Skyrocketing cases of Covid and disturbing developments south of the border have stoked our levels of anxiety. As an antidote to these concerns it is high time for a good news story. Let’s revisit a happy moment in 2017 when a number of Victoria Centre RASCals attended the Great Solar Eclipse Afterparty. We gathered to share images, swap eclipse adventures and relive the magic of this event. Many of these stories were captured in the October 2017 issue of Sky News. A highlight of this joyous occasion was the unboxing of our new TPO 16 inch Ritchey Chretien reflector telescope. This was performed with great fanfare by Matt Watson and Dan Posey.
In September and October of 2017 Matt and Dan installed the new scope on the Victoria Centre Observatory Paramount ME mount and took great care neatly wiring the scope to connect the cameras, an off axis guider and an electronic focuser to the computer. Official first light occurred on October 28th 2017 (See November 2017 Sky News for early images). Dan Posey’s gallery on zenfolio contains a series of beautiful images taken with the TPO 16 Inch RC between late October 2017 through October 2018 including my favourite, the Fireworks Galaxy (See page 10 October 2018 Sky News). These photos are a testament that the scope was performing well during that interval.
Sadly, no decent images were captured with that scope after October 2018. The TPO 16 Inch seems to have drifted off collimation and the cause remains a mystery. The collimation of a Ritchey-Chretien scope is a tricky business and Dan and Matt spent countless hours researching and trying to re-collimate this instrument over the next year. They even enlisted the help of former DAO member Les Disher. In the spring of 2020 Les demonstrated that collimation could be achieved when the scope was pointed towards the zenith but it went out of collimation as soon as it was slewed to a lower altitude. This indicated that there may be flexure somewhere in the truss or mirror supports of the telescope. It was Victoria Centre’s good fortune that Matt Watson opted to purchase a lifetime warranty on the scope and Council approved to return it to the Los Angeles vendor, OPT, for repair.
By this time Observatory Hill was in lockdown due to Covid. NRC kindly granted permission for special access to the VCO and on June 4th, 2020 four masked men (Dave Robinson, Mike Nash, Dan Posey and your President) furtively removed the TPO 16 inch RC, boxed it up and sent it to OPT via Fedex. In October OPT informed us that they could not fix the scope and offered to send us a new TPO 16 Inch RC … but without a lifetime warranty. The Tech Committee was not comfortable with this arrangement and instead John McDonald negotiated an “in store credit” for the value paid for the scope.
While the TPO scope was off for repairs, Garry Sedun learned about a used research grade scope that was for sale at an attractive price in Arizona. John McDonald and I bought this scope with the idea that it might be a replacement for the VCO if the repair of the TPO scope did not succeed. Garry Sedun kindly delivered this 12.5 inch OGS Ritchey Chretien scope to Victoria when he returned from Arizona this summer. OGS stands for “Optical Guidance Systems” and they manufacture high quality instruments for NASA, universities and research facilities. Although the optical tube is not in pristine condition the primary mirror is figured to a precision of 1/31st of a wavelength and it has a very stout built quality.
On September 21st, when limited access to the VCO was restored under strict Covid protocols this scope was attached to the VCO mount. Results were encouraging when the first image was obtained on October 3rd using an improvised focuser. When a helical focuser was attached to the scope on October 30th results were even better. Star field images were crisp with round undistorted stars right out to the corners. Although Dan Posey detected that the primary mirror was just a tad out of collimation, he felt that it was performing better than the old Meade 14 inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescope.
The Tech Committee will continue to evaluate this scope with further star field tests. If it is determined that it will meet the needs of the membership, John McDonald and I are prepared to permanently loan the scope to the Victoria Centre. If Victoria Centre members are dissatisfied with this scope we will deploy it elsewhere. The OPT store credit gives us the flexibility to consider an alternate scope.
Remember that there is also a high quality 20 inch Obsession Dobsonian telescope at the VCO. Argo Navis digital setting circles will be soon added to this scope and make it easier for visual observers to find objects in the sky. So when you consider that access to the VCO has been restored with a functioning scope for astrophotography and an excellent instrument for visual observers that qualifies as a good news story!
Have you noticed that the red planet has received the lion’s share of planetary press coverage lately? In July 2020 three Martian space missions were launched: The United Arab Emirates mission will place an advanced weather satellite, called Hope, in a Martian orbit. The Chinese mission Tianwen-1 will deliver an orbiter, lander and rover to the planet. NASA and JPL will land Perseverance and Ingenuity on Mars. Perseverance is similar to the phenomenally successful Curiosity rover and will drill and deposit caches of samples for a possible retrieval mission. Ingenuity is a small helicopter that will take short three minute missions that will scout for interesting objects for Perseverance to examine. All three missions will reach Mars in February 2021, just in time for the Victoria Centre AGM! What a great time to become the Centre President!
Martian enthusiasts will also be excited to learn the Hilary Swank and her brave team of astronauts in the Netflix Martian exploration drama AWAY will likely be renewed for another season. Keen observers of this program may, like me, be puzzled by the intermittent nature of weightlessness in this drama. I wonder if special effects budgets are a factor.
The big event this month, however, is the opposition of Mars which takes place on October 13th. At this time, only 0.41 astronomical units away, the Martian angular diameter reaches 22.4 arc seconds. In anticipation of this event some keen RASCals like John McDonald have been perfecting their planetary photography techniques. You may remember that during the last opposition in the Summer of 2018 a major dust storm prevented us to savour the surface details. Although weather patterns have been favourable of late, smoke from the major wildfires in Northern California have introduced a new element of uncertainty. We should keep in mind that the crescendo of the Martian angular diameter is a gradual event and let’s hope for usable skies and wonderful images.
Right in the middle of this Martian jamboree, however, I was happy to hear that our much neglected sister planet, Venus, crashed the party. On September 14th, a paper announced that “Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus”. In 2017 the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope detected the spectral signature of the molecule phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere. This was followed up by higher resolution data from ALMA in 2019. This created great excitement because phosphine is considered a bio-signature in rocky planets and offers the intriguing possibility of life in the Venusian atmosphere. This may inspire future missions to Venus … which maybe a good thing since those wildfires are ringing alarm bells about global warming. Maybe we should spend more effort studying the planet next door which provides an outstanding illustration of a runaway greenhouse effect. We have much more to learn.
Overall Winners 2020 – Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition – presented by Barbara Lane
Telescope installation at Victoria Centre Observatory – time lapse video and photo gallery – Sep 21, 2020 (for higher quality than the Zoom presentation version)
FDAO Virtual DAO Star Party Saturday September 19th 2020
The Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory are hosting a Virtual Star Party on Saturday September 19th at 7:00PM. Robert Conrad and Andrew Krysa from the Vancouver RASC are speaking on Mars.
UVic Observatory Open House program for this Fall begins!
UVic invites you to their Observatory Open House program for this Fall. Zoom sessions will begin next Wednesday, Sept 23 at 7:30pm. They will continue weekly at the same time and day till December. This week the Director of CFHT, Dr. Doug Simons presenting ‘Celebrating 40 years of discovery at CFHT’.
This link to join the Zoom Meeting will work for all of UVic’s Astronomy’s Open Houses going forward.
