Astronomy Cafe – March 3, 2025

Meeting Notes

• Intro & Welcome by Randy Enkin
• Observing Mercury from Victoria – Feb 28th – David Lee & Kirsten Pedersen
  • Finding Mercury in the cloudy horizon above the thin Crescent Moon with Venus above from Dallas Road
• David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
  • Beginners’ SIG – tomorrow night – star-hopping to find celestial objects
  • T Coronae Borealis – increasing brightness to Magnitude 2
  • Speakers Bureau – need volunteers from members
• Astronomy Day – May 3 – Randy Enkin (pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca)
  • Royal BC Museum – 10am start
  • Centre of the Universe – 7:30pm start
  • Online organisational meeting happening next Tuesday evening – contact Randy
  • Need volunteers from RASC Victoria and other astronomy groups
• Astrophotos (Sep 2024 images from Cattle Point) – Ken McGill
  • Pacman Nebula
  • Eagle Nebula and the Pillars of Creation
  • “Watermelon” nebula in Pices
  • Cygnus Loop – starless RGB & SHO
  • Eastern Veil Nebula
  • Elephant Trunk
  • Heart Nebula
  • Soul Nebula
  • “Watermelon” nebula
  • Mostly uses Masters of Pixinsight processing steps
  • Lauri urges our members to submit astrophotos for the next National Calendar
• The Problem with Lunar Eclipse Crater Timing (Citizen Science) – Randy Enkin (pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca)
  • The Earth is too big! Or is the Moon too small?
  • Lunar Eclipse coming up on March 13th
  • Lunar Eclipse celestial geometry
  • Longitude, Local time, Port/Ship’s time
  • Exoplanet transits
  • Crater shadow timings – between 1st and 2nd Contact, and 3rd and 4th Contact
  • Ingress & Egress estimated timings for crater illumination crossings – Sky & Telescope table
  • Follow along with Randy’s annotated Lunar map
  • Ticking Clock app helps with timing
  • Technical aspects of crater timing during a Lunar Eclipse – Notional Eclipse-forming Layer
  • Analysis of lunar crater timings, 1842-2011 – David Herald & Roger W. Sinnott
  • Sunset Timelapse from the International Space Station – video
  • Enlargement of the Earth’s Shadow on the Moon – 4 theories
  • Join Randy at his home if you wish
  • Refraction simulation – Brock Johnston
• Centre of the Universe Events – March 13th – Lauri Roche (lauri@victoria.rasc.ca)
  • NOVA Program 7-9pm
  • Lunar Eclipse star party – 9pm – 1am
• Space Mission News – Chris Gainor
  • Action Alert – Save Astronomical Science Programs – American Astronomical Society
    • Budget cuts may cause cessation of critical programs
  • Status of returning astronauts Butch Wilmore & Suni Williams from the ISS – late March or early April return to Earth
  • Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost on the Sea of Crises – first private spacecraft landing on the Moon
    • Lunar eclipse will be recorded by Blue Ghost
    • Other missions to the Moon
  • Launch of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions, maybe on March 6th

Video transcript of meeting