2016 Annual General Meeting & Dinner

Posted by as Meetings

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Victoria Centre

Annual General Meeting and Dinner

Sunday, November 27, 2016

at the Cedar Hill Golf Course, 1400 Derby Road, Victoria, BC

Call for Nominations

Event photos for the AGM

Awards presentations

6:00pm – Drinks, conversation

  • No host bar

6:30 – Dinner

Payment -Cost of the buffet dinner is $37.50 per person, inclusive of all taxes and gratuities. Alcoholic beverages not included.

  • Payment is only required for the meal.
  • Attendance at both the speaker presentation and the business meeting is free of charge.
  • The total number of dinners must be confirmed by Monday, November 14th. Please look over the menu and send your choice of Main Course to:
    • Nelson Walker: 250-477-4820 or by email to pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca
    • Payment at the door – by cheque (preferred) or cash
    • Meals will be pre-ordered and must be paid for, whether you show up or not

Menu

Salads and Sides

  • caesar salad with croutons & parmesan cheese
  • mixed green salad with house vinaigrette
  • tomato & boconccini cheese salad with fresh basil & balsamic vinaigrette
  • red skin potato salad
  • garlic mashed potato & rice pilaf
  • assorted steamed vegetables
  • artisan breads

Main Course (pre-ordered): choice of one entrée

  • grilled ‘AAA’ sirloin steak
  • Pacific salmon with dill & lemon butter
  • Charbroiled Chicken Breast
  • Vegetarian ravioli with a herbed cream

After Dinner

  • assorted cakes, squares & fresh Level Ground coffee.

7:30pm – Speaker – The secret of Adaptive Optics – Paolo Turri, UVic Astronomy

Abstract:

Paolo Turri
Paolo Turri

Since the dawn of optical telescopes, astronomers have been struggling against a serious problem: Earth’s atmosphere. The turbulence in the atmosphere degrades the quality of astronomical images by reducing the spatial resolution that they could achieve theoretically. For centuries astronomers had to live with this limitation, until space flight allowed them to put telescopes in orbit, avoiding the issue entirely. But for the larger telescopes here on the ground, the problem persisted. This was until a technical solution was finally found during the Cold War (but kept secret until few decades ago…).

Adaptive optics is a relatively new technology that allows a telescope to “manipulate” the light distorted by the atmosphere and to restore a clear vision of the skies. I will discuss the tricks that adaptive optics uses to achieve the result, as well as some of its scientific accomplishments. I will also tell the story of how we ended up acquiring this technology in astronomy. It’s a plot made of secrets, spies and mutually assured destruction.

Biography:
Paolo is from Italy and he graduated in Padua and Trieste for his degree in Astronomy. He is currently a PhD student in Astronomy at the University of Victoria and his field of research is in adaptive optics. He has observed at the Gemini South telescope to study the stellar populations of Galactic globular clusters. At NRC Herzberg he is also studying the performance of the adaptive optics system that will be built in Victoria for the future Thirty Meter Telescope.

 

8:30-9:30 pm Annual General Meeting & Presentations

Call to order: 8:30pm
Minutes of 2015 Annual Meeting: Les.

Secretary’s Annual Report: Les.

Treasurer’s Financial Report: Bruce.

National Representative’s Report: Lauri.

Awards:

Observing Certificate-

Award of Excellence in Astrophotography –

Ernie Pfannenschmidt Award in Amateur Telescope Making –

Newton – Ball Service Award 2016-

Certificate of Excellence –
Election of Victoria Centre Council Members: Nelson-

List of RASC Council positions for Victoria Centre 2016-2017:

Executive Positions

President – Chris Purse (nominee)

First Vice President – Reg Dunkley (nominee)

Second Vice President – Deb Crawford (nominee)

Secretary – Leslie Welsh (incumbent)

Treasurer – Bruce Lane (incumbent)

At large and others:

Past President – Sherry Buttnor

National Representative – Nelson Walker (nominee)

Librarian – Michel Michaud (incumbent) Diane Bell (assistant, nominee)

Telescopes and School Programs – Sid Sidhu

Public Outreach – Ken Mallory (nominee)

Skynews Editor – Reg Dunkley (incumbent)

Light Abatement Chair  –  Dave Robinson (incumbent)

Membership Chair – Chris Purse     (incumbent)

Webmaster – Joe Carr (incumbent)

Observing Chair – Michel Michaud, Jim Stilburn (incumbent co-chairs)

Systems Administrator /Technical Committee Chair – Matt Watson (incumbent)

Member(s) at Large:
Jim Hesser (National RASC Anniversary Working Group)
Lauri Roche (National RASC Anniversary Working Group )
James DiFrancesco (DAO Liaison)
Alex Schmidt (UVic Liaison)
David Lee (Observing)
Li-Ann Skibo (RBCM Liaison)
Bill Almond (Historian)
Chris Gainor (National Officer)
New Business

Door Prizes.