Meeting ID: 935 9678 6035 Password: 566494
Images from Edmonton RASCals relayed by Dave Robinson
Sharpless 2-171: NGC 7822 and Cederblad 214. By Arnold Rivera on September 14 Arnold writes: These two objects have been on my imaging list for a while for two reasons: They were the first objects on the Observer’s Handbook Deep-Sky Challenge List I visually observed when I started tackling the list and they are well-placed in our northern skies in the fall. These are ‘large’ (60’X30’) but faint emission nebulae well suited for the type of imaging equipment that I typically use. My image was flipped and rotated to reflect its true orientation in the sky when the image was taken. Celestron RASA8 & ZWO ASI294 MC Pro (-16 C) Astronomik CLS CCD light pollution filter 50 subs, 11m 45s total integration time (uncropped) Processsed in Deep Sky Stacker and PixInsightMars by Abdul Anwar on Sept 14 Abdul Anwar tested out his new C11 on Mars and got impressive results. Abdul writes: After carefully collimating it, I spent a few hours imaging Mars. I took 18 x 2 min videos through each filter (total of 108 minutes of footage) and stacked 84,000 out of 337,000 frames I captured. It took a few evenings to process everything but I am sure it’ll get faster as I learn to optimise the process. The equipment used was as follows: C11 Edge at f20 (5600mm) EQ6R mount ASI1600MM camera with RGB filters. Images were captured in 16 bit SER format using Sharpcap. Processing was done in Autostakkert, Registax, Siril, and GIMP.
Hawaiian Nights: A Personal Journey from Vancouver Island to Maunakea, with Cam Wipper
Don’t miss this interesting Zoom presentation at 4:00 PM PDT on Friday August 28th. Growing up in Nanaimo, Cam never imagined he would spend nearly a decade living in Hawai’i and working on Maunakea, the best place on Earth for astronomical observations.
In his talk, Cam will tell the story of how he found himself on Maunakea, from his days as a student at Vancouver Island University, to his first night up on the summit of Maunakea, nearly 14.000 feet (4200m) above sea level. This will include a brief history of astronomy in Hawaii, as well as an exploration of how a modern astronomical observatory conducts scientific observations. All will be told from the perspective of a telescope operator and scientific observer; a position Cam has held at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope since 2015. Click here to register.
Lagoon & Trifid Nebulae – Dan Posey
30.5 minutes (61x30s) of exposures captured from Metchosin. Each frame was captured at f 1.4 using a Sigma 105mm lens, and a Canon Ra at iso 640 off of an unguided iOptron Skyguider Pro – Messier 8 & 20 RGB – Dan Posey
Moon shadows on Jupiter – John McDonald
Three of 20 images of the shadows cast by Io and Ganymede on Jupiter during a double shadow event, one near the start, one in the middle and one at the end. Io can just be made out on the upper two images as a white spot between Ganymede’s shadow and Jupiter’s red spot. In the lower image Io has just left the planet’s disk and shows up clearly. Details Date 08-04-2020. 8″ Edge SCT on AVX mount. ZWO ASI120MM-S camera with filter wheel and TV Powermate barlow to give focal ration f/25. Captured 1000 frames in each of R,G and B filters for each color. The best 30% for each filter were stacked in Astrostakkert. Sharpened in Registax. Winjupos was used to derotate the R,G and B frames before combining to make RGB color images. Post processing in ACR and Photoshop. Time lapse movie
A Poetic Pelican by Doug MacDonald
A wonderful bird is the Pelican. His beak can hold more than his belly can. He can hold in his beak enough food for a week! I’ll be darned if I know how the hellican.
Shot this Aug. 9 – 13 with Bortle 6 skies. This bird lives in Cygnus, not too far from Deneb. I processed it in the SHO palette; it represents just over 8 hours of narrowband exposure with a 5″ refractor at f/5.5.
Final UVic Open House of the Summer is a Block Buster!
What happens when the largest objects in the Universe go face-to-face? Be sure to join UVic Phd Candidate Mallory Throp for this fascinating Zoom presentation that begins at 7:30PM on Wednesday August 26th. The zoom guest link (with password embedded) is: https://zoom.us/j/97173236268?pwd=V2hhYTAwVVY5cXl5eEFoOUxSYmZGdz09
Cosmic Collisions Abstract: What happens when galaxies collide? Right now, the Andromeda Galaxy is hurtling towards us, on a direct collision course with our galaxy. Surely the Milky Way will not escaped unscathed? For almost a century astronomers have been trying to figure out what happens when galaxies clash, and from that investigation a harrowing tale of starvation, cannibalism, and complicated acronyms has arisen. With today’s massive telescopes and high-tech simulations, we can hope to understand what happens when the largest objects in the Universe go face-to-face. And perhaps we can predict how our galaxy will be changed for the better (or the worse)
Robotic Telescope Editing Contest for August: M82 the Cigar Galaxy
Imagine: 8 Hours of LRGB data and 7.5 Hours of Hydrogen Alpha! Check it out and remember the contest is Only in Canada … Pity!
Global Hands On Astronomy Conference 2020
Local Astronomical Education evangelist Sid Sidhu is enjoying this online conference that is currently under way. Click the link to learn more about the conference program: https://handsonuniverse.org/ghou2020/programme/
Edmonton RASCals Focus on the Deep Sky: relayed by Dave Robinson
Elephant Trunk Nebula by Arnold Rivera. He had to do some colour correction due to filters used: The star on the lower right is Herschel’s Garnet Star (Mu Cephei). It is a red supergiant – one of the largest stars known (it’s diameter is estimated to be larger than Saturn’s orbit). Equipment and details: Celestron RASA 8”Camera: ZWO ASI294 MC Pro (cooled to -16 C) 30s subs, 50 frames, 450 gainArnold Rivera August 22 Lobster Claw Nebula The large nebula in the centre is Sharpless 2-157 (The Lobster Claw Nebula), is described as a “ring nebula surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star (WR157, SAO 20512, mag 9.58)”. To the right edge of this image is NGC 7635 (The Bubble Nebula). Towards the bottom of the image is the small but relatively bright nebula NGC 7538 (in Cepheus), “home to the largest yet discovered protostar (~ 300 times the size of the Solar System)”. In addition, there is a tight grouping of bright stars located just below Sh2-157 – open cluster NGC 7510. Equipment and details: Celestron RASA8, ZWO ASI 294MC Pro ( -16C) 30sec subs, 50 subs.On August 23rd Arnold Rivera imaged the very faint and very large nebula Sharpless 2-129 (The Flying Bat Nebula)Larry Wood from Caroline AB Aug 20. AboveBubble Nebula & M52 and BelowM13Alister Ling August 22 Channeling some E.E. Barnard last night at the microwave tower on the hill above the north shore of Pigeon Lake…. 70mm on full frame, and it is NOT Sagittarius or Scutum.
Press Briefing on Starlink and other mega-constellations
At 11AM on Tuesday August 25th the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and NSF’s NOIRLab will have a press briefing on the SATCON1 LEOsat mega-constellations workshop report. SATCON1 gathered astronomers, satellite operators, dark-sky advocates, policy makers, and other stakeholders to discuss, understand, and quantify the impacts of large satellite constellations on ground-based optical and infrared astronomical observations as well as on the human experience of the night sky. The briefing will be live-streamed on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/AASPressOffice)
David Lee captured the conjunction of the Moon and Mars on August 8th together with a wonderful foreground shot taken from Rithet Bog.
Some Great Planetary Detail
On August 4th Edmonton RASCal Arnold Rivera captured martian suface details. Arnold writes: I managed to observe and image Mars this morning starting at around 6:00 am from north Edmonton. Seeing conditions at the time were above average and the surfacefeatures on Mars included the dark prominent area of Syrtis Major on the north hemisphere and the rapidly shrinking south polar cap: Equipment and details: Celestron CPC1100 (in alt-az mode) Camera: ZWO ASI120MC-S 9.7ms, 2500 frames, processed in RegistaxJohn McDonald captures Jupiter, this time in fairly good seeing shows fair detail. Date 08-08-2020. 8″ Edge SCT on AVX mount. ZWO ASI120MM-S camera with filter wheel and TV Powermate barlow to give focal ration f/25. Captured 1000 frames in R,G and B filters. Stacked best 45% in Astrostakkert. Post processing in Images Plus and Photoshop.John McDonald writes: My best image of Saturn to date. I had fairly good seeing as the image shows. Date 08-08-2020. 8″ Edge SCT on AVX mount. ZWO ASI120MM-S camera with filter wheel and TV Powermate barlow to give focal ration f/25. Captured 1000 frames in R,G and B filters. Stacked best 45% in Astrostakkert. Post processing in Images Plus and Photoshop.
