Astronomy Cafe – Mar 30, 2026

• Intro – Jeff Pivnick
• Artemis landing site selection – Phil Stooke
  • Landing site selection at lunar South Pole for the Artemis 4 mission
  • Some higher areas of the South Pole can see sunlight 75% of the time
  • Mons Mouton – large upland plateau area at 10km elevation, favoured for a landing
  • 27 potential landing regions considered, reduced to 13 in Summer 2022, and 9 regions in 2024
  • From the lunar south pole, the Earth is visible
  • Jack (Harrison) Schmitt is arguing against a polar landing, suggesting Clavius crater and other sites
  • Specific landing sites in the proposed areas is now being considered
  • Other missions are also possibly landing on the Moon over the next few years
  • Unmanned landing will be tried before crew are aboard
• CHEK News profiling proposed 1 million additional SpaceX Satellites
  • Chris Gainor & Samantha Lawler comment on the news item
  • Satellites would impact Earth’s ecosystem, humans and animals
  • Those satellites would burnout in Earth’s atmosphere every 3 minutes
• NASA Space Missions – Chris Gainor
  • The Moon
    • Artemis II now due for April 1 – a 10-day mission
    • Artemis changes announced on Feb 27th
    • Artemis Lunar Landers from SpaceX vs Blue Origin
    • Ignition – Future NASA programs – March 25th
    • Artemis missions through 2028, when humans will land on the Moon
    • Lunar Gateway is ‘Paused’
    • Lunar Base phased in by 2036
  • Low Earth Orbit – after the ISS
    • Transition to commercial space activities hasn’t worked out
    • Economic viability is questionable
    • One new space station by the USA is likely through evolutionary assembly
  • NASA Science
    • Planetary Probe for Titan – Dragonfly rotorcraft
    • Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – survey telescope
    • Habitable Worlds Observatory – exoplanets suitable for life
    • Space Reactor 1 Freedom – nuclear-powered craft to Mars, including helicopters
• Seestar S30 photo of the Moon – Peter Norman
  • Childhood observations of the night sky from a dark site north of Montreal
• Artemis II Crew Video – Natasha van Bentum
  • Zero-G Indicator ‘Rise’ – micro SD with names inside this onboard stuffy
• Astrophoto of Rosette Nebula – Vince Geisler
  • SHO bands from Vince’s backyard last night
  • Elephant Trunk Nebula and one other object pending
• Events
  • Beginners SIG – Apr 7th – David Lee
  • UVic Meeting – next Wednesday, April 8th – Kevin Bertles
    • Look for details from the meeting notice to be sent to members soon
  • Sunshine Coast Astronomy Series – April 10th – Hubble Space Telescope presentation by Chris Gainor
  • Highlands Star Party in memory of Sid Sidhu – April 17th 8:30PM at Twinflower Park – Lauri Roche – contact lauri@victoria.rasc.ca
    • Event Poster – further details
  • Sid Sidhu’s telescope collection – David Lee
    • Optics, electronics and telescopes – members are welcome to give them a home
    • Inventory is pending
  • Astronomy Day on April 25 – Lauri Roche
    • Organization is progressing
    • More volunteers are welcome – contact lauri@victoria.rasc.ca

No Astronomy Cafe next Easter Monday, April 6th. Next meeting is April 13th.

Video recording of meeting