Astronomy Cafe – Jan 19, 2026

• Intro & New Members –Jeff Pivnick
• Remembering John McDonald
• John McDonald died on January 17th after a short illness
• John McDonald – 1936-2026 – In Memoriam
• John’s astrophotos – a slide show by Randy Enkin
• Memories of John by our members
  • Chris Purse
    • 2014 GA hosting,
    • Astronomy Cafe hosting and new format, added a big TV
  • Slideshow of John’s astrophotos – Randy Enkin
    • Impressive collection of astronomical photos, including wide field, star trails, planetary, solar, deep sky
    • 800 astrophotos and videos
  • Garry Sedun
    • Down to earth guy
    • Cherishes the memory of visits by John and Wendy to Garry and Lynette’s hobby ranch in southern Arizona during the winter
  • Lauri Roche
    • Always a gentleman, kind, supportive to others
    • Shared the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse with John and others in Oregon
  • Joe Carr
    • 2005 met at Victoria Centre picnic
    • A personal friend
    • Travelled extensively with John and Wendy
    • Deep relationship, personal friend to both John and Wendy
    • During his term as president, John encouraged women to participate in Victoria Centre, which improved the demographic of our membership
  • Marjie Welchframe
    • Met at Astro Cafe
    • Warm, quiet, always interested in people
  • Mike Webb
    • Test drove John’s Chevy Bolt EV – great salesman!
    • Mike met and reminisced with Al Turnock, a UofA professor who was a guest of John’s at an Astronomy Cafe meeting
  • Chris Gainor
    • John was born in Tabor, Alberta
    • Particle physics was John’s specialty
    • John got involved in the digital side of astrophotography early
    • Chris took images through the Plaskett telescope in 2002, and John helped to process those images years later
    • John was invited several times to teach astrophotography to students of the International Space University
  • David Lee
    • Met John for the first time at Astro Cafe being held in Bruno’s rec room
    • Shared the love of film photography as well as digital equipment and techniques
    • John took some remarkable photos from his balcony at Ross Place and from other urban settings
  • Reg Dunkley
    • Met John at Astro Cafe
    • Great personal friend
    • Shared the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse with John and others in Oregon
  • Ben Dorman
    • John and RASC Council gave early support to the FDAO
    • John’s voice was in Ben’s head as their organization formed
  • Clayton Uyeda
    • John gave a great deal of support for Vic High’s astronomy program
• Sid Sidhu’s Legacy Astronomy Gear – David Lee
  • Lauri Roche and David were shocked by the sheer volume of astronomy gear currently stored at Sid’s home
  • There are many layers to Sid’s storage hoard
    • At least 20 telescopes!
    • Mirror-making
    • Optical bench
    • Vacuum chamber – Vince Geisler and Makerspace
    • Boxes of books and magazines – Lauri
  • Beginning astronomers should be able to get free scopes
  • Some scopes can probably be raffle prizes
  • Victoria Centre needs to deal with this within the next 12 months
  • Need more volunteers – contact david@victoria.rasc.ca
• New Zealand: Ventures in Astronomy and iPhone Astrophotography in the Southern Hemisphere – Chris Purse
  • Nov 9 – Dec 11, 2025
  • 3 scenic railways – tourist trains
  • Southern sky
  • Started in Dunedin at the south end of the South Island
    • Botanic garden and sundial
  • Cromwell – upside-down Orion, Magellanic Clouds
  • Fox Glacier – Mount Cook
  • Hokitika – a 3 hour drive ended up taking 12 hours due to an accident
  • Train through scenic country to Christchurch
  • Christchurch
    • Magnetic Observatory – Scott and other historic Antarctic explorers
    • Maori sky knowledge and navigation
    • Canyon Diablo meteorite 485 kg fragment
    • Numerous buildings are still not repaired from the earthquake
  • Wellington – NZ capital
    • Space Museum and Carter observatory (Thomas Cooke telescope) and planetarium
    • Dominion Observatory – now closed
    • Two sundials in the Botanic garden including an analemic sundial
  • Train to Hamilton – North Island
    • Matariki (Pleiades) Cluster and Crux
  • Whangarei
    • Clapham’s National Clock Museum
    • Rolling Ball Clock
    • huge sundial!
    • thousands of clocks in exhibits
    • Fomalhaut, Saturn, Neptune – photo
    • Heritage Park
    • Kiwi captive breeding
    • Northland Astronomy – Zeiss planetarium, Stonehenge model, Analemma diagram
• Astrophotograph – Vince Geisler
  • Horsehead Nebula (IC434) from his backyard near Hillside Mall
• Current Solar Wind and Possible Aurora – Randy Enkin
  • Intensity is 100 nano Teslas (normal is 10)
  • Biggest solar storm since 2003
  • Solar photo from earlier today by Dan Hogan
  • Lots of aurora photos are appearing on social media this evening

Video recording of meeting