Lucky Imaging of Planets and the Moon
If you want to learn how to capture wonderful images like the above perhaps you should attend the following webinar!
Tuesday, August 11th – 7:00pm ADT / 6:00pm EDT / 3:00PM PDT Nova East 2020 – Lucky Imaging: Astrophotography of the Moon and Planets Lucky imaging is a technique used to capture high resolution images of the Moon and planets. It involves taking as many images as possible, often several thousand, with a high-speed “video” camera and using specialized software to identify and stack only the sharpest images. The talk, presented by David Hoskin, will cover the equipment, software and processing workflow used in lucky imaging.
Edmonton RASCal Mark Zalik – captured this remarkable sequence on August 4th which closely resembles hummingbirds. All Edmonton content kindly relayed by Dave Robinson. Mark writes: Wonderful NLC display tonight! Nice arrays of billows formed way down near the horizon, where the twilight imparted a beautiful cinnamon colour on the NLC. A bit earlier in the display, the clouds formed an ethereal hummingbird.
The distance between the Earth and New Horizons offers a very long baseline that facilitates parallax measurements. Check out the interesting article here.
CANadian Virtual Astronomy Seminar Series (CANVAS)
The next talk in the CANVAS series will be given Paul Weigert of Western on Monday June 22 at 11:00 PDT. Dr. Weigert’s talk is titled ‘ Interstellar asteroids and comets: what are they and where do they come from?’
Visit the CANVAS webpage – http://astroherzberg.org/canvas/ – for the schedule of talks, a link to the YouTube channel, and links to the recorded talks and upcoming talks.
During this cloudy interlude RASCals have had to resort to desperate measures to capture Astro objects. Despite multiple layers of cloud and a rising Sun, Mike managed to get a remarkable amount of detail in this image taken at 9AM on Sunday June 14th. He writes: “The filter works well enough, but not perfect – on screen the sky is grey rather than a completely visible light-blocking black. Alignment points (for stacking software) needed to be set at a much higher brightness than I would normally do.” Check it out
There is a new sunspot on the Sun after three months of being spotless! Both Bill Weir and Joe Carr captured this apparition. More info on SpaceWeather.com for June 6, 2020.
Solar H-Alpha & White Light – June 5/20 – Bill Weir sketches & outreach photos
Sun with Sunspot & clouds – June 6, 2020 – Joe Carr photo
Golden Week of Webinars in Astrophysics 2020
The link for registration is www.astro.uc.cl Note the time is for Chile time zone which is the same as Central Time
Photos from Edmonton
Thanks to Dave Robinson for forwarding these photos.
Moon set over Edmonton by Larry Wood – June 5th about 5am -ISO 100, 300 mm, 1/60 secondNoctilucent clouds on the morning of June 4th – a follow up to what Alister Ling talked about last week.Alister with one of his patented moonset shots from Friday – “The view from Kinnaird Park, birds chirping, geese honking, lilac bushes perfuming the damp coolness. So much to image lately! It will take a while to process the time slice, time-lapse, valley fog time-lapse. How do you like your Mead/Honey Moon? Pale, yellow, peach, amber?”
Undulating fog in the river valley – a time-lapse captured by Alister. The movie really shows the bulk motions that are not visible to the eye. Sped up 100X. Definitely on the meteorology side of things, but the Moon is in the movie at the start!
Masked Men Make Off with VCO Telescope
On June 4th, vigilant lunar astrophotographer Mike Nash captures RASCals in the act as they conduct top secret mission to ship Victoria Centre Observatory scope to a telescope spa in the Los Angeles area.
Two Masked RASCals Surveying Victoria Centre Observatory ScopeRASCals Furtively Stow TPO 16 Inch RC Telescope in Crate.The Crate Securely Lashed in Getaway Vehicle … Rumoured to Belong to Mike Nash Crate Last Seen Passing Southbound Through Richmond BC
Venus setting behind the Chiricahua Mountains from Portal, Arizona
On May 28, 2020, I shot a video of the crescent Venus setting behind the Chiricahua Mountains. This was just 6 days before Venus passed between Earth and the Sun (i.e., inferior conjunction). Shot from Bifrost Observatory, 8-inch Meade LX200, Sony A6000. Fred Espenak (Mr. Eclipse)
The abrupt onset of the pandemic introduced a wave of uncertainty. There is a growing realization that the impacts will continue for some time. Most Victoria Centre activities including monthly meetings, VCO observing sessions and Saturday Night Star Parties at the DAO have been cancelled. Astro Cafe has established a virtual presence on victoria.rasc.ca and a weekly Zoom webinar. The Island Star Party, Merritt Star Party and the Mount Kobau Star Party have been officially cancelled. The Saanich Fair is morphing into some online entity. UVic has announced that lecture halls will be closed until at least January 2021.
This has left us staring into a void. But by suddenly escaping the treadmill of everyday life many were given an unexpected gift of time. This has allowed RASCals more opportunity to step out into the stillness of the night, look up and savour the arrival of starlight. While the days of the week became less relevant, our awareness of the rhythm of the Solar System became more pronounced. RASCals have been sharing wonderful images and sketches of the lunar cycle as well as evening and morning dances of the planets.
Zoom webinars have proven to be an effective tool that helps reduce the sense of isolation and allows us to share our enthusiasm, knowledge and imagery. As a result the Victoria Centre has acquired its own Zoom Pro license which will increase our capacity to meet on line. During this pandemic the astronomical community has rallied and is posting a rich source of offerings on the internet. RASC National frequently hosts interesting webinars which are usually archived on the RASCanada YouTube site. This site will also be used to live stream a virtual General Assembly event between 11AM and 2PM PDT on Sunday June 7th. Dr. Sara Seager and Bob McDonald will be delivering presentations. UVic has moved its Cafe Scientifique online and is also hosting an Astronomy Open House webinar every Wednesday in the summer at 7:30 PM.
During a recent Victoria Centre Council Meeting we explored options of what to do while we wait for a vaccine. We are currently in the process of sending the VCO 16 Inch RC scope for repair and may have an alternate scope available in the mean time. If activities resume at the VCO, however, attendance will initially be restricted to a very small number. This would enable the site to be safely used more for observing/imaging activities than social interaction. Active Observers would be required to bring their own eyepieces to avoid spread of CoVid19.
This eyepiece issue may be problematic when Saturday Nights at the DAO resume. One alternative to sharing an eyepiece is to try Electronic Assisted Astronomy (EAA). This technique is “casual astrophotography” that enables a camera to automatically stack images on the fly and display them on a tablet or monitor. It avoids complex post processing and would allow fainter deep skies objects to be viewed by the public without lineups. With an internet connection EAA has the potential to share live imagery to a meeting or webinar. The challenge of CoVid19 has served as a catalyst to explore this option. An interesting overview of EAA is found on this link.
While we are waiting for face to face outreach to resume we could set up static astronomy displays showcasing our astrophotography. David Lee recently delivered an astronomy orientation course using Zoom and similar programs might be considered. In the mean time, if you something that you would like to share on the Virtual Astro Cafe please send it to president@victoria.rasc.ca. In closing I would like to thank hosts Barbara and Kurt Lane, Chris Purse and John McDonald for agreeing to extend the Astro Cafe into the summer season.
