- Intro – Jeff Pivnick
- Planetary Alignment on Feb 28th – reports from David Lee, Vince Geisler, Brock Johnston, Brian Barber, Alex Schmid
- VCO turned out to be a good location for our group of 14 members
- Venus – 6:30pm
- Mercury (not visual, but photos)
- Saturn
- Neptune (photo only)
- Jupiter
- VCO’s Takahashi visual observations – Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter with Callisto’s shadow and Great Red Spot
- Photos
- 16″ – Jupiter with Callisto’s shadow and Great Red Spot – Brock Johnston
- Venus & Mercury – Steve Martin and David Lee
- Saturn and Venus – Wyman Lee
- Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, Moon, Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy – Sidewalk Astronomy at Cattle Point – Vince Geisler
- Venus, Jupiter and the Moon, and Andromeda Galaxy later on – Sidewalk Astronomy at Mount Tolmie – Brian Barber and Alex Schmid
- RASC Newsletter Highlights – included an item by Randy Enkin
- Citizen Science – Crater Timings During Lunar Eclipse – 2006 – Randy Enkin
- Visual project to record timing data
- Sky & Telescope – expected timing for various lunar features – ingress and egress
- Need an accurate audio time readings – Ticking Clock or equivalent app
- Analysis of lunar crater timings (from 1842) – a database by David Herald and Roger Sinnott
- Victoria Centre members are encouraged to observe timings for this lunar eclipse and the next one
- Randy will be at the Centre of the Universe for this lunar eclipse event
- Centre of the Universe will send a go/no go message to attendees at midnight tonight – Lauri Roche
- Weather forecast from Reg Dunkley
- Environment Canada forecast indicates quite thick cloud cover
- “Ragged” cloud, so it may not be a total loss
- The Moon, a Meteorite, Monk and Me – Leslie Welch
- Apollo Moon Landings – “Magnificent Desolation” Buzz Aldrin
- Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP) – various types of short-lived light, dark and color features/events
- Crater Alphonsus – reported by Kozyrev 1958
- Monks Record a TLP – report appears in The Barmaid’s Brain – Jay Ingram
- Giordano Bruno bright crater discussed by Jack B. Hartung in 1976
- Bruno is on the far side of the Moon – barely, but in the Libration Zone
- “Ringing” lunar oscillations are measured at 1.8 arc seconds – could be caused by the Bruno impact
- Paul Withers 2001 paper
- Luna 24 – Russian sample return mission
- Bright flashes on the Moon have been observed and photographed recently – likely TLPs kicking up dust that is briefly illuminated by sunlight
- Artemis II and Wet Rehearsal – Jeff Pivnick
- Comparing the current SLS rocket versus the previous Saturn V
- Review of rocket stages, fuel used and umbilical connections
- Failures during two wet rehearsals on Feb 2 and 19
- Fuel loading and unloading
- Problems and benefits with using cryogenic fuel
- Artemis Mission Changes – Chris Gainor
- Artemis II will fly as announced this year
- Artemis III – 2027 in Earth orbit instead of landing on the Moon
- Depends on refuelling in space
- Huge number of ambitious goals
- Landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX being considered
- Artemis IV – first lunar landing in 2028
- Annual lunar landings starting in 2028
- The Lunar Gateway is now in question
Video recording of meeting.
Astronomy Cafe – March 2, 2026
