April | 2021 | RASC Victoria

Astronomy Cafe – April 26, 2020

Posted April 26, 2021 by Webmaster as Astro Cafe

This evening’s observing events
- Mercury & Venus in the west at sunset this evening
- Mars near M35
National Report – Chris Purse
- National membership system migration is still being worked on
- New merchandise on the National website
Moon phases over the last cycle – John McDonald
- Camera angle changes and different cameras caused problems
- Recent photo sequence
Randy Enkin
- The Observable Universe from Top to Bottom – Astronomy XKCD comic
- Moon aligned with the end of Ogden Point Breakwater as it sets
Astronomers Release New All-Sky Map of Milky Way’s Outer Reaches – Dorothy Paul
- Data from Gaia and NEO(WISE) telescopes
- Leading to what Dark Matter is made of
- New All-Sky Map of Milky Way’s Outer Reaches Released – Could Offer a New Test of Dark Matter Theories
- Simulation of Dark Matter – video
- Galactic-scale gas wave in the solar neighbourhood – J Alves et al., Nature 578, 237
- The Rise of the Milky Way – João Alves, Radcliffe Institute
- A Large Catalog of Accurate Distances to Local Molecular Clouds: The Gaia DR2 Edition – Catherine Zucker et al. The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 879, Number 2 (2019)
- Astronomers name interstellar “ripple” the “Radcliffe Wave” – Harvard Magazine
- At Radcliffe, an exhibit that stitches together the stars – Harvard Gazette. Opening Discussion for Measure – Anna Von Mertens, Radcliffe Institute (see link at bottom to talk by artist Anna von Martens).
- The Radcliffe Wave – Visuals

SIGs – David Lee
- Beginners – what to see from various telescopes
- Astrophotography – this Wed
- EAA & Makers – next week
Astronomy Day for Victoria coming up
A new high-quality photo printer for astronomical images – Joe Carr
- Better photography by printing your work – Joe’s inspiration from Keith Cooper (professional photographer)
- Epson SureColor P900 17-Inch Photo Printer – product page
Amateur Astronomers who used Hubble – Sat, May 1st, 9AM PDT – Chris Gainor
- 2 of the amateurs will be part of the presentation

President’s Message – April 2021

Posted April 19, 2021 by Randy Enkin as President's Message

I love the variety of categories in the Amateur Astronomy community. Most of us will be interested in several and passionate in a few. I’m just listing the following from the top of my head and I would appreciate your input.

We can categorize by equipment: naked eye, binocular, wide-field camera, telescopes, and a few who adventure outside visible light to study radio waves. Telescopes range in aperture, focal length, geometry, optical quality; plus mount style, motors, and automation.

How about by target: the constellations, the sun, the moon, the planets, binary stars, and the deep space objects – nebulas, clusters, and galaxies. There are also the ephemera: meteors, auroras, and the occasional comets. There are also the more predictable events such as eclipses, conjunctions, and occultations.

Some people simply observe, while others record notes, sketch, or photograph. Astrophotography has quite a range, from single shot, to stacking, to long exposures with specific filters.

There are some specific studies, such as variable star photometry, spectrography, or plotting annual parallax. My 31-year- long time series of lunar phases and my recent addition of measuring changes in the lunar diameter would fit here.

And then there are the arm-chair categories – too many to be exhaustive: studies in stellar evolution, planetary evolution, exoplanets and exobiology, galactic evolution, astronomy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and now gravity waves, black holes, and cosmology. Space travel and technology is a huge category on its own. I have a particular interest in the history of astronomy – how we got to understand things so distant and complex with simpler equipment and theory.

I know members of our community interested in every single one of these categories! And it makes me rejoice that we are together at all our different levels and complementary interests and skills.

