Astronomy Cafe – Sep 29, 2025

Intro & Welcome by Reg Dunkley
RASC Publications for 2026
- Place pre-orders through Lauri Roche lauri@victoria.rasc.ca by Oct 25th
- 2026 Observer’s Calendar – $23-25
- Night Sky Guide 2026 – $16-17
- Explore the Universe – get a certificate
  - Guide book – $17
  - Workbook – $10
- Explore the Moon – get a pin
  - Binoculars – $10
  - Small telescope – $10
- 50 Things To See With a Telescope – $10
Space Exhibits In Missouri, Ottawa and Sidney – Summer Travels 2025 – Brian Barber
- Laws Observatory, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
  - History of the observatory, Samuel Laws
  - 16″ SCT – has Cassegrain focal plane as well
  - Schmidt Camera
- Ottawa
  - Canadian Museum of Nature
  - Huge Moon and Earth globes
  - The Man who Planted Trees – presentation
  - Dinosaur gallery
  - Earth and Space Gallery, including a “Goodwill” Moon Rock
  - Canadian Aviation and Space Museum
  - William Wallace Gibson (1975-1965) – Lansdowne Field powered first flight of all-Canadian built aircraft
  - Canada’s role in space exploration
  - Canadarm
  - International Space Station – life in orbit
  - Health In Space
- Sidney Museum
  - Health In Space exhibit – May 5 – Nov 30
  - Features David St. Jaques and Robert Thirsk – both doctors as well as Canadian astronauts
- Time Magazines from 1969 – space missions featured
Astrophoto – Dave Payne
- Draco Triplet of Galaxies – not near each other, but spectacular
- Exposure: ~10 hours over 2 nights in early April 2025
Hosting Astronomy Cafe next week – Jeff Pivnick
- New findings about our Sun’s structure will be presented
- Send any photos of the Sun taken by members to Jeff jeff.pivnick2@gmail.com
“20 Feet From Stardom” – Astronomers Forgotten in the Shadows – Reg Dunkley
- Pierre Méchain (1744-1804)
  - Published the Messier List among others
  - Discovered 13 comets
  - Produced hydrographic mapping for coastal France – St. Malo to Dunkirk
  - Precisely measured Earth’s meridian arc (survey completed by 1798), which defined the Metre
  - Pierre Méchain appointed as Director of the Paris Observatory
- Jesse Ramsden – renowned English instrument maker invented the “Dividing Engine” and a giant theodolite used to establish a survey baseline in England so the median arc could be accurately measured
- Delambre’s Odyssey
- The Metric System – history
- Borda Repeating Circle
61 Cygni – Randy Enkin
- These binary stars (magnitude 5) are moving quite rapidly against the background – proper motion
- The Aristotelian Universe
- Copernicus 1543 – Sun in the centre of the Solar System
- Parallax – shift in apparent relative positions of celestial objects
- Friedrich Bessel (1838) used his Fraunhofer Heliometer to measure proper motion (parallax) of 61 Cygni
- Gaia last scientific observation on Jan 10, 2025 – 61 Cygni
- 61 Cygni’s Parallax is Important
UVic presentation on Oct 8th – Kevin Bertles
- “Northern Star” Plaskett documentary – presented by Nick Versteeg