- Lisa Dang, PhD Student McGill – Marjie Welchframe (Women in Astronomy series)
- 1st principal investigator to use JWST using MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument)
- Hot Jupiters’ atmospheres gas giant exoplanets with very short orbital periods
- Erin Gibbons presentation : Perseverance First Year on Mars – RASC Montreal Centre online – Jeff Pivnick
- Erin is an Astrobiologist
- Payload specialist for the Supercam remote sensing instrument aboard Perseverance
- Search for life on Mars – primary mission
- Ingenuity drone is being used to scout routes for the rover
- Stromatolites on Mars
- Perseverance landed on west side, inside of Jezero Crater – indications of flowing water
- John McDonald
- Changes at Ross Place – building a construction crane
- Photo of the Orion Nebula and Lunar surface taken by the new Victoria Centre Observatory’s OGS telescope and QHY camera
- Cosmic Generation – Nathan Hellner-Mestelman
- Youth astronomy group being formed
- First meeting was Feb 13th
- Next meeting is Mar 13th – sign up
- Outreach and building members phase
- Website, magazine and social media coming soon
- Want to hold monthly webinars
- OCCULTATION OF ZC2118 on 22 FEB 22 observation report – David Lee
- High winds and very cold, so used light weight rigs – camera and lens, and small refractor for visual
- Video of Alpha 1 & 2 Librae stars ingress and egress
- Observing reports from Sid Sidhu, Nathan Hellner-Mestelman, Chris Purse and Randy Enkin
- IOTA lists occultations and grazes
- Lauri Roche
- Artemis Mission Launch coming up – Canadian Space Agency is looking for promotion to the public by RASC. April 16th FDAO event is proposed with a speaker from CSA.
- GA is online again this year – June 24-27
- Virtual observing across the country on two evenings – solar observing from Victoria?
- Edmonton Astrophotos – Dave Robinson
- Bi-marathons – Messier & running marathon in the same night
- Andromeda Galaxy & Ha regions & Cepheid Variable VI – Abdur Anwar
- Lunar Occultation – 2 photos 48 seconds apart – Mike Webb
- Chris Gainor
- James Webb Space Telescope Report
- Pointing and focusing 18 mirrors progressing nicely
- Now resolving a single star with completed image stacking
- More work on focusing required
- Artemis Mission – probably a May launch – Chris Gainor
- Artemis 2 mission will take humans around the Moon
- The Ukraine war will probably affect space launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia. Other space exploration may be affected. Discussion about International Space Station.
- James Webb Space Telescope Report
- Bill Weir
- Equatorial Poncet platform for the 20″ Truss Dobsonian built by Guy Walton is now working again
- Will be used at the Centre of the Universe for public viewing when restrictions permit events
- SIGs – David Lee
- Beginners SIG – tomorrow evening
- EAA SIG – Thursday – discuss a National RASC public outreach initiative using EAA
Transcript video of meeting
- Announcements – Chris Purse
- 2022 Observer’s Calendar – some available at $15 – contact Chris Purse or Lauri Roche
- Astro Cafe In Person – Fairfield Gonzales Community Association
- The portable we have been using is no longer available
- Other rooms are available, so when we resume in-person meetings, we will be meeting in another room
- The TV we installed will be moved to our new location
- Monday is one of their busiest nights, so we may also move days
- Feedback from members is welcome
- Standing for election as Secretary – Jill Sinkwich intro
- Now participating in RASC after 20 years of lurking
- Interests in music and law, but also astronomy (observing certificates)
- Quantum Gravity – Duane Weaver
- Attended Toronto RASC virtual presentation – Dr. Saeed Rastgoo, Dept of Physics & Astronomy, York U
- Event Horizon telescope & LIGO
- Reviewed some explanations of the characteristics of black holes given at the presentation
- York AICO Teletube Mar 31, 2021 – Black Holes Saeed Rastgoo (time stamp 28:08)
- Edmonton Astrophotos – Dave Robinson
- Andromeda Galaxy – Abdur Anwar tried to capture the integrated flux between the galaxies
- A red rainbow with the Sun very low in the sky – John Wooly
- Update on James Webb Space Telescope – Chris Gainor
- First light shared before aligning the mirrors
- News story about first light
- One of the more prominent scientists for JWST at the Space Telescope Institute is a black Canadian named Jason Kallirai
- Lauri Roche
- 2022 Observer’s Calendars – $15 each – contact Lauri(roche.lauri@gmail.com)
- FDAO Star Party this Saturday evening, Feb 19th – Intersection of Science and Art – Bob McDonald
- FDAO wants to open for in-person events, starting on Astronomy Day, May 7th, but dependant on NRC and Federal pandemic rules
- David Lee
- Makers SIG – this Thursday