Wishing you good health and useable skies this Summer
The tipping point occurred near the 15th, the Ides of March. Just a few days earlier at the Victoria Centre Monthly Meeting 50 RASCals enjoyed the entertaining talk by Dr. Tyrone Woods which involved both supernovae and sword fights. While details of the approaching Astronomy Day were presented there was tension in the air and it was recommended that members monitor HealthLinkBC.ca. By the 17th, Saint Patricks Day, schools were cancelled, the gates to the DAO were locked and even the Pubs were closed! In almost an instant, astronomy “outreach” events Astronomy Day and Saturday Star Parties together with “in-reach” events such as, Astro Cafe, Monthly Meetings, VCO sessions and the 2020 Vancouver General Assembly were cancelled. What lead to this astonishing turnaround? Perhaps it was the eerie images of Italian landmarks, totally devoid of people. Maybe it was the grime graphs of soaring death totals. Or could it be the announcement that even Tom Hanks was not immune to CoVid-19?
Sporting activities involving crowds like hockey and basketball were among the first casualties. In contrast, the stillness, peace and wonderment of observing the night sky can be safely experienced in isolation. One of the joys of the astronomical community, however, is sharing these experiences with others. A “Virtual Astro Cafe” has been set up on https://victoria.rasc.ca and it allows you to share your stories, images and links. We have already enjoyed a strong response and we encourage you to forward your contributions to president@victoria.rasc.ca. One of the things missing from this Virtual Astro Cafe, however, are the comments, questions and banter that add a special touch to the authentic Astro Cafe. The hosts of Astro Cafe are addressing this shortcoming by holding Astro Cafe Webinars using software called Zoom. It is scheduled for Mondays at 7:30PM and all you have to do is click on the link provided by the email from the Astro Cafe host and respond to one or two prompts. It is a surprisingly effective way to achieve a sociable connection at a safe distance. Give it a try!
The mention of Tom Hanks recalls his portrayal of Astronaut Jim Lovell in the epic movie Apollo 13. The 50th anniversary of the explosion aboard Apollo 13 takes place on April 13th. This is a validation of bad luck for the superstitious! The remarkable success of the earlier Apollo missions fostered a sense of complacency among much of the population. This episode, however, dramatically illustrated the dangers and complexity of these space missions and riveted the attention of the world until the capsule safely returned. You may not be aware of the Victoria connection of this adventure. Ernie Pfanneschmidt and Frank Younger of the DAO were atop Mount Kobau during this mission and successfully photographed the oxygen cloud that formed in the wake of the explosion. The 16 inch telescope that they used is now residing in the dome connected to the Centre of the Universe. To learn more see pp 6-7 Sep 2018 SkyNews. Pause and reflect on this historical role when you next peer through the eyepiece of this scope.
Although most Victoria Centre events have been cancelled until further notice, there may be an interesting spectacle to anticipate. Victoria RASCal Martin Gisborne recently imaged comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) discovered by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey on December 28, 2019. Visit Virtual Astro Cafe to view this image It is currently situated above the plane of the Solar System moving from Ursa Major to Camelopardalis. It will swoop southward and make its closest approach to Earth on May 23rd. Some have speculated that it will brighten significantly on approach. Prediction of any sort is a reckless business but it might provide a welcome distraction from the global pandemic.
As we work our way through this challenging time remember that we are all in this together. So keep at a safe distance, be kind and when skies are useable … look up.
During the COVID-19 outbreak we suspended in-person meetings of Astro Café, in favour of online meetings. Please find below an archive of the presentations from March to June 1st, 2020.
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Aussie Astronomers Discover Missing Matter contributed by Mike Webb
Using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope Australian Astronomers analyzed the signal from a number of Fast Radio Bursts. They noted that some frequencies arrive sooner than others and used that to estimate the density of normal matter that is too cold to emit light. Check out the story here.
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Weekly Observing Highlights prepared by Chris Purse
More imagery from Edmonton Centre relayed by Dave Robinson
Arnold Rivera continues to put his Celestron RASA8 to good use by capturing a stunning image of Comet C/2017 T2(PanStarrs) as it whizzed by galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. Also included is an image of Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in Perseus.
From Arnold Rivera May 24 Equipment: Celestron RASA8, ZWO ASI294MC Pro on SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro, tracked, unguidedComet C/2020 F8 (SWAN): 2020 05 24 074711UT 16mins, 47 subs
John Kulczycki captured an image of a waxing crescent moon on May 26th. John managed to capture crater details in this hand held exposure! It is interesting to compare this image to the one by Mike Nash also taken on May 26th using lucky imaging. It is a contrast of two techniques.
Canon 7D MarkII, Canon 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 Zoom MarkII, Canon 1.4 Extender MarkIII, Shutter speed 1/200 sec. Aperture F8 ISO 6400 (Auto ISO by Camera) Exposure comp +2/3 stop IS on Autofocus= AI Servo Polarizing filter Hand held, single shot Cropped from Raw
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A beautiful sequence of Lunar images from Mike Nash
Victoria Centre RASCal Mike Nash has captured three beautiful images of the Moon on the nights of May 26th, 27th and 28th. It is fun to compare the evolution of shadows on the various lunar features from night to night. Check out the links below.
The UVic Open House Presentation for Wednesday May 27 at 7:30PM
For the Open House presentation this week (7:30pm, Wednesday, May 27), Jonathan Ranallo (3rd year astronomy undergrad at UVic) will be presenting the history of the Apollo program, including how the Mercury and Gemini missions were used to build up the technology and skills needed for Apollo. He will also provide an summary of the Russian efforts to get to the Moon. It’s a topic that really interests him, and he had done a lot of research on it over the years. He says he really enjoys doing a presentation on it.
Images from Edmonton Centre relayed by Dave Robinson
Denis Boucher writes: Above: Here is a very quick shot of M61 with SN (2020jfo discovered May 5th by Zwicky Transient Facility). As it was my first time imaging with the refractor, I did not spend much time focusing these for better result. Below: M13, taken with WO 132mm F7 using ASI0178, no corrector. PHD2, APT, Guide9. DSS, Corel Photoshop pro, very little processing (noise and slight brightness and contrast) Picture saved with settings applied.Sun Halos by Janey
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Web Offerings this week from RASC National
On Tuesday May 26th we’ll be joined once again by special guest Paul Owen for part two of the Intermediate Astrophotography section on Insider’s Guide to the Galaxy! The session will run from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M. PDT and will cover how to best take those most sought-after deep sky object photos. If you missed part one, no worries, the session is up on the RASCANADA YouTube channel for you to get caught up! Intrigued? Registration is only a few clicks away:
On Wednesday May 27th we’ll be hosting a watch party for the historic launch of the first ever commercial space crew. This will be one for the ages. The Crew Dragon (constructed by SpaceX) will be carrying two Astronauts into orbit from American soil for the first time since the shuttle program at precisely 4:33 P.M. EDT. If you want to hang out, chat about space travel, and witness the humongous leaps and bounds of space exploration before your very eyes, feel free to stop by. The party will be hosted in the RASC Facebook group, so sign up now if you haven’t already!
UVic Wednesday Evening Zoom Sessions: An Invitation fromKarun
Karun Thanjavur from UVic Astronomy has invited you to an interesting series of Zoom Webinars which occur every Wednesday evening at 7:30PM.
