- Intro & Welcome by Lauri Roche
- Alex Schmid and Joe Carr honoured
- Two of Dave Balum’s minor planet discoveries are now named (568092) Alexschmid and (578249) Josephcarr
- Alex and Joe are thrilled with this honour bestowed by the International Astronomical Union
- New attendee: Scott L from Salt Spring Island
- Newcombe Singers Choir – Kathryn Whitney, Music Director
- Collaborating with RASC Victoria
- Concert: “Sunrise Mass” – St. Mary’s Church, 1701 Elgin Road in Oak Bay
- Dec 13th and 14th at 3:30PM
- Information and tickets
- Concept – transition from long nights of winter through to spring
- Program
- All Through the Night – Welsh lullaby
- Goodnight Moon
- Anang! (A Star)
- The Moon Represents my Heart
- Silent Night
- Mondnacht (Moonlit night)
- Stars
- Measure Me Sky
- Sunrise Mass – Ola Gjeilo
- Volunteers’ roles – contact Randy Enkin (pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Setup telescopes outside the venue after the concert – Saturn will be best
- Provide astronomy photos for slideshow during concert
- A projection screen would work better than the two monitors in the sanctuary
- Glass orchestra – need 3-6 people to play the tuned wine glasses (bring your own)
- Dec 9th – rehearsal
- Dec 12th – dress rehearsal
- Events
- Beginners’ SIG – David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Tomorrow night 7:30PM online on Zoom
- Sid Sidhu’s condolence cards available at next week’s UVic meeting or contact David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Nov 12 7:30PM – UVic Presentation: Maximizing image resolution for ground-based telescopes using Adaptive Optics – Dr. Maaike van Kooten, NRC
- Geodiversity Fest– Randy Enkin
- Nov 8 10AM-3PM at Royal BC Museum
- Free admission to event (not museum)
- Speakers, exhibits, hands-on activities
- Everything you wanted to know about rocks, oceans, landscape
- Beginners’ SIG – David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Travels In Australia – Sep-Oct 2025 – Chris Gainor
- Attended and spoke at the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney
- Heads of space agencies speak, including Sean Duffy (NASA)
- Participated in the Historical Activities sessions
- Australia has a unique view of the sky from the southern hemisphere
- Big Dish at the deep space network in Tidbinbilla. Movie: The Dish
- Parks dish received Apollo 11 lunar walk transmission
- honesucklecreek.net – history of tracking station
- Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium
- Astronomical observations: a tilted Full Moon, Chinese space station
- Observed and photographed the night sky near Mount Stromlo Observatory – wildfire of 20 years ago
- Koala, 12 Apostles on the south coast, Blue Mountains
- Jeff Pivnick
- 2026 Astronomy Day – save your old Observers Handbooks for giveaways
- Smart Telescopes – presentation for next week’s Astro Cafe
- Astronomy Buy & Sell – Nov 24th – Randy Enkin
- Bring your astronomy gear, books
- Bring some festive treats if you wish
- Equipment from Victoria Centre will also be for sale
- Victoria Centre needs some storage space for our spare astronomy equipment – contact David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Telescope lending equipment – Vince Geisler is interested
- Supernovae and stellar nurseries – Dave Payne
- Properties of gasses which appear in our astrophotos
- Changes in temperature of Hydrogen, depending on its form
- Dust in molecular clouds blocks visible light but infrared light passes through
- Stellar nurseries in Gemini – dynamics of the molecular clouds
- Supernova remnant – supersonic gas heats up and emits light
- A Victory Story by Vince Geisler
- Found a fine 8″ mirror f/3.5
- Will use it to build a new newtonian telescope
- Would like some help with the telescope build
- RASC Almanacs and workbooks pre-order closing soon – contact Lauri now (lauri@victoria.rasc.ca)
- 2026 Council positions open – Treasurer and Secretary – contact Randy Enkin (pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca)
Video recording of the meeting. There were some technical difficulties with the recording, so portions of the first few minutes of the meeting do not appear in this video.
Astronomy Cafe – Nov 3, 2025