- Lunar Occultation is coming up – contact =David if interested (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Victoria Centre AGM – next Monday – Randy Enkin
- Speaker: The Life and Times of the Sky Quality Meter – Doug Welch, Dean of Graduate Studies, and on the CFHT and TMT boards
- Need a quorum, so if you can’t attend, contact our Secretary Barbara Lane (secretary@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Link to Zoom meeting sent to members by the Secretary
- Astrophotos – Brock Johnson
- Pleiades M45
- Orion Nebula M42, M43
- Rosette Nebula without stars
- Black History – event this Saturday, Feb 19th at 10AM PST – Bill Weir
- 4 presenters
- National Report – Lauri Roche
- 2023 and 2024 eclipse events being planned
- New NOVA modules available beginning of April – volunteer testers needed
- 2022 GA being planned – contact Chris Gainor (cgainor@shaw.ca)
Transcript video of meeting
- IAU Small Bodies Nomenclature – Chris Purse
- Asteroid (10109) Sidhu – 1992 KQ – discovered by Eleanor F. Helin
- Sid Sidhu was nominated by President Chris Purse back in 2018
- Quite a few Victoria Centre members are already honoured, along with other RASC members
- Sid joined RASC in 1985
- The Transformative Journey of HD 93521 (Doug Gies, et. al) – Randy Enkin
- Rapid rotating star between Leo Minor and Ursa Major
- Blue star 40,000 times more luminous as the Sun, Spectral Type O
- Only 5 million years old, and burning out rapidly
- First spectra was published by Plaskett & Pearce in 1931
- Actually 39 million years old, but nuclear clock was reset 5 million years ago
- Discussion about black holes, stellar dust, and star formation and evolution
- Lunar Occultation – David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Zubelnelgenubi double star occulted by the Moon on Feb 22, 2022
- Published times for various locations
- Altitude of 20º and Azimuth 135-180º from Victoria
- Prepare ahead of time
- David can help anyone interested in observing or photographing this event
- Update on Victoria Centre Observatory – Reg Dunkley
- 20″ Obsession Dob telescope – visual observing
- Digital setting circles to be installed
- 12″ Dob telescope – visual observing
- Takahashi TOA – visual and photography configurations
- 12.5″ OGS RC – photography with a new 61 Mpix cooled camera, filters LRGB & narrowband
- First light of the Moon – photo taken last night
- Paramount mount still needs some service, but it’s working
- COVID-19 Regulations – 4 members at the VCO, and 2 more members at the Plaskett parking lot. Active Observers should attest to being fully vaccinated to President Randy Enkin (president@victoria.rasc.ca) and cc to Chris Purse (membership@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Member-In-Charge (MIC) – 2 spaces available for new volunteers. Training will be provided.
- 20″ Obsession Dob telescope – visual observing
- Update on James Webb Space Telescope – Chris Gainor
- Last week, instruments turned on
- First light on sensors
- Calibrating the mirror segments is proceeding
- History of Hubble – Chris Gainor
- Chris will be receiving copies of the book
- Requests can be sent to the Hubble Information Center – info-center@hq.nasa.gov
- Observers Handbook 2022 – free one available from Joe Carr (web@victoria.rasc.ca)
- SIGs – David Lee (david@victoria.rasc.ca)
- Makers SIG meeting online this Thursday
- Victoria Centre’s AGM – Feb 21, 2022 starting at 7:00PM PST
- Speaker: The Life and Times of the Sky Quality Meter – Doug Welch, Dean of Graduate Studies, and on the CFHT and TMT boards
- Need a quorum – proxies are good if you can’t attend – send to any member in good standing who will attend, or Barbara Lane secretary@victoria.rasc.ca
Video transcript of meeting
- Delivery of Calendars & Handbooks – Lauri Roche & Chris Gainor
- Delivery of RASC 2022 Calendars for Victoria Centre should happen tomorrow
- 4 members present still don’t have their Observers Handbooks – Duane Weaver, Brock Johnston, Bill Weir
- The last Board meeting was dedicated to getting the delivery issues resolved
- Pastel Paintings of the planets – Nathan Hellner-Mestelman
- Jupiter – from Juno mission image
- Earth and the Moon from space
- Saturn in monochrome
- Mars – Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris juxtaposed
- Discussion about artistic technique
- Cordillera Mountains & Mare Oriental lunar features – Randy Enkin
- Mare Orientale – libration sketch by Bill Weir
- Randy’s lunar sketches for the Isobel Williamson Lunar Observing Program
- Youngest crater – Lunar Explorer photo
- Mare Orientale extreme libration photo by Tom Glenn – Nov 27, 2021
- IAU switched east and west references for the Moon in 1961
- Mare Orientale is only visible to this degree every few years
- A Lunar Alpine Quest – Reg Dunkley
- Original presentation to Victoria Centre on Nov 6, 2017
- Dorothy Paul – sketch of lunar mountains from the 2017 Solar Eclipse
