • Comet 12/P Pons-Brooks – brightening as it falls apart. It might be visible during Totality on Total Solar Eclipse day.
  • Discord for RASC Victoria – Darren Delorme
    • Private chat room with channels and discussion threads for specific topics
    • Useful as an alternative to email
    • Post information of interest to everyone
    • Join the RASC-Victoria Discord Server!
  • UVic presentation this Wednesday at 7:30PM – Reg Dunkley
  • Volunteers needed
    • Astronomy Cafe – Randy Enkin email
    • Astronomy Day – Lauri Roche email
    • Victoria Centre’s Volunteers List – Marjie Welchframe email

Astronomy Cafe – Feb 5, 2024

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Video transcript of meeting

  • Intro – Jeff Pivnick
  • Enceladus – APOD Feb 5, 2023 – Jeff Pivnick
    • Smaller moon of Saturn discovered by William Herschel
    • The Great Forty 48″ reflector in Slough near Windsor – Herschel’s telescope
    • Cassini Mission
      • Discoveries: magnetic field disruptions, jets of water from “tiger stripe” fissures, wobbly orbital period caused by loose crust
      • 2:1 resonance with Dione results in elliptical orbit and interior heating of the ocean below the crust
      • Cassini division in Saturn’s rings – named for Gian Domenico Cassini, discoverer
      • Mimas 1:2 resonance with Cassini division
    • Diameter 504 kms, 14% liquid water
    • Discussion
  • Randy Enkin
  • Annual General Meeting – RASC Victoria Centre – Randy Enkin
    • Feb 12 7:00PM – Zoom meeting – info and special link to be sent to members
    • Victoria Centre’s Annual Report – contact Randy Enkin with your report president@victoria.rasc.ca
    • Financial Report
    • Election – Reg Dunkley
      • Chris Gainor has agreed to stand for President
      • We now have a full slate, but further nominations will be sought at the AGM
      • New Council will be seeking involvement from members for volunteering
      • We need a quorum of 25 members. If you cannot attend, contact Randy president@victoria.rasc.ca (or another member attending) to be your proxy for voting purposes.
  • Social Dinner – RASC Victoria Centre – Four Mile Pub – Feb 26th
    • Large parking lot, but please carpool if possible
    • Sound system with microphone and speaker will be used for speakers
    • Attendees please contact Marjie to RSVP by Feb 21st
  • SIGs – David Lee david@victoria.rasc.ca
    • Beginners SIG – tomorrow night’s presentation by Randy Enkin on observing the Moon
    • Citizen Science SIG cancelled
    • Astrophotography SIG – 4th Wednesday – hosted by Brock
  • Astronomy Books – David Lee
    • Observer’s Sky Atlas – Erich Karkoschka
    • 21st Century Atlas of the Moon – Charles Wood, Maurice Collins
  • Astronomy Cafe – March 4th
  • Scitech Daily
    • Perseverance Mars Lander – sedimentary layers discovered by ground penetrating radar and samples taken
    • Ingenuity helicopter has crashed

Next Astro Cafe – March 4th – none for the rest of February

Astronomy Cafe – Jan 29, 2024

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Meeting transcript video

  • Intro – Randy Enkin
  • FDAO Star Party – Jan 27 – Randy Enkin
    • Games Night – Jeopardy – was a lot of fun
      • Teams: FDAO, RASC (Nathan, Randy, Chris Gainor)
      • Emcee: Amy
  • 2024 Total Solar Eclipse – Randy Enkin
    • 15% obscuration in Victoria
    • Observe first, photograph next
    • Eye safety – contact Lauri or Randy to pick up some eclipse glasses
    • RASC Eclipse Task Force – Lauri
      • Southern Ontario – mid-afternoon, school kids are being let out early
      • Maritimes – late afternoon, after school
      • Education of teachers in eastern Canada
    • Early March – next eclipse presentation at Astro Cafe
    • Total Solar Eclipse – April 8, 2024 | RASC Victoria
  • Victoria Centre Events – Randy Enkin
    • AGM – Feb 12th
      • Zoom only
      • Quorum of 25 needed
      • Financial Report
      • Election – slate in place except for President – contact Reg Dunkley
    • Social Dinner – Feb 26 at ~ Four Mile Brewpub
      • 22 people registered
      • Contact Marjie to sign up by Wed, Feb 21
      • 55 attendees allows exclusive use of the restaurant, so please sign up!
      • Starts at 6PM
      • Drinks and meals at own expense
      • Awards and speeches
      • Victoria Centre report of activities for 2023 – send info to Randy
    • Astronomy Day – May 18
      • Venue is the Royal BC Museum
      • Need a working committee
    • Island Star Party
      • New Moon weekend is Aug 2-4, but Aug 5 is BC Day so that is a holiday weekend
      • Following weekend to New Moon – Crescent Moon & Perseids – Aug 9-11
      • CVRD has decided no camping and no events outside of park hours, so a new venue probably needed
  • Space Missions
    • Japanese Lunar Mission – now active, despite being on its side
    • Helicopter on Mars has crashed, so that mission is over
  • Good Lighting in Metchosin – Bill Weir
    • Bill had success with controlling streetlights with full cutoff fixtures
    • Ted White is pursuing International Dark Sky certification for municipality
    • Patrick Earl and Dave Robinson will assist
  • Zoozbe “moon” of Venus – Bill Weir
    • Radio Lab podcast
    • Zoozbe is actually an asteroid!

