Astronomy Cafe – Oct 31, 2022

Posted by as Astro Cafe

Video transcript of meeting

  • 2023 RASC Observer’s Calendar – still a few left from Victoria Centre’s bulk order – email Lauri Roche
  • RASC Victoria Centre 2023 calendar – Joe Carr
  • Reports and updates – Chris Gainor
    • Artemis Launch now on Nov 14
    • James Webb Space Telescope
      • Early images
      • Some issues with one mode of the mid-Infrared imager (MIRI)
    • Hubble Space Telescope images
    • Skynews is running late, new editor hired
    • History of the Canadian Astronomical Data Centre – repository for data from many big telescopes – article for Feb 2023 JRASC
    • BBC National site has interactive display for JWST infrared – Michael Webb
  • Lunar Eclipse on Nov 8th – Randy Enkin
    • Umbra Crossings of Craters during the eclipse
    • Refer to Sky & Telescope’s table of crater timings
    • Refer to eclipse crater timing diagram sent out by Randy
    • Randy uses the Ticking Clock app on Android
    • How about using video timing? – David Lee
    • How accurate does the timing need to be? S&T states 6 seconds
    • Forecast for Nov 8th might indicate drier air from BC Interior will move over us – Reg Dunkley
    • Refraction affecting measurements discussed
    • Time and Date – eclipse info
  • SIGs – David Lee
  • Public Outreach discussion
    • David Lee: What is more effective for public outreach – using a screen or eyepiece/visual?
    • Bill Weir: used his 4″ refractor for pubic observing at Jasper, while others showed images on screens
    • John McDonald: sets up his telescope for observing by seniors, reporting an emotional response
    • Dave Payne: setup time for EAA gear is a liability
    • Garry Sedun: his family prefers visual astronomy
    • Dave Robinson: reports an emotional response to observing with eye to eyepiece
    • David Lee: EAA works when observing a dim object that is beyond the visual limit
  • Lauri Roche: Any news about holding RASC meetings at UVic again? Nothing so far (Chris Purse)

President’s Message – October 2022

Posted by as President's Message

It has been five years since the astronomy bug caught me big. After the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse, I started looking for a telescope to replace my old Tasco refractor. I was close to buying a used C8 Schmidt Cassegrain, but couldn’t figure out how I could fit it in my house (or life). My first “new” telescope was an adequate little Newtonian, and since then I have acquired many telescopes, mounts, and accessories; never spending more than $150 at a time, to make a Frankenscope that works for me.

During that exciting autumn of 2017, I met Lauri Roche at a science outreach event and she invited me to give a talk at the RASC Victoria Centre Astro Cafe about a “gizmo” I developed for my telescope. Soon after, I joined the Society and made friends with many of you at Astro Cafe. With the Pandemic, our online events became important social activities for me. We’ve been doing outreach and in-reach events together. We have been a wonderful supportive community, which I now treasure.

In the autumn of 2020, our then president, Reg Dunkley, sent out a desperate plea for new council members, and in particular somebody who would step up to be our next president. I felt I was still a newbie, but the community was important to me and I did step up. I’ve been having a wonderful time working with this group, and I’m looking forward to many more roles I can take to keep our programs going and growing. But I am approaching the end of my second year as president and according to our bylaws, we need a new person to put their name forward as president. We have several other Council positions to fill as well.

So here is my plea – my desperate plea: please volunteer for our council! The roles are not onerous and we have a strong volunteer base to get things done. The past executives are all very helpful and supportive, so no one needs to feel they are all alone. But our society cannot function without people in the key positions and I know there are several of you reading this not thinking that you could be one of them. You can.

You should directly contact Reg, who as Past-President (pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca) is in charge of council nominations. But we know that few people ever volunteer on their own initiative. Please don’t be surprised or unhappy if you get a call from one of us. We need you. We appreciate you. We’ll have fun with you!

Look Up,
Randy Enkin, President@Victoria.RASC.ca

Astronomy Cafe – Oct 24, 2022

Posted by as Astro Cafe

Video transcript of meeting

  • The Moon over Paris – Randy Enkin
    • A photo tour of Paris featuring the Moon
  • Sky Brightness Survey 2022 – David Lee
    • Preliminary results
    • Data cleaning using R programming language
    • Next steps
    • Spectral response of LEDs and SQM readings
    • Discussion
  • Seeing Beyond video – Nathan Hellner-Mestelman
    • Manifesto of what will happen once Artemis 1 is launched
    • Colonizing the solar system will change mindsets of the population at large
    • Seeing Beyond – better quality video and audio on Nerd Anomaly channel
    • Seeing Beyond soundtrack
    • Discussion
  • Gamma Ray Burst – Randy Enkin
    • Gamma Ray Burst 221009A – event just happened on Oct 9th
    • Initial detection and follow-up observations continuing
    • Discussion
  • Announcements
    • Astronomy Cafe next week is Halloween, so no in-person event – Zoom virtual meeting will be hosted by 
    • Lunar Eclipse on Nov 7/8
    • 2023 RASC Calendars – email Lauri Roche to reserve a copy. Explore the Universe and Explore the Moon workbooks are also available.
    • Skynews editor has retired and new editor is hired, so combined with printing problems, there will be delayed delivery of the next issue.
    • Various reports from Bill Weir

