Video transcript of the meeting

• Vernal Equinox Today – Jeff Pivnick
  • Caused by axial tilt of the Earth
  • Celestial Equator intersects with the Ecliptic
  • Babylonians picked 12 constellations 3,000 years ago, but Ptolemy named them later
  • Declination and Right Ascension coordinates are referenced to the equinox
• Astronomy Day – Lauri Roche
  • Sunday, April 30th 11AM – 4PM at Bob Wright building lobby at UVic
  • Free parking on outside of the Ring Road in Lot 1
  • Setup is Saturday afternoon
  • Leads
    • UVic Site Manager – Sam Fielder
    • Technical Support – David Lee
    • Welcome Table – Marjie Welchframe
    • Telescope Show & Tell – Bill Weir
    • Children’s Astro Crafts – Rachel & Ryan Holmes
    • Astrophotography – Brock Johnston & Dan Posey
    • Responsible Lighting – Dave Robinson
    • Planetarium – need a lead to used Starry Night on TV
    • Solar Observing outside – Alex Schmid, Sid Sidhu
    • Ask An Astronomer –  need a lead and 3 or 4 astronomers (UVic students?)
    • Speakers – Lauri Roche
      • 3 speakers signed up, 3 to go
      • 20-minute talks
  • FDAO, NRC, Science Venture, Camosun College, Mt. Doug High, Vic High & Oak Bay High
  • Tour of the Bob Wright telescope
  • Need volunteers – 2-3 shifts is ideal – contact Lauri Roche roche.lauri@gmail.com
  • Saturday, April 29th 7-11PM Star Party on Observatory Hill
• Open House – Centre of the Universe – March 25 – Lauri Roche
  • Free tickets available
  • Volunteers needed
• Victoria Centre Observatory – Randy Enkin
  • Will open to members once the road is open
• Standing Where Ansel Adams Stood – Randy Enkin
  • Moon and Half Dome – Dec 28, 1960
  • When the Light, Shadow and Stars Aligned: Standing Where Ansel Adams Stood – Kim Beil, NY Times
  • Ansel Adams joined Sierra Club Outings
  • Kim Beil found the exact spot where Ansel Adams took his famous Moon and Half Dome photo, and determined four possible dates based on the star field and Moon
  • 6:47AM on Aug 6, 1936 – date/time of famous photo
• Meetings
  • Social Dinner – March 27th – contact Randy to attend at Moon Under Water Pub on Bay St.
  • Council Meeting – March 28th – 7:30PM
    • Open to all members
    • Budget for coming year – we have funds to spend!
• Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair – Dorothy Paul
  • April 16th
  • 100 projects, 150 students
  • Need some specialty judges from RASC – about 2 hours
• Astrophotos from members
  • Moonrise from Clover Point – Randy Enkin
  • Jones-Emberson 1 Bubble planetary nebula – Brock Johnston
• 2023 RASC General Assembly – May 5th – May 7th, 2023
  • No business meeting, just fun meeting and interacting with everyone – Bill Weir
  • Speakers list almost complete – Lauri Roche
  • $35 admission for members to participate for three days
• Vic High Astronomy Deck – Clayton
  • Mitigate the light pollution at the site – discussion of strategy
  • New 12″ Skywatcher funded by a generous donation
  • City of Victoria will install shields on the streetlights

There will not be an Astro Café next week in order for the RASC Victoria Centre Social Dinner to take place. Please RSVP to Randy president@victoria.rasc.ca by March 19 if you would like to attend.

Next Astronomy Cafe in 2 weeks – April 3

Video transcript of meeting

Dr. Laurie Rousseau-Nepton is an astronomer in residence at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). She received her PhD from Université Laval and is the principal investigator for the SIGNALS project. This is a large survey program aiming at observing over 50,000 resolved star-forming regions in nearby galaxies.

• Resident astronomer at CFHT for the last 6 years
  • Started at Mont Megantic with SpIOMM instrument – spectral imager
• SITELLE – Spectral imager
  • Started building the instrument in 2010
  • Acquires both spectra and an image of each object
  • 2017 – Instrument shipped to Hawai’i
• Canada-France-Hawaii telescope
  • Some issues with weather (snow, clouds), earthquakes (volcanoes), but lots of clear and stable nights
  • Timelapse of telescope operation
• Science
  • Big Bang
  • First stars formed
  • New elements
  • First galaxies formed
  • Stellar clusters form into stars
  • Stellar Initial Mass Function – stable through the whole Universe?
  • OB massive stars in H2 regions – Laurie’s study area
• SITELLE – how it works
  • Michelson Interferometer – emission lines
  • Data cube has both imagery and spectra
• SIGNALS – Star formation, Ionized Gas, and Nebular Abundances Legacy Survey
  • Large, multinational group of researchers
  • Star Formation Rate & Efficiency
  • Stellar Initial Mass Function
  • 9 fields to cover M33
  • More than 30,000 HII regions currently in the survey
  • Supernova remnants as well
• U of T – new job at a development lab
  • Building a new generation of SITELLE
  • Imaging spectrograph at much higher resolution
  • The resulting instrument needs a large aperture telescope
• Q&A
  • A dynamical Model – stellar winds affect dense molecular clouds – clumping and finger structures
  • Each pixel of data has their own interferogram
  • Initial Mass Function – huge amount of data
  • Changing instruments and telescope time at CFHT – ranking of proposals – technical and science
  • Mauna Kea Spectra Explorer – an upgrade to CFHT
    • Bigger aperture instrument
    • Using 20,000 optical fibres are part of the plan
  • Culture of astronomy – accommodating diversity and promote inclusivity
    • Mauna Kea is a sacred site
    • Include local aboriginal teachings in presentations at local astronomy groups
    • Learn some of the language used by first nations when they talk about the night sky
  • Is SITELLE technology used elsewhere?
    • Straight IR is being used in other instruments
    • The “perfect” beam splitter used by SITELLE is unique
    • Software to analyze the SITELLE data is unique
    • Size of the SITELLE detector and data throughput is also unique
  • DAO work being used by CFHT?
    • Spectroscopy innovations and staff
    • Adaptive optics systems
  • How did you get involved in astronomical research?
    • Asked a lot of questions about astronomy as a child
    • Enjoyed physics at the university

Silent Sky  at Langham Court Theatre – performances Jan 25 to Feb 11

• Story of Henrietta Leavitt and her astronomical research done a century ago
• Jim Hesser is the scientific advisor
• Members of RASC urged to enjoy this performance
• Special presentation by Sara Ellison at the Feb 5th afternoon performance

Observing Notes – Randy Enkin

• Observers Handbook – Conjunction of Venus & Jupiter – Jan 21/22 – half a degree from Saturn just after sunset. In fact, the conjunction should be visible before sunset.
• Sat 28th at 8PM – Uranus being occulted by the Moon
• Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF – observable in the early morning hours – Sky At Night

Makers SIG – meeting online this Thursday – David Lee

RASC Publications for sale – contact Lauri Roche by email

• 2023 Night Sky Almanac – good for planning your observing
• Explore the Moon $10
• Explore the Universe $10
• 2023 RASC Observers Calendar – 2 left at $15 each

Observatory Hill road update – Lauri Roche

• Probably another couple of months before the road is open to the public