Video transcript of meeting
Location, Location, Location (Plaskett history) – Dennis Crabtree, NRC Herzberg
- John Stanley Plaskett – took lots of photos
- Site testing for proposed 72″ telescope used a Cooke 4.5″ equatorially-mounted telescope, mainly operated by W.E. Harper
- Plaskett’s 1913 tour to Medicine Hat, Penticton, Victoria (for possible observing sites), then the USA before returning to Ottawa
- Victoria site on Observatory Hill was the obvious choice after site testing
- Q&A
- Plaskett’s photos were “lost from memory” – Dennis discovered them in the archives
- Plaskett hired Edward Fleming as a photographer for the observatory site construction
- 1 arc second seeing at the Victoria site seems too good to be true – site testing today is done over years, not weeks. See Harper’s paper for the site testing report.
- Plaskett 72″ mirror was replaced in the 1980s with modern glass
- High resolution scans of glass plates and negatives are impressive
- Dennis wants to present these historic photos to the world – archival site
- Astronomy Cafe – Sep 13 meeting – first in-person Astronomy Cafe in Fairfield
- Perseid Meteor Shower on Aug 12th – Sid Sidhu
- All-sky camera – 2 composite photos covering 2 hours each
- July 13th – sporadic meteor
- Feb 23rd – another sporadic meteor with gas plasma visible
- Discussion about meteor trains, fireballs and bolides
- Jupiter & Perseid photos – Randy Enkin
- Double transit of Jupiter’s moons with their shadows merging – Christopher Go
- Perseid Meteor shower photos of note from the Internet
- Edmonton photos – Dave Robinson
- Noctilucent clouds – Alister Ling
- Cave Nebula photos by Dave Payne – processed and presented by John McDonald
- RGBL & Ha
- LRGB
- Ha
- OIII, Ha, SII – Hubble Palette & Juan Perez palette
- All bands – NBRGB combination script in PixInsight
- Natural
- Events – Lauri Roche
- Diane Bell’s Celebration of Life – thanks to Diane’s brother Gord, Chuck Filtness, Randy Enkin, Reg Dunkley, Garry Sedun and Chris Gainor – photo gallery
- UVic Observatory Open House – this Wednesday
- FDAO Star Party – next is an astrophotography panel hosted by David Lee – August 21st – this Saturday night
- Progress on Andromeda Galaxy mosaic – Dave Payne
Astronomy Cafe – Aug 16, 2021