3 additional outrigger radio telescopes: 160 kms from Penticton, Green Bank, WV, and Hat Creek, CA
Good Q&A at the end of the lecture video
Skynews – Feb 2017 issue highlights the CHIME instruments
DRAO open to the public starting April 8th
Discussion of radio interference when using radio telescopes
Astronomy Day – Lauri Roche
FDAO Star Party – Observatory Hill – April 29th – evening hours
Need astronomers with telescopes to volunteer
Starlink speaker
UVic – April 30th 11AM-4PM
Lots of volunteers have signed up, but everyone welcome to help, especially someone to lead the event promotion and communications – contact Lauri by email
Open Council meetings. Now that we have a smaller Council, we should make more effort to advertise the meetings to the entire membership – and possibly lay the foundation for more recruitment to leadership.
Closer ties to UVic. I often hear that members want to get back to meeting at the University. I also think we should offer programs that encourage undergrad students to be active in the RASC-VC.
Closer ties with the FDAO. We have overlapping mandates and volunteer bases. Closer coordination will benefit both organizations.
More in-person events, especially under the night sky.
More scheduled and ad hoc evenings at the VCO
More diversity in membership and leadership.
A budget!
Revised Statement of Goals of the Society.
Calendar on the website
Documented Council job descriptions
October 14 Solar Eclipse event
Display of Astrophotographs
Support Vic High club, Oak Bay, Mount Doug
Prizes or other activities with UVic students (Volunteerism, Outreach)
Using the telescope collection to support School Clubs.
Help with the telescope lending library
Recruitment and Retention of membership.
Sustainability of Volunteers and Council members
Organize the Google Drive. Make more complete.
Member survey
Diane Bell Award for Astrosketching
Car share to VCO
NOVA program!
Schools Program – with FDAO?
Liaisons with school groups
Mentors with school groups
Join in school-group observing nights
Prizes and goodies for school groups
Support for Science Fair – volunteers for judges, prizes, handing our RASC bookmark etc.
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.
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.
Henrietta Leavitt discovered the Type 1 Cepheid Variables, correlation between the brightness and variations in the luminosity
Leavitt’s discovery used by Edwin Hubble, who in 1923 settled the Shapely-Curtis debate. The Hubble Law related distance to velocity (red shift), the start of cosmology as we now know it.
Adopting amendments to the Centre’s Purposes (under our Constitution) and Bylaws for RASC Victoria Centre – requires a 2/3 vote by members
This meeting will be held at the start of Astro Cafe that evening
Quorum is 25 members
Proxies to exercise your vote can be given to another RASC Victoria member who will be attending
After the business meeting: Sara Ellison, Astronomy Professor at the University of Victoria, will present A brief history of galaxies: from the discovery of island universes to clash of the titans.
Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF – Dave Payne
Reviewed data acquisition and processing methodology
8 second and 2 minute exposures over two nights used
Preliminary results, including video showing the comet’s motion through the sky
Members’ comet observing stories
Angular Momentum – Marie Welchframe
APOD image from a couple of days ago used the term “angular momentum”, so Marjie looked it up
Video explaining angular momentum for kids – law of physics
Group discussion: what happens to angular momentum when….
FDAO Astro Jeopardy – Lauri Roche
James, Ben & Dan were the contestants last Saturday evening
One unanswered question: /Which planet has the most moons?/ Unanswered so far. Saturn (83) or Jupiter (80) according to NASA.
Astronomy in Victoria – John McDonald
A presentation to Berwick House residents
Reviewed Plaskett’s work, DAO imaging exoplanets, forming stars
RASC out reach and in reach
Silent Sky at Langham Court Theatre – Play at Langham Court about Henrietta Leavitt
Laurie and Calvin presented four times in the past at Berwick a few years ago
Discussion of Christian Marois’ discovery of the first imaged exoplanet
Virtual presentations from RASC National – Lauri Roche
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
Old Dec 2003 issue of our SkyNews has Ernie’s obit in it with an image of the refractor. Also there’s an image of a Mars map that he did. It inspired me to do the same in 2005 because in my arrogance I thought, Pfffftt, how difficult could that be? Turned out it was. Takes a lot of luck too to get all of the phases.