December 22 at 19:00: Informal Astro Café. On-line only! No host, no video recording or notes, but good old conviviality. Same Zoom link as always. NO ASTRO CAFE ON DECEMBER 29. Video recording of meeting
Astronomy Cafe – Dec 15, 2025
Astronomy Cafe – Dec 8, 2025
Intro & new attendees – Lauri Roche; Upcoming Astronomy Cafes – Randy Enkin; Astrophotography and 16″ CU telescope upgrades – Brock Johnston; Geminid Meteor Shower in 2014 – Reg Dunkley; The Week That Shaped Astronomy in Victoria – Dennis Crabtree; Newcombe Singers Concert – Randy Enkin; Mizar (and friends) – binary stars – Randy Enkin
UVic Presentation: Observing the Cold Universe with ALMA – Dr. Gerald Schieven
Date/Time: Wednesday December 10, 2025 starting at 7:30PM Location: University of Victoria, Elliott 162. Park in Lot 1 (pay parking) and cross Ring Road – please note the room change!
Much of the universe is very cold, more than 100 degrees below zero Celsius, and cannot be seen by even giant optical or infrared telescopes like Hubble or the James Webb Space Telescope. Instead, we need specially designed telescopes that can detect the cold universe. In this talk we’ll learn about how we can detect cold matter, Canada’s pioneering work in this field, and finally the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array (ALMA), a giant telescope in northern Chile, what it’s like to work there, and some of the really cool stuff it’s discovered.
Astronomy Cafe – Dec 1, 2025
Intro & new attendees – Randy Enkin; Canadian meteorite fall events: Keep looking up – Phil McCausland; Eagle Nebula astrophoto – Dave Payne; “The Fall of Icarus” – Randy Enkin; Announcements – Randy Enkin, David Lee, Lauri Roche; Two Personal Observatories – Garry Sedun
Astronomy Cafe – Nov 17, 2025
Intro – Reg Dunkley; RASC Windsor Centre’s 80th Anniversary Banquet – Peter Jedicke; Jack Newton deceased – Reg Dunkley & David Lee; Newcombe Singers Concert and Glass Orchestra – Reg Dunkley & Marjie Welchframe; Astronomy Cafe Buy and Sell on Nov 24th – Items For Sale; Halley Research Station in Antarctica – Natasha van Bentum; Aurora from Saskatchewan – Ben Spiller; Space Missions – Chris Gainor; Thoughts on Electromagnetism Present and Past – Reg Dunkley; Events and Publication Sales – Lauri Roche
Astronomy Cafe – Nov 10, 2025
Intro – Jeff Pivnick; Smart Telescopes – Jeff Pivnick; Manned Space Missions – Chris Gainor; New Horizons mission – Phil Stooke; Announcements – Kevin Bertles, Randy Enkin, Lauri Roche, David Lee
Astronomy Cafe – Nov 3, 2025
Alex Schmid and Joe Carr honoured with minor planet naming; Introductions from new attendees; Newcombe Singers Concert: Sunrise Mass – Kathryn Whitney, Music Director; Events – David Lee, Randy Enkin, Kevin Bertles; Travels In Australia – Chris Gainor; Events – Jeff Pivnick, Randy Enkin, David Lee; Supernovae and stellar nurseries – Dave Payne; A Victory Story from Vince Geisler
Astronomy Cafe – Oct 27, 2025
Intro & New Members – Reg Dunkley; Memories of Sid Sidhu – Reg Dunkley, Marji Welchframe, David Lee, Garry Sedun, Chris Gainor, Susan Grady, Lauri Roche, Dave Robinson; 3I/ATLAS Interstellar Comet from Mars – Phil Stooke; Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon – Reg Dunkley, Randy Enkin, Bill Weir ; WR134 Astrophotograph – Dave Payne; Astrophotos from Vince Geisler; Aldebaran – Randy Enkin
Nov 12th Presentation: Maximizing image resolution for ground-based telescopes using Adaptive Optics – Dr. Maaike van Kooten, NRC
Presentation at University of Victoria on November 12, 2025 starting at 7:30PM. “Maximizing image resolution for ground-based telescopes using Adaptive Optics: it is all in the details” – Dr. Maaike van Kooten, AO developer, Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics, National Research Council Canada.
In this talk, I will focus on the latest AO R&D happening in Victoria on our local telescopes and put it into context of the wider global AO community. I will also highlight the work being done at large facilities in Hawaii to further push the limits of our AO systems.
Astronomy Cafe – Oct 20, 2025
Intro – Chris Purse; New maps of the Apollo 17 LRV traverses (of the Moon) – Phil Stooke; M42 Orion Nebula – Dave Payne; The friendly skies – Saskatchewan Star Party ; Comet I3/Atlas – Randy Enkin; Dark Sky Reserve – Hanle, Ldakh, India – Natasha van Bentum; Space Mission News – Chris Gainor; Events – Lauri Roche, Dave Payne; Comets: C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and C/2025 F2 SWAN – Randy Enkin & David Lee