Island Star Party 2024 – RASC Victoria

The observing field at night - 2019 RASCals Star Party

August 9-11, 2024

A great big thank-you to all the participants and supporters of the 27th Annual Island Star Party! We had about 50 people attend each evening’s presentation, and a further 20-30 people for the following observations. There were about 20 telescopes of all different shapes and sizes set up, and all their operators were very generous with their time and experience for the enquiring public. The weather was OK to good. Friday night had a bit too much smoke, and Saturday night had quite a bit too much cloud. But we made the best of it, and there was a lot to enjoy in the sky.

Thank-you to the Cowichan Valley Starfinders who established the Island Star Party and set it up for success. Thank-you to St. Stephen’s Anglican Church for hosting the event, and ensuring that the grounds were set up and the lights stayed off. Thanks to our cohort of volunteers: Joe Carr, Reg Dunkley, Dennis and Kathy Funfer, Chris Gainor, David Lee, Kirsten Pedersen, Jeff and Jayne Pivnik, Chris and Christine Purse, Alex Schmidt, Sid Sidhu, Jill Sinkwich, Melissa and Clint Tupper, and Marjie Welchframe. Please tell me if I missed anybody. And thanks to our speakers Trystyn Berg and Lowell Peltier. They presented their work in an accessible and engaging way, and we learned so much.

Check out the event photos, and come to the 28th Annual Island Star Party next August!

Randy Enkin

The grounds are in a good dark valley 20 km north of downtown Victoria on southern Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. Gates will open at 2pm on Friday. Camp on the field, setup your telescope and bring binoculars to enjoy observing the night sky from a dark site. Everyone who is present is entitled to tickets for door prizes, can attend planned activities and have access to the observing field. Prizes include a telescope!

Location

The yard of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, 7921 St. Stephens Road (off Mt. Newton Cross Rd.), Saanichton, BC, Canada V8M 1S2.
What3Words: neutron.servant.squirted
Lat 48.597218°N, Long 123.455576°W

The night sky at this location is dark, but there is a light dome to the south from the City of Victoria. Views in the other directions and overhead are excellent, and at this time of year Sagittarius is visible in the early part of the evening to the southwest. The setting crescent moon will be visible in the evenings before 10:30pm.

Cost: Free of charge for drop-ins! Suggested donation of $20/Adult observers who camp overnight (cash only) – one night or two. Kids camp free.

Don’t want to camp? No problem if you live in the Greater Victoria area, you can drive home after spending an evening on the observing field. Victoria is a tourist city with all manner of accommodations. Closest hotels are in Brentwood Bay and Saanichton.

Staying after dark? Please bring a red light with you – do not use white lights, including cellphone flashes!

Lots of amateur astronomers will be there to talk about astronomy and to help you observe celestial objects after dark. There will be activities organized for the afternoons. Two days/nights on the weekend – Friday Aug 9th starting at 2PM, all day and evening on Saturday Aug 11th. Camp overnight (1 night or 2), or just drop in for an evening of fun and fascination. A free event, but campers will be asked for a donation if staying overnight.

Contact – Randy Enkin – Email – +1 (250) 588-4904 mobile

2024-ISP-posterDownload

Schedule of Events

Friday Aug 9th

Sunset/ Sunrise(Sat): 8:37PM to 5:58AM
Astronomical Dark: 10:50PM to 3:45AM
Waxing Crescent Moon set: 10:30 PM
Saturn,Mars, Jupiter Rise: 9:45 PM, 12:51AM, 1:00 AM

2:00 PM Star Party Opens
Arrival, Telescope & Camp setup
Solar Viewing
Afternoon activities
7:00 PM Welcoming
7:15 PM Raffles / Housekeeping
7:30 PM Astronomy talk –Trystyn Berg: Looking for precious metals at the end of galactic rainbows
- For chemists, the periodic table is a great way to organize the properties of the building blocks of materials. But for astronomers, the periodic table can be used to decipher how stars and galaxies have changed with cosmic time. In this talk I will share how astronomers go about understanding what our Universe is made of to answer questions like ‘What do the first stars look like?’ or ‘What is dark matter and dark energy?’.
- Dr. Trystyn Berg is a Plaskett Fellow at NRC-Herzberg and is an expert on spectroscopy and galaxy evolution. After completing his PhD in 2018 at the University of Victoria, Dr. Berg was a fellow at the European Southern Observatory from 2018-2022, acting as both an independent researcher and support astronomer at the Very Large Telescope. Outside astronomy, Dr. Berg is an avid curler and golfer. Personal website
9:00 PM Telescope Walk
9:30 PM Pre-Dark Activities: Introduction to Night Sky
10:00 PM Observations Begin

Saturday Aug 10th

Sunset/ Sunrise(Sun): 8:35PM to 5:59AM
Astronomical Dark: 10:47PM to 3:47AM
Waxing Crescent Moon set: 10:44 PM
Saturn,Mars, Jupiter Rise: 9:41 PM, 12:49AM, 12:57 AM
The Perseid Meteor Shower will be getting stronger!

2:00 PM Solar Viewing
Afternoon activities
7:00 PM Welcoming
7:15 PM Raffles / Housekeeping
7:30 PM Astronomy talk – Lowell Peltier: Exploring Unknown Populations in the Distant Solar System
- The Kuiper Belt is a group of small objects in space beyond Neptune. It suddenly ends at a point about 45 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. We don’t know why the Kuiper Belt ends so abruptly or why it ends at all. Other stars have belts that go much farther out. Why doesn’t ours? Perhaps there is another belt of material even farther from the Sun that we haven’t discovered yet. In my presentation, I will talk about the possibility of a distant, undiscovered belt of material orbiting beyond 70 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
- Lowell Peltier is a current PhD student at the University of Victoria. Lowell was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Regina for two degrees, a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Physics/Astronomy, studying Vulcanoids (a theoretical population of asteroids orbiting very close to the sun). Lowell is now in Victoria studying the extreme opposite end of the Solar System, the Trans-Neptunian Region and the cold icy bodies found at extreme solar distances, while working toward his PhD.
9:00 PM Telescope Walk
9:30 PM Pre-Dark Activities
10:00 PM Observations Begin