Next Astro Cafe – Feb 5th, then none for the rest of the month. Monday, March 4th will be the next Astro Cafe after Feb 5th.

Astronomy Cafe – Jan 22, 2024

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Video transcipt of meeting

  • Intro – Jim Cliffe
  • Space Telescopes – Chris Gainor
    • How Long Will Hubble Last? – Sky & Telescope article
    • US Postal Service issued two stamps with images from JWST – $30.45 and $9.85 for their express service
  • David Lee
    • Inside the Star Factory – book profiling JWST by Chris Gunn (photography) & Christopher Wanjek
    • Makers SIG – meeting online this Thursday
      • Citizen Science – transitioning from analog to digital recording for occultations – IOTA
      • Imaging computing platforms – including Astroberry
    • Astrophotography SIG – meeting online this Wednesday – Dave Payne
      • Camera settings
      • Photo showcase
      • Q&A
  • Canadian stamp for the Total Solar Eclipse – Lauri Roche
    • March 14th issue day
  • Eclipse viewing glasses – Lauri Roche
  • Astrophotos
    • Dave Payne – online gallery
      • Flying Dragon Nebula – molecular cloud in Cygnus – taken last summer
      • Medusa by Garvacchio
      • Medusa Planetary Nebula in Gemini – RGB and narrowband taken earlier this month
    • Brock Johnston – online gallery
      • Christmas Tree and Fox Fur Nebula
      • Network Nebula – part of the Veil Nebula
      • Crab Nebula
    • Astrophoto Processing – discussion by Ken McGill, David Lee, Brock Johnston, Jim Cliffe
  • Astronomy Information Sources – Susan Grady posed the question to the group
  • Panic! Early results regarding the morphological and structural properties of galaxies seen with the James Webb Space Telescope – UVic, Wed, March 13 – Dr. Leonardo Ferreira, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physics & Astronomy
  • Young people’s astronomy club? – question by Garry Sedun
    • Some High schools and Middle schools offer astronomy groups
    • Discussion about how to reach out to younger people
    • Youth under 18 need family member who is also a member if VCO visit is desired – Chris Purse
    • Using smartphones on a telescope for imaging – simple mounting platforms work well
  • FDAO – Lauri Roche – roche.lauri@gmail.com
    • Games Night at this Saturday’s Star Party – 6:30-10PM – NRC, FDAO & RASC teams
    • FDAO Strategic Planning coming up
  • Victoria Centre – upcoming events– Reg Dunkley & Lauri Roche
    • AGM – Feb12 7:00PM – online zoom to all members
      • Election
      • Financial Report
      • Awards announcements
    • Social Evening – Four Mile Pub – Feb 28th – sign up with Ken Atkinson secretary@victoria.rasc.ca
      • Socialize with your fellow astronomers and friends over some good food and drink
  • Lunar and Mars Missions – group discussion

