Chris Boar is a self professed Apollo program space nerd, having met 12 Apollo astronauts including 4 moonwalkers. This presentation is about his visit to Johnson Space Center in Houston back in November 2019, interspersed with tales of meeting the Apollo Astronauts. Chris attended the JSC Level 9 VIP tour, which includes visits to NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where current astronauts train for spacewalks. Also visiting “Building 9” containing mockups of the International Space Station, Soyuz, and SpaceX hardware. And finally visiting the current ISS Mission Control Center, and personal highlight of the tour for Chris, stepping inside the recently restored historic Apollo Mission Control room, a designated US National historic landmark.
Chris Boar is the President of the Nanaimo Astronomy Society and an avid Apollo space nerd along with being a keen astrophotographer. Chris is a full time professional photographer living in Nanaimo shooting weddings and real estate.
2019 visit to Johnson Space Center in Houston
VIP Level 9 Tour – 4-5 hours
Lunar Exploration Module (LEM)
Neutral Buoyancy Lab
Met Micheal Collins: Gemini 10, Apollo 11
ISS Mission Control
Saturn V rocket with F1 engines
Apollo 8 mission
Jim Lovell – Gemini 7, 12, Apollo 8, 13
Space Vehicle Mockup building – ISS, SpaceX, Soyuz
Apollo 9 mission
Alan Bean, Apollo 12 LMP, Skylab II
2016 Spacefest
Restored historic Apollo Mission Control room – all original and working consoles
Apollo 13 mission – Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert
Apollo 15 mission – Dave Scott, LEM
Apollo 16 mission
Apollo 17 mission – Gene Cernan, the last man on the Moon
Deborah Lokhost presented to us about the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. She is an Instrument Science Research Associate at the NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, BC. During her PhD in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, she worked with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array to observe and study galaxies. She designed an upgrade to Dragonfly and built a pathfinder telescope based on this design which she then used to study gas in the surroundings of galaxies. She is currently leading the construction of a full-scale upgrade to the telescope which has the ultimate goal of imaging gas in the “cosmic web” of dark matter.
A printed copy of the Hubble history book “Not Yet Imagined: A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations” written by Chris Gainor can be requested from NASA by email for no cost. Kindle, ePub and PDF electronic versions are also available for free download.
Locating Endurance– Randy Enkin
Shackleton’s exploration ship Endurance in Antarctica has been located on March 5, 2022
Crew manned a lifeboat from Elephant Island to South Georgia and all crew were eventually rescued
Review of navigation in that era
Refer to: On the Location of Shackleton’s Vessel Endurance by Lars Bergman and Robin G. Stuart, published in the Journal of Navigation: 29 July 2021
Endurance had 24 chronometers!
Chronometers were referenced to occultations that happened along the route at the time
Ship was found 6.4 km south of the original reported position of the sinking
The just-completed National Geographic mission was privately funded – about $20 million
The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester – describes Harrison’s chronometers – Martin Gisborne
Report on construction of new 32″ telescope for Edmonton Centre by Roman – Dave Robinson
Astrophoto of NGC 2264 Cone Nebula in RGB – Brock Johnston
May use narrowband next time to tease out more detail
Hickson 44 group of galaxies – an exceedingly deep field image, but missing NGC 3185
Painting of a tiny Arctic plant by Marjie Welchframe
Fr. Lucien Kemble – Roman Catholic Franciscan priest well-known as a visual observer from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Kemble’s Cascade, chain of stars in the northern sky. Photo by Charles Banville – Bill Weir
Speaker for Mar 21 Astro Cafe: Deborah Lokhorst will be speaking about the Dragonfly Telephoto Array
Comet 19/P Borrelly is passing by the California Nebula (chart) – March 23-27 – Bill Weir
Recent Astrophotos – Dan Posey
From recent Plaskett Photography 12-hour session for RASC Victoria Centre members – Horsehead Nebula, more later (data available from Dan through Astrophotography SIG)
Artemis Mission Launch coming up – Canadian Space Agency is looking for promotion to the public by RASC. April 16th FDAO event is proposed with a speaker from CSA.
GA is online again this year – June 24-27
Virtual observing across the country on two evenings – solar observing from Victoria?
Edmonton Astrophotos – Dave Robinson
Bi-marathons – Messier & running marathon in the same night
Andromeda Galaxy & Ha regions & Cepheid Variable VI – Abdur Anwar
Artemis 2 mission will take humans around the Moon
The Ukraine war will probably affect space launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia. Other space exploration may be affected. Discussion about International Space Station.
Bill Weir
Equatorial Poncet platform for the 20″ Truss Dobsonian built by Guy Walton is now working again
Will be used at the Centre of the Universe for public viewing when restrictions permit events
Takahashi TOA – visual and photography configurations
12.5″ OGS RC – photography with a new 61 Mpix cooled camera, filters LRGB & narrowband
First light of the Moon – photo taken last night
Paramount mount still needs some service, but it’s working
COVID-19 Regulations – 4 members at the VCO, and 2 more members at the Plaskett parking lot. Active Observers should attest to being fully vaccinated to President Randy Enkin (president@victoria.rasc.ca) and cc to Chris Purse (membership@victoria.rasc.ca)
Member-In-Charge (MIC) – 2 spaces available for new volunteers. Training will be provided.
Update on James Webb Space Telescope – Chris Gainor
Last week, instruments turned on
First light on sensors
Calibrating the mirror segments is proceeding
History of Hubble – Chris Gainor
Chris will be receiving copies of the book
Requests can be sent to the Hubble Information Center – info-center@hq.nasa.gov
Observers Handbook 2022 – free one available from Joe Carr (web@victoria.rasc.ca)