Adjourn.

FOR SALE: Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way – Barnard, 1927

Posted by as Buy&Sell

RASC Victoria Centre is selling a rare antiquarian star atlas from our library:

Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way – by Edward Emerson Barnard

Published by Carnegie Institution of Washington 1927
Part I – Photographs and Descriptions
Part II – Charts and Tables

This is a beautifully illustrated atlas of the Milky Way
featuring photographs hand-picked by Barnard

$10,000

 

Payment by bank draft or certified cheque payable to: RASC Victoria Centre.
Payment by personal cheque drawn on a US or Canadian bank is acceptable, but will cause delays.

Please contact our Librarian Michel Michaud (Email or call (250) 477-1414 if you are interested in purchasing this antiquarian two volume set.

 

Part I Photographs and Descriptions

Encore Star Party!

Posted by as Events

Encore! Encore! The RASC Victoria Centre, in partnership with Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, the National Research Council of Canada, and Science Literacy Week, present one final Saturday evening Star Party at the DAO, on Saturday September 24th. All the same great activities you enjoyed at the observatory all summer are on the schedule for the evening, with Dr Geoff Steeves of the Planetary Society as our special guest speaker.
Tickets are required. Tickets are free, and will become available starting at 1pm, Friday September 16th at our EventBrite site.  Click here. See you there!

President’s Message September 2016

Posted by as President's Message

Welcome to September! Goodness…is it just me, or did summer go by really quickly?! Maybe it’s because we had such a great time at the DAO and our other public events? In spite of some pretty sketchy weather early on, our Summer Saturday Star Parties at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory were very popular once again. So popular, in fact, that we even had a problem with someone scalping our tickets. LOL…you know your efforts are successful when that happens! We even had a visit from the Lieutenant Governor of BC, the Honourable Judith Guichon. She was so impressed by our programs, she stayed over an hour longer than scheduled and pledged to return with her grandchildren. How about that?
Another major summer event was our annual RASCals Star Party in Metchosin. The first evening was absolutely stunning: clear and warm; the kind of evening we dream about all winter. The second evening was less impressive, with wind all afternoon replaced by clouds in the evening. In spite of that, over 70 people attended with many camping out the whole weekend.
And wrapping up our major public events, the Saanich Fair. Our booth at the Fair is always a hit with fairgoers.
Here are some attendance numbers for you:
International Astronomy Day: 626 (daytime)
Saturday “star parties” at the DAO: 2221.
RASCals Star Party: 73.
Saanich Fair: ~1450.
Huge thanks to everyone who volunteered for these events!! You’re amazing. Very special thanks to David Lee and Nelson Walker for their hard work arranging and scheduling guest speakers and volunteers for the DAO evenings, and Lauri Roche for organizing the Saanich Fair weekend. Many thanks also to our friends at Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, and Science Venture. Well done!
Here are links to some great photos of these events, taken by our members:

DAO Summer Star Parties: http://rascvic.zenfolio.com/p109973364
RASCals Star Party: http://rascvic.zenfolio.com/rascals2016

Saanich Fair: http://rascvic.zenfolio.com/p717179212

Just because those are over doesn’t mean the fun is over. We’re busy gearing up for all of our great regular activities for the rest of the year: regular monthly meetings and Council meetings at UVic with some terrific guest speakers, Astronomy Cafe with its laid-back atmosphere and great discussion topics, Cattle Point and UVic observing sessions (both scheduled to resume in October), and our Annual General Meeting on November 27th. Here’s a schedule of upcoming events:
Council meeting: Sept 7, 7:30pm. (4th floor astronomy lounge, Elliott building, UVic) Everyone welcome.
General meeting Sept 14, 7:30pm: Professor Sun Kwok, guest speaker. (room A104, Bob Wright building, UVic) Everyone welcome.
Astro cafe Sept 12th. 7:30pm. Fairfield Community Centre (annex behind main building) Everyone welcome.
DAO STAR PARTY Sept 24….one last encore event! 7:30pm-11:00pm at the DAO.
UVic observing: TBA October
Cattle Point observing: TBA October
Annual General Meeting: Sunday November 27th, 6:00pm, Cedar Hill Golf Course.

More details on our Annual General Meeting to come shortly, including the menu and guest speaker. Our AGM also includes the election of our Executive and Board of Directors. If you would like to run for a position, please let our Past President know! pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca.
Remember: to keep up to date with Victoria Centre happenings, just go to our website at victoria.rasc.ca.

I see we have several new members to the Victoria Centre. Welcome!! I hope we can help you with whatever your astronomical interests are. Always feel free to join in in any of our activities and meetings, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you need anything at all. We’re here for you.

With Autumn approaching, often with some of the best observing conditions of the year, I hope you will join us at any of our scheduled activities, or just get out there and enjoy the night sky!

Clear skies,
Sherry.