Speaker: Historical Supernovae: Wendell Shuster

Posted by as Meetings

Wednesday, October 11th, 2017 at 7:30 PM

Room A104, Bob Wright Centre, University of Victoria

RASC Victoria Centre’s Monthly Meeting

This talk will focus on how various cultures around the world were influenced by the sudden appearance of Supernovae. Further discussion includes where supernovae were seen, how bright they were and how they were identified by modern scientists (archaeologists, geologists, paleo-astronomers and astrophysicists).  The final segment goes briefly into the astrophysics of the two main Supernovae types tying in how we know the distances and what the Supernovae may have looked like to these cultures even though historical records are very scant at best.
There will also be a short presentation on the outreach program at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, (DRAO) which is located near Penticton.

Wendell Shuster has been a member of RASC for 37 years, first in Vancouver and since 2000 in Penticton. He is currently the Tour Guide at the DRAO. He has served on executive positions of the Okanagan Centre of RASC as well as it’s predecessor the Okanagan Astronomical Society. Wendell has made numerous astronomical presentations on a wide variety of topics. His devotion to the science is truly astronomical. Who else do you know that has the entire collection of 1872 glass plates from the Palomar Sky Survey in his basement? Don’t miss this one!

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