Astronomy Cafe – Oct 17, 2022

Posted by as Astro Cafe

Video transcript of meeting

Finding Asteroids Before They Find Us – Kelly Fast, NASA/Planetary Defence Coordination Office

  • Finding the asteroid (bigger than 1m in size)
  • Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) that are hazardous to Earth (140m in size or larger)
  • NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to hazardous asteroid Bennu
  • Search, Detect & Track hazardous asteroids
  • International Asteroid Warning Network – worldwide effort
  • Searching for NEOs
    • Catalina Sky Survey – Arizona
    • Pan-STARRS – Maui, Hawaii
    • ATLAS – Hawaii, South Africa, Chile
    • LINEAR/SST – Australia
    • NEOWISE – JPL infrared space telescope
    • Follow-up telescopes also used
  • IAU Minor Planet Center – observations
  • JPL Center for Near Earth Object Studies – high precision NEO orbits, impact predictions
  • ESA Space Missions Planning Advisory Group – potential NEO deflection mission plans
  • Impact of small asteroid 2022 EB5 – March 11, 2022
  • U.S. Interagency Tabletop Exercise – 6 month warning time
  • 30,000 NEAs found so far
  • NEO Surveyor – new infrared space telescope being developed by NASA
  • Characterizing asteroids using infrared and radar
  • Asteroid Deflection
    • Gravity tractor
    • Nuclear explosion
    • Kinetic Impact – DART mission tested technique on Didymous/Dimorphos system
      • Change the orbital period
      • Autonomous navigation needed
      • Many ground-based observatories observed impact and resultant changes to Dimorphos
      • LICIACube satellite imaged the whole mission
  • Questions and discussion

2023 RASC Calendars – email Lauri Roche to reserve a copy

Astronomy Cafe – Oct 3, 2022

Posted by as Astro Cafe

Video transcript of the meeting

  • DART spacecraft impact – Kelly Fast, presenter for Oct 17th Astro Cafe- Jeff Pivnick
    • Last 2.5 minutes of mission
  • Astrophotos from the VCO – Reg Dunkley
    • Didymous – looks like Albert Einstein
    • Had an MIC training session with poor attendance. We need a couple more sessions scheduled longer in advance.
      • Operating the telescopes and the observatory
      • All the equipment is working very well
      • Can also bring along a dSLR
    • David’s planetary imager was used to image the Io transit of Jupiter over the Great Red Spot – LRGB channels – 40,000 frames
    • Couldn’t get Registax to work, so used AstroSurface software
    • We are now allowed to have up to 15 members, 3 in VCO wearing a mask with new protocols in place
  • Astrophotos – Brock Johnston
    • Io transit of Jupiter over the Great Red Spot
    • 4700mm of focal length
    • Saturn – Sep 25th
    • Jupiter – GRS on the edge
    • Using AstroSurface – uses R-L deconvolution and wavelets
    • Links to weather conditions and forecasts – Jetstream & ClearDarkSky for Victoria & Upper Winds
  • Imaging using the Plaskett – Dan Posey
    • Just past imaging session happened on Sep 30th
    • gPrime & rPrime – good for imaging emission nebulae
    • Next Plaskett sessions: Oct 29, Dec 22
    • Can have up to two people with Dan in the control room
    • No updates on the new camera, which will be about 20′ wide and more square FOV. Jim Hesser expects the camera replacement will take months, but it is progressing.
    • Imaging done: Cocoon, Stephan’s Quintet, North America and Dumbbell nebula
    • Cruise tour of 30 crashed into the dome – thanks to Dan for interrupting the imaging – Lauri
  • SIGs – David Lee
    • Beginner’s SIG this Tuesday
    • Electronically-assisted Astronomy this Thursday
  • Sky Brightness Survey – David Lee
    • Consolidation and cleanup of the data is progressing
    • Project meetings on Tuesday 7:00-7:30PM and Wednesday 7:00-8:00PM evenings with the team
    • David will show some graphics depicting the data and problems
    • Need some people who are colour blind to participate
    • Does Jupiter skew the dark sky readings? Bill Weir
    • About half the volunteers were new to SQM measurements, the others had done
    • How about taking more readings during New Moon in October? – maybe
  • 2023 RASC Calendars – Lauri Roche
    • Place an order – email Lauri
    • No up-front payment required
    • See the RASC website for information about the 2023 calendar. We anticipate the cost will be similar to last year which was $15 each; this is a considerable savings over ordering directly from the RASC eStore
  • Future of Hubble – Chris Gainor
    • 13 years since last servicing mission
    • 535 kms above Earth, so good until 2036-37
    • NASA and SpaceX may use a Dragon spacecraft to boost Hubble into a higher orbit – 6 month technical study
    • Polaris flights being privately funded for next year to high orbit – a second flight might be used to boost Hubble
    • Chris’ Space Review article – NASA-SpaceX study opens final chapter for Hubble Space Telescope
  • Bill Weir
    • Vixen 114mm Newtonian telescope donation
      • Parabolic mirror, good quality optics
      • Two school programs might want to use this telescope – Lauri
    • Sidewalk astronomy at Metchosin Market
  • Next Astro Cafe is in 2 weeks on Oct 17th