Astronomy Cafe – Jan 15, 2024

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Video transcript of meeting

  • Intro – Brock Johnston
  • DAO Virtual Reality – Light Wave ObserVR – Darren Delorme
    • Photogrammetric capture using Drone Deploy to create a point cloud of the outside of the observatory site
    • Modelled the telescope and mount inside using Blender from smart phone imagery and archival images
    • Working on windows, dome shutters, viewing platform, surrounding buildings and terrain
    • Unity – star catalog data – currently using 100,000 stars
    • VR headsets and hand motion tracking
    • VR tour starts at Elk Lake built on Lidar data
    • Multi-user experience/star party (up to 64 people), rooms, Meta platform launch
    • Inspired by Loki on Disney+
    • Next step is to create the stories and lessons
    • Perhaps add John Plaskett as a tour guide
    • Discussion of next steps, project milestones, first use, terms of use
  • Games night at FDAO Star Party – Jan 27th
  • The Colours of Uranus and Neptune – Randy Enkin
    • Are the two planets the same colour?
    • Uranus discovered by Herschel in 1781
    • Neptune discovered by several people in 1821, 1845 and 1846
    • Voyager 2 space probe has visited both planets in 1986 and 1989
    • Modelling the seasonal cycle of Uranus’s colour and magnitude, and comparison with Neptune – Patrick G. J. Irwin et al
    • Members relate their observations of Neptune and Uranus
    • Chris Gainor reminisced about being at JPL as a press reporter for the planetary encounters by Voyager 2. Both Hubble and JWST now observe the two planets regularly
  • David Lee david@victoria.rasc.ca
    • Occultations – citizen science
      • NEO
      • Int’l Occultation Timing Assoc – occultations.org
      • New DIY kits available
    • Makers SIG – Jan 25th
      • Imaging computing platforms – convergence and DIY solutions
  • FDAO – Lauri Roche roche.lauri@gmail.com
    • Star Party on Jan 27th
    • Strategic Planning for FDAO coming up
    • Send suggestions for new activities for the FDAO
  • RASC Victoria Centre Events – Lauri Roche & Reg Dunkley
  • Herschel Museum  – Reg Dunkley
    • Near Paddington Station, London, UK
    • Treadle lathe, mirror grinding, forge for mirrors
    • Catalog of stars
    • Site of discovery of Uranus in the garden
    • Musical instruments

Astronomy Cafe – Dec 4, 2023

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Transcript video

  • HD110067 “could become the most interesting star in the galaxy” – Randy Enkin
  • FDAO Fundraising campaign star parties at the Centre of the Universe – Lauri Roche
    • Pancake breakfast – Dec 9 9:30am-Noon
    • Solstice Party & Pluto debate – Dec 16 6-9pm
  • RASC – Lauri Roche
    • RASC 2024 Observers calendars ($15) and almanacs ($18) – 3 of each still available – contact Lauri roche.lauri@gmail.com
    • RASC Victoria social evening – seeking a venue for February 2024
  • SIGs – David Lee
  • Hubble News – Chris Gainor
    • Gyroscope problems – 3 out of 6 have failed
    • Hubble could stay in orbit until 2036, but imaging, power or computer systems could fail sooner
    • Budget cuts at NASA could end the mission
  • Buy & Sell at Astronomy Cafe – review from last week’s event
    • About 40 attendees – new and old members, and non-members
    • Lots of equipment for sale
    • Sid brought lots of equipment to sell and give away on behalf of Victoria Centre
  • Astronomy images
    • Dave Payne – gallery
      • Monkey Head Nebula in Orion
      • Bubble Lobster Claw Nebulae in Cassiopeia
      • Demo of creating an image – basic processing steps and explanation of colours
      • 3-4 nights of image acquisition and several hours of processing
    • Brock Johnston – gallery
      • NGC 1333 – reflection, emission and dark nebula
      • Cocoon Nebula – lots of dust rings the emission nebula along with numerous background galaxies and stars
  • UVic Monthly Meetings – 2nd Wednesday of each month – Reg Dunkley

Astronomy Cafe – Oct 16, 2023

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Transcript video

  • Resumption of monthly meetings and speakers at UVic –  Jeff Pivnick
  • Unexpected Results from James Webb Space Telescope – Chris Gainor
  • Annular Solar Eclipse from Victoria on Oct 14, 2023 – Randy Enkin, Lauri Roche, David Lee
    • Lots of families at FDAO event on Observatory Hill
    • Randy gave 10-minute eclipse basics talks
    • Pre-eclipse report and time lapse video by David Lee
    • FDAO eclipse event report by Lauri Roche
      • Streamed images from David Lee’s telescope in lower parking lot
      • Streamed images from Time & Date website
      • Homemade waffles, fruit and parfaits were popular
      • Lots of RASC members
      • About 150-200 public attended
    • Eclipse Images by members
      • Impromptu event from Cattle Point – Nathan Hellner-Mestelman
      • Sid Sidhu’s Highlands neigbourhood event – David Lee
      • Gordon Head sketches – Dorothy Paul
      • Observatory Hill photo series – Brock Johnston
      • John McDonald’s photos – David Lee
      • Cattle Point – Alex Schmid
      • Partial Solar Eclipse 2023 – RASC Victoria online gallery
    • Eclipse photos from online sources – Randy Enkin
    • Eclipse reports from members
  • Total Solar Eclipse – April 8, 2024 – Discussion about this upcoming event
  • SIGNALS – Star-formation, Ionized Gas and Nebular Abundances Legacy Survey – CFHT – Laurie Rousseau-Nepton, Principal Investigator
  • FDAO Star Party AGM, 2024 RASC calendars or workbooks – contact Lauri Roche (roche.lauri@gmail.com)
  • Beginners’s SIG – Algol Minima – David Lee