Zoom joining details: Karun Thanjavur is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Summer 2020: Observatory Open House Time: May 13, 2020 07:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Aug 26, 2020, 16 occurrence(s) May 27, 2020 07:30 PM Jun 3, 2020 07:30 PM Jun 10, 2020 07:30 PM Jun 17, 2020 07:30 PM Jun 24, 2020 07:30 PM Jul 1, 2020 07:30 PM Jul 8, 2020 07:30 PM Jul 15, 2020 07:30 PM Jul 22, 2020 07:30 PM Jul 29, 2020 07:30 PM Aug 5, 2020 07:30 PM Aug 12, 2020 07:30 PM Aug 19, 2020 07:30 PM Aug 26, 2020 07:30 PM Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Weekly: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJMscOqqrT0oHNzGJc9UK2uWYY_R-1Zb8xUK/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCvrzwpGNeTsh-PRowEBY_Cb-rztiFBgo1HuzXmWhV4MBbBD9t9AP8uKtqI
John McDonald from his lofty nest and David Lee amongst the forest trees captured this 1.9 degree approach of Mercury and Venus on May 22nd.
David writes: I waited until both Mercury and Venus approached the treeline and took this picture as a parting shot. The planet parade has been amazing for the past couple of months with early morning views of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter and now with Venus soon to fade in to the horizon line at dusk. Venus won’t be seen for a little over a month. Then you will be able to catch it rising in the east at dawn. Camera: Nikon Z with FTZ adapter Lens: Nikkor 300/4 AFS with TC 1.4x Convertor (effective 420mm) Sensor ISO: 400 Exposure: 1/15 second at f/6.3 Processing: Adobe Photoshop CC 2020Conjunction of Venus and Mercury on May 22, 2020 when they were less than 2 degrees apart.
Hand held Canon Ra camera witih image stabalized 300 mm lens.
Exposure – 1/50 sec at f/4 and ISO 800.
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And Then there were 15 Crescents! by John McDonald
Venus crescent taken over a 30 day period shows the thinning and increasing size as the planet moves toward inferior conjunction when it is closest to earth.
Dates April 18, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29, May 2, 5, 7. 8, 10, 14, 15, 17, and 18, 2020.
Location, Ross Place, Victoria BC
ZWO ASI120MM-s camera on Williams Optics 105mm.; Best 15 to 20% of 1000 to 2000 frames taken with SharpCap and processed in ACR and Photoshop.
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And From the Morning Sky: Images from David Lee
David has been watching the trio of planets Mars, Saturn and Jupiter on clear mornings for past few weeks. Here we see Saturn and Jupiter floating above a neighbour’s rooftop. Camera: Nikon Z6 Lens: Nikkor Z 24-70/4 set at 70 Sensor ISO: 800 Exposure: 20 seconds at f/8 Tracking: Sky Watcher Star AdventurerDavid Writes: As the sky brightened further I switched to my refractor. The waning crescent at dawn offered many familiar and favourite features as noted by the annotations, with the exception of two which Randy observed on the same morning. I’m adding two new craters Deslandres and Maginus to my favourites.
And then there were Eleven: The Venus Series Continues by John McDonald
Venus crescent taken over a 21 day period shows the thinning and increasing size as the planet moves toward inferior conjunction when it is closest to earth.
Dates April 18, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29, May 2, 5, 7, 8 and 10 2020.
Location, Ross Place, Victoria BC
ZWO ASI120MM-s camera on Williams Optics 105mm.; Best 15 to 20% of 1000 to 2000 frames taken with SharpCap and processed in ACR and Photoshop.
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Contributions from Edmonton Centre relayed by Dave Robinson
Courtesy of Alister Ling on May 9th 12:15 pm The wide shot is from a video with a wide angle zoom at about 22 mmThe closeup is a single frame from a video with a 40 mm lens
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A New Type of Celestial Body Has Been Discovered!
A new kind of celestial body has been discovered! These apparently round disks have been found roaming the cosmos in abundance and have been given the unofficial name Cookies. They are about 30 cm in diameter, which isn’t that large compared to other celestial bodies, but it is quite large for a cookie. They appear to come from a mixture of substances which, when brought together and somewhat forcefully fused together, will form what is called a protocookie. When the environment is hot enough, The protocookie will begin ingredient fusion, and expand to become a cookie. When they are newly formed, they glow in the infrared spectrum, but as they age and gradually tend toward their vacuum temperature, they emit microwave and later radio waves. The cookies pictured above are rare supergiant cookies, but more common cookies are giant, sub giant, main sequence cookies, and the most abundant type of cookie, dwarf cookies. Unlike stars, supergiant cookies tend to live the longest. Dwarf cookies usually fall into black holes within seconds. Main sequence cookies about a minute. Supergiant cookies can take up to an hour to be fully destroyed by a black hole. Sometimes a black hole will fail to consume an entire supergiant cookie and continues it in about a day. No cookie has ever been seen to survive more than two days, but it is hypothesized that any cookie can survive for months before taking their slower fate, in which their colour changes to blue and they decay into elementary bits. When this phase happens, they never fall into black holes. Anyway, we will keep studying these mysterious objects in the hope that it will provide us will useful scientific information* *it won’t Clear skies, Nathan
I encourage you to click on the following links to enjoy the beautiful lunar images obtained by Mike Nash using lucky imaging with a SkyWatcher ED 120mm Refractor and ZWO ASI 183MM camera.
Taken November 30 2018 Imaging lens:Minolta AF 400mm F4.5 HS APO G Imaging camera:Sony A77ii Focal reducers:Kenko 3X Teleplus Pro , Minolta 1.4X Teleconverter Software:Adobe lightroom 6 , Autostakkert 3.0 14 , Microsoft ICE 2 , PIPP X64 v2.5.9: https://www.astrobin.com/full/h2tcqz/0/?nc=WestCoastCannuck&real=&mod=
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Some More Edmonton Centre Images courtesy of Dave Robinson
By Arnold Rivera – May 1 Supernova SN2020fqv in NGC4568 Siamese Twins using AStrophysics AT8RC with ZWOASI74MM camera Single unprocessed photo. This Supernova was discovered on March 31 2020 by Zwicky Transient FacilitySame as above with 46 frames: SN 2020fqv (in NGC 4568), 23 mins, 46 frames:Magnitude: ~16.0By Aabdur Anwar: Plato 2 images May 1 2020 using Old Gray C8 with Fiji XT2 video 600 frames out of 6000 stacked in AS3 Above: Wide shot Below: Closeup of Plato notice crater lets in the floor of Plato
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Randy’s Red Dot Finder Gadget for his Camera
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More Information on Starlink Constellation from Jim Hesser
A taller and slimmer Venus: A series by John McDonald
Venus crescent taken over a 6 day period shows the thinning and increasing size as the planet moves toward inferior conjunction when it is closest to earth.
Dates April 18, 20 23 and 25, 2020.
Location, Ross Place, Victoria BC
ZWO ASI120MM-s camera on Williams Optics 105mm.; Best 200% of 1000 to 2000 frames taken with SharpCap and processed in ACR and Photoshop.
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More Edmonton Centre Imagery relayed by Dave Robinson
A nice image of Comet Y1(ATLAS) taken on April 20th by Arnold Rivera using his RASA 8 inch Celestron (30 subs 30 sec each) Y1(ATLAS) was discovered on December 16th, 2019. Go to this interesting link to learn more: https://www.universetoday.com/145386/following-comet-y1-atlas-the-lost-comet-of-spring/Arnold bagged another comet on April 20th: Comet C/2019 Y4(ATLAS) which was also recently captured by Martin Gisborne and featured in Virtual Astro Cafe. The orange star is 36 Camelopadais. Thin crescent moon with trees by Denis Boucher on April 24 near Lake Wabamun 1 hr NW of EdmontonM81 by Denis Boucher on April 24th near Lake Wabamun using 8” Celestron at f7, Canon D850 10 X 30 sec. M82 is just outside the image. Denis said he thought he visually saw Holmberg 14, a small galaxy to the lower right of M81not visible in this image.Arnold Rivera’s image of M81 and M82 showing Holmberg 14. This is a very deep image, showing stars to 18th mag. Holmberg is the 14th mag blue spot lower right of M 81. Note if you scroll down to Garry Sedun’s image of M81 you can also see Holmberg 14.