Look Up,

Randy Enkin Email

Astronomy Cafe – April 19, 2021

Posted by Webmaster as Astro Cafe

Transcript video of the meeting

Galaxy hunting with just a camera (no telescope) – John McDonald
- Photo of Leo the Lion Constellation taken with a 50mm lens from Cattle Point
- 88 minutes of exposure, used a blur filter for some of the exposures
- Leo Triplet – obvious
- Leo 1 Group
- NGC 2903 – barred galaxy
- Asteroid Vesta – movement between 11th and 13th
- Hickson Group in neck of Leo – Bill Weir
- Dwarf galaxy near Regulus
Daguerre crater – Randy Enkin
- Photo of Sun & sunspots – Fizeau & Foucault at Paris Observatory on April 2, 1845
- Dial-A-Moon – NASA – annotated lunar photo
- Mike Nash’s photo captured Daguerre crater on the 16th
Favourable weather for observing – Reg Dunkley
- University of Washington
  - IR loop
  - GOES satellite images – every 5 minutes
  - North Pole view of the 500 millibar layer – mid-point of atmosphere – shows an Omega block (giving us very stable air)
  - By this Saturday, we are getting a Cold Low, causing unstable air and cloud cover
Edmonton RASC members’ photos – Dave Robinson
- NGC 2403 galaxy in Camelopardalis – Arnold Rivera
- Aurora and old shed – Warren Findlay
- M51 Whirlpool Galaxy and galaxy cluster, quasar (mag 20) – Abdur Anwar
Nu Virginis occulted by the Moon on Friday – David Lee
- Given poor weather forecast, we are unlikely to be able to observe
- IOTA site has occultation predictions
- Grazing occultations are quite interesting, showing the lunar mountains, but this isn’t a grazing event
- QHYCCD GPS Sync Timer module – can be used with existing cameras using a NTP time server (GPS)
Discussion about imaging – David Lee, Brock Johnston
Amateur Astronomer certificate received by Marjie from Kalamazoo
Moon At Noon – RASC program – Lauri Roche & Chris Purse
- Lauri sketched the Moon using her 8″ SCT

Astronomy Cafe – April 12, 2021

Posted April 12, 2021 by Webmaster as Astro Cafe

Meeting video transcript

Galactic-scale Gas Wave in the Solar Neighbourhood – The Radcliffe Wave – João Alves et al – presented by Dorothy Paul
- Studied molecular clouds from Gaia data
- Calculated exact distances to star clouds and their 3D shapes
- Redefined our Local Arm of the Milky Way
- Radcliffe College > Harvard College/university (history)
  - Cecelia Payne –
    - She moved from Cambridge to Radcliffe to Harvard
    - Shapely published her Stellar Atmospheres – hydrogen is the major component of the Universe
    - 1957 first female full professor at Harvard
    - What Stars Are Made Of – her life – by Donovan Moore
- João Alves, the lead behind the Gaia study revealed “At Radcliffe, an exhibit of a quilt of stars by Anna Von Mertins honouring Henrietta Leavitt…” opened his eyes to wider consideration of the data.
- What is the origin of the Radcliffe Wave?
- How stable is it and are there similar structures in other spiral galaxies?
- A Galactic-scale gas wave in the Solar Neighbourhood – João Alves et al – PDF
Photos from Edmonton RASC – Dave Robinson
- Lunar Transit of the ISS on March 27th – compiled from video by Arnold Rivera
- Leo Triplet – Abdur Anwar – reprocessed to show colour
- T-Rex shape in the Moon – Abdur Anwar
- Veil Nebula stereo image from Hubble – by Murray Paulson – https://esahubble.org/images/heic1520d/
- M101 galaxy – Tom Owen
Jukka-Pekka Metsavainio’s Milky Way Mosaic – Randy Enkin
- Gigapixel mosaic of the Milky Way acquired over 12 years
- 125 x 22 degrees
- Used PixInsight for mosaic
- 3D video with Brian May and Jukka-Pekka Metsavainio
SIGs – David Lee
- Makers – this Thursday – Jim Cliffe
- Astrophotography – John McDonald
- EAA – extra meetings, and some good results – David Lee
- Beginners – virtual telescope walk (show-and-tell) – David Lee
Occultation of star (nu Virginis) by Moon on 23rd 11:10PM local time – David Lee will present more info next week at Astro Cafe
Annular Eclipse from Northern Ontario – June 10, 2021 – Brendon Roy, Thunder Bay may broadcast from the centreline if possible