- Intro & New Members – David Lee
- Keith – military night time guard duty, Southern Cross, Orion’s belt, Pietersburg, South Africa
- RASC Victoria Glass Orchestra – David Lee
- Astronomical photos used during the performance by the Newcombe Choir, including Hidden Galaxy by Dave Payne (brown colour, and large enough to observe with binoculars)
- Jim and Betty Hesser, David Lee, Marjie Welchframe, Lauri Roche and several others enjoyed the performance
- For audio, search online for “stars choral”
- Katherine Whitney, Newcombe choral director
- Meteorite in a pin gifted to Chris Hadfield – Natasha van Bentum
- Location: Sikote-Alin in Siberia
- Largest observed meteorite fall with a huge debris field
- Comet 3I/Atlas – David Lee
- Closest approach to Earth on Dec 19th
- hard to observe
- Dec 20th FDAO star party – might observe using the 16″ telescope after the event if clear sky
- Could image the comet at 2AM in a few days if the Plaskett is available
- Plaskett Telescope Virtual Reality – Darren Delorme
- VR Trailer submitted to a Meta Quest contest
- Multi-user virtual experience
- Historical timelines
- Meta Quest Night Simulator Trailer – demo
- Control panel
- Choose from a panel of hundreds of celestial targets
- Explore the whole space inside the dome
- Complete VR of the Plaskett telescope
- Historical equipment can be included which is no longer there
- Uses the Meta VR headset
- Could be developed for the Steam platform, but currently focused on Meta’s Quest platform
- Q&A
- RASC National’s Weekly Newsletter – what’s the point? – Susan Grady
- To give all RASC members across the country a sense of local activities and events
- Some events are virtual, so members in other regions can join in
- Custom Dew Heaters – CJ Sandoz
- Polyamide or Silicone Flexible Heaters – custom order from JLCPCB from China
- Vince Geisler can host a workshop on how to make your own heater controllers
- Photo of Comet Lemmon with satellite trails
- New Remote Telescope – Ken McGill
- Starfront Observatories, a remote telescope farm located in central Texas
- Over 600 telescopes are currently hosted there
- Bortle 1 skies are claimed
- Review of Ken’s telescope, mount and imaging setup
- Shipping trials and tribulations
- Using Chrome Remote Desktop for remote access
- Doing test imaging now
- Events – David Lee
- Victoria Centre Council meeting – tomorrow at 6:30PM in-person at the Centre of the Universe. Gate opens at 6:15PM. Full meeting details were emailed by Dan Posey to all members.
- Events at the Centre of the Universe
- A live feed from Vince Geisler, who is imaging Andromeda Galaxy from his backyard using a new 70mm refractor
December 22 at 19:00: Informal Astro Café. On-line only! No host, no video recording or notes, but good old conviviality. Same Zoom link as always.
NO ASTRO CAFE ON DECEMBER 29.
Video recording of meeting
Astronomy Cafe – Dec 15, 2025