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Compelling evidence courtesy of Dave Robinson’s daughter Tori.
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This Weeks Observing Links provided by Chris Purse
Stunning Images of M81 and M82 from Garry Sedun using his 20 Inch Newtonian
Garry writes: M81 and M82 are a pair of galaxies in Ursa Major. M81(above) is truly a nice looking galaxy, one my favourites. It’s about half the size of our galaxy at about 90,000 light years in diameter. That’s still a lot of kilometers (miles). Notice the many pink star-forming areas around perimeter of the galaxy. For you image processors out there I hard time getting to core dust lanes to show up. It required some tricky moves with image stretching. John McDonald and Dan Posey gave me good advice on this one.Garry Writes: Messier 82 (above) is pretty cool. It’s about five times more luminous than our whole Milky Way and has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy’s center. This is because it had an encounter with M81 about five hundred million years ago which resulted in a lot of gas being funneled into M82’s core. This partially explains the large red 10,00 light year long jets shooting up and down from the galaxy. M81 and M82 are tidally locked together and in a few billion years only one will remain. For you image processors out there this image was created from poor data due to several technical and environmental issues and hopefully I’ll have better data next year.
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More Edmonton Centre Images: by the kindness of Dave Robinson
The Peach Moon below, was taken by Alister Ling who writes: Luca and I went to the NW Yellowhead and Henday cloverleaf to catch this rise last night. Lots of atmospheric turbulence and red flash refraction effects! The squashed shape due to refraction and the red flash at the bottom of the moon are obvious.
Arnold Rivera captured the images above and below using his amazing Schmidt Camera. Taken at the Blackfoot Staging area near Elk Island Park before the Province closed the site due to Corona. Arnold notes: “Celestron RASA8 on SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro; ZWO ASI294MC Pro (cooled one-shot colour camera); processed in DeepSkyStacker and PixInsight.30 subs at 60sec each The nebula was discovered on 5 September 1784 by Sir William Herschel. It consists of the following components: Cygnus Loop (Veil Nebula) Western Veil (NGC 6960, Caldwell 34) is the western segment.. The foreground bright star is 52 Cygni. Central Veil (NGC 6974 and 6979) and Pickering’s Triangle; Eastern Veil (NGC6992 & 6995, IC 1340, Caldwell 33)”Eastern portion of the above.
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Don’t miss Mallory Thorpe’s “Clash of Galaxies”: Recommended by Jim Hesser
Mallory Thorpe from UVic delivered a most interesting, entertaining and informative presentation entitled “Clash of Galaxies” which is found between 57 minutes and 1 hour 22 minutes on the following YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x7ur25qkrQ This “Nerd Night” feature that was recently streamed on Zoom. Check it out.
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Sunset over the Sea of Tranquility: Sketches by Randy Enkin
Randy sketched the Sea of Tranquility on April 12thFrom NASA Science Visualization StudioShadows descend on the Sea of Tranquility on April 13thFrom NASA Science Visualization Studio
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Early Morning Parade of the Planets by David Lee
On Tuesday David writes: Today the Moon was starting to get closer to the trio. In spite of the cloudy conditions the planets were sufficiently bright to burn through the cloud cover. Tomorrow weather willing the Moon will be centred beneath the three planets, visually below Saturn. By Thursday the Moon will be visually past Mars. Camera: Nikon Z6 Lens: Nikkor Z 24-70/4 set at 50mm Sensor ISO: 800 Exposure: 2 seconds at f/5 Processing: Adobe Photoshop CC 2020Day 2 of this sequence. The sky was hazy and the Moon had moved to its position underneath Saturn. David could hear the birds waking and the air was crisp. Camera: Nikon Z6 Lens: Nikkor Z 24-70/4 set at 50mm (additional cropping) Sensor ISO: 800 Exposure: 1/2 second at f/4The last day of the sequence. Fortunately Dave didn’t have to leave the neighbourhood. The apparent movement of the Moon against the background of the planets was a wonderful thing to witness this week. The only downside is the time of day:-). Camera: Nikon Z6 Lens: Nikkor Z 24-70/4 set at 68mm (cropped) Sensor ISO: 800 Exposure: 1 second at f/5
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This Weeks Observing Links provided by Chris Purse
Image of the quarter Moon in the morning. 2020-04-13 from Ross Place Victoria Central image taken with Canon Ra on Williams Optics 105mm reftactor. Black and White surrounding images taken with ZWO ASI120MM-s camera on Williams Optics 105mm. Best 200 of 1000 frames taken with SharpCap and processed in ACR and Photoshop. Additional images can be seen at https://rascvic.zenfolio.com/p1028029664/he7579e1d#he7579e1d
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Weekly Viewing Highlights from Chris Purse
Chris shared these observing highlight links for the week.
While Rod and Glynis Miller were out walking in Dean Park they witnessed excellent examples of 22 degree halos around the Sun that are formed by ice crystals suspended in the upper atmosphere … or possibly in the lower atmosphere if you live in the Edmonton area:) Click here for more info.
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A nice Moon shot by John McDonald
A nearly full moon taken from Ross Place in downtown Victoria on April 5th 2020. Williams Optics 105mm on Orion AVX mount with Canon Ra camera. Exposure 1/640 sec at ISO 200. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
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The Conjunction of Venus and the Pleiades
The rendezvous of Venus with the Pleiades generated considerable interest and enjoyment for Victoria Centre RASCals. A big thanks to the many who shared their images over a period of 4 nights. Since most of these images have already been shared on the Victoria RASC distribution list it would be redundant to place them here. A parade of these images may take place during the Monday night Astro Cafe Webinar.
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RASC National Homebound Astronomy Series: from David Lee
David Lee viewed the first two Homebound Astronomy webinars hosted by Jenna Hinds and Chris Vaughan from RASC National. They cover Stellarium and a scavenger hunt using the software. David found it quite informative from the point of view of how to use the software for specific tasks like observation and photography planning to seeing how the sky looks in other areas of the world. They are available on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/user/RASCANADA/videos
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More Images from the Edmonton Centre: Relayed by Dave Robinson
Alister Ling captures light pillars due to ice crystals. Taken @ 7:30 am April 2 For April very cold in Edmonton!! Close to minus 20 CAlister Ling Captures Comet C2019 Y4 (ATLAS) together with NGC 2403 (Caldwell 7) on April 2nd with 100 mm lens at ISO 800 f6.3 (49 – 1 min subs)Arnold Rivera captured Venus approaching the Pleiades on April 2nd with a 600mm lens.
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Black Hole Warnings: from Reg Dunkley
Many of the RASCal contributions have inspired further exploration. I have included some related links that I found to be of interest and I have added them to some of the contributions. As a warning, however, these explorations can swallow time and become temporal black holes. Heed the Black Hole Warnings: Enter at your own risk.
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The Jellyfish Nebula: from Garry Sedun
The Jellyfish Nebula, IC443 is located in Gemini at a distance of ~5000 light years. Garry captured this image with his 20 inch Newtonian reflector using reg, green, blue and Hydrogen Alpha filters. Garry’s comments are included below the images.
Black Hole Warning: Garry’s beautiful images have been rotated so that they match the orientation of an image that is discussed in the the following link . The processes that may be driving this nebula are explored.
