- Intro & Welcome by Lauri Roche
- Alex Schmid and Joe Carr honoured – RASC Victoria
- Two of Dave Balum’s minor planet discoveries are now named (568092) Alexschmid and (578249) Josephcarr
- Alex and Joe are thrilled with this honour bestowed by the International Astronomical Union
- New attendee: Scott L from Salt Spring Island
- Newcombe Singers Choir – Kathryn Whitney, Music Director
- Collaborating with RASC Victoria
- Concert: “Sunrise Mass” – St. Mary’s Church, 1701 Elgin Road in Oak Bay
- Dec 13th and 14th at 3:30PM
- Information and tickets
- Concept – transition from long nights of winter through to spring
- Program
- All Through the Night – Welsh lullaby
- Goodnight Moon
- Anang! (A Star)
- The Moon Represents my Heart
- Silent Night
- Mondnacht (Moonlit night)
- Stars
- Measure Me Sky
- Sunrise Mass – Ola Gjeilo
- Volunteers’ roles
- Setup telescopes outside the venue after the concert – Saturn will be best
- Provide astronomy photos for slideshow during concert
- A projection screen would work better than the two monitors in the sanctuary
- Glass orchestra – need 3-6 people to play the tuned wine glasses (bring your own)
- Dec 9th – rehearsal
- Dec 12th – dress rehearsal
- Events
- Beginners’ SIG – David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Tomorrow night 7:30PM online on Zoom
- Sid Sidhu’s condolence cards available at next week’s UVic meeting or contact David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Nov 12 7:30PM – UVic Presentation: Maximizing image resolution for ground-based telescopes using Adaptive Optics – Dr. Maaike van Kooten, NRC
- Geodiversity Fest– Randy Enkin
- Nov 8 10AM-3PM at Royal BC Museum
- Free admission to event (not museum)
- Speakers, exhibits, hands-on activities
- Everything you wanted to know about rocks, oceans, landscape
- Beginners’ SIG – David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Travels In Australia – Sep-Oct 2025 – Chris Gainor
- Attended and spoke at the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney
- Heads of space agencies speak, including Sean Duffy (NASA)
- Participated in the Historical Activities sessions
- Australia has a unique view of the sky from the southern hemisphere
- Big Dish at the deep space network in Tidbinbilla. Movie: The Dish
- Parks dish received Apollo 11 lunar walk transmission
- honesucklecreek.net – history of tracking station
- Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium
- Astronomical observations: a tilted Full Moon, Chinese space station
- Observed and photographed the night sky near Mount Stromlo Observatory – wildfire of 20 years ago
- Koala, 12 Apostles on the south coast, Blue Mountains
- Jeff Pivnick
- 2026 Astronomy Day – save your old Observers Handbooks for giveaways
- Smart Telescopes – presentation for next week’s Astro Cafe
- Astronomy Buy & Sell – Nov 24th – Randy Enkin
- Bring your astronomy gear, books
- Bring some festive treats if you wish
- Equipment from Victoria Centre will also be for sale
- Victoria Centre needs some storage space for our spare astronomy equipment – contact David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Telescope lending equipment – Vince Geisler is interested
- Supernovae and stellar nurseries – Dave Payne
- Properties of gasses which appear in our astrophotos
- Changes in temperature of Hydrogen, depending on its form
- Dust in molecular clouds blocks visible light but infrared light passes through
- Stellar nurseries in Gemini – dynamics of the molecular clouds
- Supernova remnant – supersonic gas heats up and emits light
- A Victory Story by Vince Geisler
- Found a fine 8″ mirror f/3.5
- Will use it to build a new newtonian telescope
- Would like some help with the telescope build
- RASC Almanacs and workbooks pre-order closing soon – contact Lauri now (lauri@victoria.rasc.ca)
- 2026 Council positions open – Treasurer and Secretary – contact Randy Enkin (pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca)
Video recording of the meeting
Astronomy Cafe – Nov 3, 2025
