Astronomy Cafe – Nov 18, 2024

• Intro by David Lee
• J.S. Plaskett and the Size of the Milky Way – Randy Enkin
  • Shapley published first in 1918, but his size estimate was inaccurate
  • Used variable stars to measure distance
  • Jan Oort – published a refined size in 1927
  • Refer to Gaia DR3 to confirm Oort’s work – 7 million radial line-of-sight velocities
  • Plaskett and Pierce provided measurement of 386 stars to refine Oort’s work – 1930
  • Hubble measured distances to galaxies
  • Confirmed galactic rotation – Arthur Eddington
  • 1936 photo of the Milky Way by Plaskett
  • Discussion
  • Richard Pierce – UVic presentation last Spring – video
• Comet Tsuchishan-ATLAS – Reg Dunkley
  • Discovered in 2023
  • VCO observing in Oct 2024
  • Orbital parameters
  • Reg compared the size of the comet 10 days apart – see banner image above
  • Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) Photo Gallery by members
  • Discussion
• Marc Garneau book signing at Bolen Books with Bob McDonald – Wyman Lee, Chris Gainor and Chris Purse
  • A Most Extraordinary Ride – Space Politics, and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream – Marc Garneau
  • Canadian satellite Alouette was third into space
  • Marc Garneau started his career in the Navy in 1974, in 1983 applied to be an astronaut, flew on the ISS in 1984, 1996, 2000, spending over 677 hours in space.
  • Climate change impacts are visible from space
• Observers Handbook – David Lee
  • The Sky Month-by-month – key celestial events for each month
  • An excellent astronomical reference
  • Chris Purse hosted tours of the Handbook in past years at Astronomy Cafe – Victoria Centre videos
  • How to Use the Observers Handbook – RASC National
• Special Interest Groups – David Lee
  • Astrophotography – 4th Wed – next is Nov 27th
  • Beginners – 1st Tue – next is Dec 3rd
• Smarter Every Day – Youtube videos on astronomy, science and space missions – suggested by CJ Sandoz
• Events
  • SpaceX Star Ship – Nov 19th 2PM launch – Chris Gainor
    • Tesla North – launch details
  • NSN Webinar: Chandra’s High-Energy Universe with Dr. Kimberly Arcand – Nov 19 5PM PST
  • Annual Buy & Sell – Nov 25th -in-person only at Astronomy Cafe in Fairfield
    • Astronomy gear and books for sale
    • Bring your equipment to sell, or come to see what you need or want
    • Send your list of items for sale to Joe Carr, our Webmaster, who will post the list to the website so members know what might interest them ahead of time
    • Coffee and cookies!

Video transcript of meeting