Jellyfish Nebula, LBRG with Ha as the L channel. This one was pretty hard to process since the “hook” of the nebula, upper right, tended to saturate really quickly.The Hydrogen Alpha Channel. Garry now understands why folks like imaging in narrowband. Look at the beautiful filament details.PixInsight has a feature that can remove stars. Garry likes it better with stars, though, otherwise it looks like someone’s bad hair day – nice detail though.
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Lunar Sketch of Palus Putredinis: From Randy Enkin
Randy Enkin has included many features in this sketch including portions happy places like the Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity), the Lacus Felicitatis (Lake of Happiness), and the Lacus Gaudi (Lake of Joy). His primary target, however, was Palus Putredinis (Marsh of Decay) … resuming his theme of maudlin sketching choices.
Black Hole Warning: Randy’s sketches can serve as a gateway to further Lunar exploration. A link to an annotated image of the area has been included to compare to Randy’s sketch. If you compare the two you will realize that Randy has captured many details. Despite its name Palus Putredinis is a fascinating area that includes the landing spot of Apollo 15. This mission target was selected, in part, to place Apollo 15 just north of an elbow of the Hadley Rille, an intriguing meandering narrow channel. Two Rover EVA’s visited the edge of this channel. To learn more and see up close photos visit the following link: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_15/photography/index.shtml#surface
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Organic Compounds Dominate Composition of Arrokoth: From Marjie Welchframe
A refined image of Arrokoth obtained by NASA scientists in the following link provides compelling evidence that the Kuiper belt is populated by a vast quantity of organic compounds. This provides new insight into the origins of life. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200401.html
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Questions from the Couch: From Jim Hesser
If you are feeling like a ‘Couch Potato” then you may be on the right wavelength to enjoy the latest offering from the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. They have created a program called Cosmos from the Couch which consists of a series of astronomy lectures that are available online. At 4PM PDT on Thursday April 2nd a panel of presenters will be available to answer your questions. Check it out at http://www.dunlap.utoronto.ca/public-outreach/couch-cosmos/
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Randy Enkin’s Lunar sketch of Lacus Mortis (Lake of Death)
The Lacus Mortis and Caretr Burg are target #36 of the Isabel Williamson Lunar Observing Program.
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George Andrew managed to catch these two images before the clouds rolled in.
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Garry Sedun’s images of Orion and the Crab Nebula
Black Hole Warning: To learn more about what is going on under the veil of the Orion Nebula check out pages 4 and 5 the May 2017 issue of SkyNews
Theses images were captured using a 20 inch reflector at Garry Sedun’s Arizona observatory. Garry writes: being a novice imager here is the obligatory Orion Nebula in LRGB. This turned out a little red but I left it that way since the PixInsight function that did the colour balance uses the surrounding stars to pick the colour balance.And the Crab Nebula, M1: This is with SII mapped to Red, Ha mapped to the Green and OIII mapped to Blue, which is the Hubble Pallete.
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Garry Sedun’s saga of his Arizona observatory renovation
I’ve had a wooden observatory with a steel roof now for a few years. It’s 30′ by 16′ and houses my 20″imaging scope and 25″ visual scope. Here it is with the roof rolled off:All was fine until this happened!A careless worker started a grass fire half a mile from my house and thankfully the wind was blowing away from the house up here in the Dragoon Mountain Ranch, just east of St. David. In total, 3,500 acres were burned but amazingly no one was hurt and no houses were destroyed. Last year, lightning hit two spots next to a friend’s house and the ensuing flames got to within 10 feet of his observatory. Yikes, time to start thinking about what would happen to my observatory in a fire! It’s not too hard to figure out; the walls would burn and the metal roof would fall onto the scopes. Ouch!!Time to do something about this risk. Thankfully a neighbour was tearing down a barn and gave me all the metal – enough beams and metal roofing to completely replace the wooden walls in my observatory. Here is the metal roof being supported and the walls being replaced:Here’s the steel framework all done. It’s 15″ taller than the original structure. I didn’t realize my scopes would stick up past the walls when I built the original structure. These large scope tubes act like sails even in the lightest winds. I should get better images from now on since the scopes are now shielded from the wind. All I had to buy were the main steel rails that the roof rolls on:Here are the former roofing panels now being used for wall panels: The rails are painted white so they don’t rust over the summer. Everything will be painted next fall when I return. The inside will be black and the outside color has yet to be determined.Here are the two scopes parked for the summer, the 20″:And the 25″: I am truly am blessed to have these scopes, which I purchased at an estate sale in pieces. I finally have them working, most days. Now I can sleep soundly and not worry about any grass fires. In fact, it’s built so stoutly that’s where I’d head to if a tornado showed up here.
Garry
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Another image of Orion Nebula in light polluted skies : by John McDonald
Sky glow from the light pollution forced John to resort to a series of relatively short 7.7 second exposures. John writes:
I have been trying to see what astro imaging is possible from the downtown location I now live in. The light pollution is such that I cannot see much visually but wondered if some deep sky imaging might be possible with the camera. The following image of the Orion Nebula is my best attempt so far and turned out to be much better than I expected.
Image details: 2020-03-17 from 8th floor Ross Place, Victoria. Canon 6D camera with Hutec HEUIB II filter on Williams Optics 105mm scope with Orion AVX mount. Exposure – 83 – 7.7sec exposures at ISO 3200 with 8 flats and 49 dark frames for calibration. Processed in ImagesPlus and Photoshop.
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You might enjoy Lunarcy! on the Knowledge Network
Dave Robinson thought Lunarcy! may be of interest to some Astro Cafe patrons. This documentary follows a group of disparate individuals who share one thing in common: they’ve all devoted their lives to the moon. It will appear on The Knowledge Network anthology Route 66 at 6 PM on Thursday March 26th and again at 12AM on Friday March 27th.
Bill had directed youth to part of this site but there are lots of resources especially for those interested in outreach. https://www.discovertheuniverse.ca/
You Have to be Venus to Outshine a Blazing Sunset: from Susan Charnock
This Little Light of Mine Let it Shine Let it Shine Let it Shine
These lovely photos were captured by Susan from beautiful Cox Bay near Tofino on March 15/16 2020 using her iPhone
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Edmonton RASCals Drop By Virtual Astro Cafe: By the Kindness of Dave Robinson
Victoria Centre RASCals who don’t make it to Astro Cafe are unaware that we have been infiltrated by the Edmonton Centre. Dave Robinson, our Light Pollution Abatement Champion is also an Edmonton Centre Secret Agent. Almost every week he showcases beautiful images taken by Edmonton Centre RASCals or provides a progress report on their epic telescope project. Dave continued his mission this week and dropped off some images just before the Astro Cafe would have normally opened its doors.
These images often feature the Edmonton skyline and the following link does not disappoint. On the Spring Equinox Edmonton sky scrapers acquired a “Stonehenge Quality”. https://www.flickr.com/photos/53851348@N05/49689623092/
The following photos were taken by Arnold Rivera. The deep sky images were acquired using a relatively new style of telescope, an 8 inch Celestron RASA (Rowe-Ackerman-Schmidt Astrograph). It is a very fast f/2 scope that delivers a wide flat field free of optical aberrations. Arnold used a ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera, SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount and an Astronomik CLS CCD filter
NGC7000 (North America Nebula) and a portion of IC5070 (Pelican Nebula) (15 mins, 30subs)
Messiers 81/82, NGC3077, NGC2976 (39 mins, 30 subs)Orion with Canon 60DA 50mm f 1.4 @ ISO 3200, 1 -x 2. Minute sub —- SQM read 21.97 @Blackfoot
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Randy Enkin shares lunar sketches of The Marsh of Epidemics
Early in the morning of Tuesday March 18, the Moon was 2.2 days after the 3rd quarter (Q3+2.2). Checking the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4768), Randy realized that this would be the perfect time to explore target 108 of the Isabel Williamson Lunar Observing Program (https://www.rasc.ca/isabel-williamson-lunar-observing-program): Palus Epidemiarum – The Marsh of Epidemics. It seems like an appropriate reflection on what we are dealing with down here on Earth. There are only three Paludes on the Moon: Palus Epidemiarum, Marsh of Epidemics Palus Putredinis, Marsh of Rot Palus Somni, Marsh of Sleep They were named by Julius Schmidt in 1878, who did all his selenology with a 6 inch f/15 refractor. Randy is often seen sketching with his trusty 6 inch reflector.
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Image of Comet C2019 Y4 (ATLAS) capture by Martin Gisborne
Martin Gisborne who recently joined the Victoria Centre took a beautiful photo of Comet C2019 Y4 (ATLAS) from Maple Bay on March 20th when the apparent magnitude was about 14.7. It is expected to brighten to 4 by the end of May, of this year. The three bright stars, above the green-tinged comet, are sigma 1 & 2, and rho Ursae Majoris. Martin used a Meade 70mm Astrograph with a Nikon D850 on a Skywatcher Adventurer mount. A 30 min exposure using 30 unguided light frames at 60secs (ISO 1600) and 24 flat frames and 17 dark frames. The image pre-processing in PixInsight with further nonlinear processing in Lightroom and Photoshop. Further information on the comet at: https://theskylive.com/c2019y4-info and https://cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/2019_Y4.pdf
Dave Robinson relayed details from Alister Ling of the Edmonton Centre about the sighting opportunities in our area when it makes its closest approach in late May. There is potential that this may be a spectacular comet and it is generating considerable excitement. More details will be shared soon.
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Jim Hesser announces that an encore production run of “Big Dipa”, a popular a double IPA beer brewed by Moon Under Water is now available. It was introduced in 2018 to the honour of the 100th anniversary of the Plaskett Telescope. They will deliver to your door for $5.
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The Whale and the Hockey Stick: from Doug McDonald
Doug was able to get just over 6 hours during two clear nights of NGC 4631, the Whale, a nearly edge-on barred spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, along with its companion, the “Pup”. He was also able to fit in NGC 4656/57, the so-called Hockey Stick or Crowbar galaxy, a member of the same group. It’s odd shape and tidal tail are thought to be due to tidal interactions with NGC 4631. Doug captured this image with his 5″ refractor using 330 subs of RGB data, with 8 subs of Ha to bring out the H2 regions.
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What is an Orrery? by Barbara and Kurt Lane
It’s a mechanical model of the solar system used to demonstrate the motions of the planets about the Sun, probably invented by George Graham, a watch maker (d. 1751) under the patronage of Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery. In use for several centuries, the device was formerly called a planetarium. The orrery presents the planets as viewed from outside the solar system in an accurate scale model of periods of revolution. The planets’ sizes and distances, however, are necessarily inaccurate. (source: https://www.britannica.com/science/orrery-astronomical-model)
One of the most famous orreries is this one at the British Museum in London
And then there is this one! – which is not quite so famous, and not quite so grand, but it is a lot closer. This is a time series film of Kurt Lane’s orrery which was a birthday present from Barbara. (Thanks Nathan for the idea of doing a time series.) And yes it has Pluto as a planet still.
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David Lee recommends the documentary Cielo
Cielo is a cinematic reverie on the crazy beauty of the night sky, as experienced in the Atacama Desert, Chile, one of the best places on our planet to explore and contemplate its splendour. It appears on the Documentary Channel on Friday March 27 at 9pm PDT. You need to subscribe to the channel but the following promotional link is RASCal worthy. https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/m/docs/cielo
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Nathan’s Virtual Contribution
Cookies at Astro Cafe have become a critical component of the Victoria Centre Rascal diet. In order to thrive during this interlude of isolation you may want to consider Nathan’s example.
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Mike Nash Shoots the Moon with his DSLR
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Jim Hesser informs us that The second Dunlap Cosmos From Your Couch instalment live streams at 4PM PDT Thursday March 19: Dark Energy and Dark Matter by Dr. Renée Hložek
Do you lie awake at night wondering what the difference is between dark matter and dark energy? Join Prof. Renée Hložek tonight for a talk about how they are different, how they change the Universe and why you should care about these exciting dark components of our cosmos! She’ll tell you not only about what they are and about some of the exciting telescopes we are building to discover the secrets of the Universe. Bring your cup or tea or cocktail, settle down and get ready to explore our exciting cosmos.
Jim Hesser also recommends Installment 1 by Mike Reid, Misconceptions About the Big Bang, is viewable at the following link (it starts at about 39 minutes in the recording): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOgPvLzwFWQ
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Link to Discover the Universe for 8-12 year old audience from Bill Weir: March 18th
I’d like to add this link from the Discover the Universe folks. I’s a FREE daily 30minute stream on their YouTube page aimed at the 8-12 yr old set. https://www.discovertheuniverse.ca/post/astro-at-home It will help them stay in touch with the sciences.
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Followup image in light polluted skies by John McDonald: March 18th
This is my first attempt at a deep sky image from my new digs in light polluted downtown Victoria. I was not sure if the camera would see the nebula. The image is lacking in depth but has nice colour.
details
2020-03-17 in calm clear air.
Canon 6D camara with LPS filter on WO 105mm scope with Orion AVX mount.
6 – 2min exposures and 1 – 18sec at iso 200 with 6 darks for calibration.
Processing in photoshop.
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Urban imaging in light polluted skies by John McDonald March 16th
Having recently moved to a tower in the middle of a sea of light pollution in downtown Victoria I thought I would have to do all my deep sky imaging elsewhere. However, I am missing being able to do some imaging from home so have started to investigate the use of a light pollution filter. I have an SPS (light pollution suppression) filter from the Hutec company https://www.hutech.com/ that fits inside my Canon 6D so can be used with any lens or telescope. No filter can get rid of the effect of light pollution but it seemed like a good idea to see what it could do. As a first test, I put the camera with its filter and 24 mm lens on a tripod and did some short exposures of the Orion Constellation. By doing a rough alignment and stacking combining 6 frames with 10 sec exposures at f/2.8 and iso 160 I got the following image. It is noisy and lacking detail as a result of only 1 min of total exposure but came out better than I expected for a sky in which I could barely see the constellation by eye. Next, I will try doing some longer exposures with a tracker and telescope so if you live in polluted skies like me you might want to stay tuned. John
From Your Astro Cafe Hosts ______________________________
CELESTIAL OR TERRESTRIAL?? One of these two pictures is a celestial phenomenon that was the subject of Dr. Tyrone Woods’ talk at last Wednesday’s monthly meeting (or as it is now know pandemic declaration day) while the other is a terrestrial phenomenon that is the subject of Dr Bonnie Henry’s daily talks.
The terrestrial phenomenon does share some of the attributes of the celestial, which is why we have invoked social distancing and changing from in person Astro Cafe to Virtual Astro Cafe for the time being. As this quote from the New York Times explains.“Most countries only attempt social distancing and hygiene interventions when widespread transmission is apparent. This gives the virus many weeks to spread,” … with the average number of people each new patient infects higher than if the measures were in place much earlier, even before the virus is detected in the community.“By the time you have a death in the community, you have a lot of cases already,” said Dr. Mecher. “It’s giving you insight into where the epidemic was, not where it is, when you have something fast moving.” He added: “Think starlight. That light isn’t from now, it’s from however long it took to get here.” (Dr Carter Mecher is a senior medical adviser for public health at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a former director of medical preparedness policy at the White House during the Obama and Bush administrations.)
So keeping looking up, but make sure you have washed your hands!