- Reg took a photo of the same area at the 2017 Solar Eclipse and measured the height of one of the mountains on the Moon and the height of the solar chromosphere
- Identified the particular mountain using Solar Eclipse Maestro software and some trigonometry from Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter (LRO)
- Schluter Crater is likely the candidate for the gap in the corona imaged by Reg
- Brock Johnston showed a photo of the partial eclipse featuring similar “bumps” in the partial eclipse line
- Edmonton astrophotos – Dave Robinson
- JWST telescope in a star field time lapse imaged by Anwar Abdur
- Jan 28, 2022 text observing report from Luca Vanzella – Orion & Auriga and NGCs in Cancer, Gemini, Monoceros
- SIG meetings – David Lee
- Getting Started in Astronomy – this Tuesday
- Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA) – this Thursday
- James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – Chris Gainor
- Switched on the instruments, and all are functional
- Future dreams in view as Canadian instruments power up aboard James Webb Space Telescope – Globe & Mail
- Apollo 16 article coming up in JRASC
- History of Hubble – Chris is getting copies of the book for distribution around Victoria
- Victoria Centre AGM – Randy Enkin
- Monday, Feb 21st – starting at 7PM online
- Keynote Speaker: Life and Times of the Sky Quality Meter – Doug Welch
Video transcript of meeting
- JWST Report – Chris Gainor
- Spacecraft now in orbit around L2
- Telescope commissioning is now starting over the next six months
- Cooling the onboard instruments is critical
- Discussion about Black and White photography
- B&W Gallery by John McDonald
- Processing techniques converting digital colour images to black and white
- Methods of Observing and Scientific Illustration
- Photography – digital and analogue
- Sketching – perhaps a new SIG?
- Painting – watercolours
- Observing vs art
- Astrophotos – Brock Johnston
- Orion Nebula region – Jan 20th, through gaps in the clouds and trees – 400mm f/l
- Missing RASC 2022 calendars – Chris Gainor
- Shipping issues discussed at the national level
- Calendars are now considered missing, so they will be reshipped
- Recent and future astronomy presentations
- Charles Ennis talk about cross-cultural asterisms to the FDAO Star Party last Saturday
- Chinese Giant Solar Telescope – Les Welch
- Ring design solar 1.8m telescope – 2010
- Paul Hickson at UBC is working on this instrument
- Speakers covering new subjects – Dave Payne to coordinate either a new SIG or ongoing discussion at Astro Cafe
- FDAO Report – Lauri Roche
- Calvin, Lauri and Sid are still doing outreach online to schools
- Made 12 online sessions to Grade 10 classes over the last 2 weeks
- Did an in-person session with Kindergarten and Grade 1 students once last week
- NSERC grants haven’t been granted to FDAO as well as other deserving organizations
- Pearson College Report – Bill Weir
- International students are still in lockdown
- Canadian students were sent home
- College management is very nervous about their operation
Transcript video of the meeting
Meeting notes
- A Woman of Astronomy – Marji Welchframe
- Urania, Muse of Astronomy
- Seal of the RASC – “Quo Ducit Urania” (i.e. where Urania leads, we follow)
- Urania is 1 of 9 Muses of the Arts in Greek Mythology
- Uranometria star atlas by Johann Bayer (1603) – published and sold by Sky & Telescope (Willman Bell section)
- Early computer memories
- LGP-30 tube-based computer used at the University of Alberta in Edmonton by John McDonald in 1958
- Reminisces from various members about early computers, calculators, slide rules, and other computing devices and programming languages they used decades ago.
- Lunar Puzzles – Randy Enkin
- 100-piece from NASA
- 1000+ piece from Cobble Hill
- 1000 piece from Four Point
- 3-D printed Moon puzzle – Randy and his daughter assembled it
- Reports from Lauri Roche
- 2022 RASC Calendars have still not arrived
- Sky Cultures of the World: RASC World Asterisms Program – Charles Ennis, 1st VP with RASC National – FDAO Star Party – this Sat, Jan 22nd 7-9PM – available on Zoom and Youtube
- Eclipses for 2023 and 2024 – Education & Public Outreach Committee task force headed by Randy Attwood. Thousands of eclipse glasses will be available and sent to RASC Centres. Members can participate on the committee – contact Lauri.
- JWST Update – Chris Gainor
- Mirror Segment Deployment Tracker – activating the actuators behind the mirror segments
- JWST enters a halo orbit around L2 position this Sunday, Jan 23rd
- Astro Cafe next week – Jan 24, 2022
- Dr. Tanya Harrison, “a professional Martian” – our Astro Cafe speaker next week
- David Lee will be hosting
- Scarlett Caterpillar Club – a parasitic fungus Bill Weir found near the observatory at Pearson College
Extras
- NASA 3D Resources – 3D models of equipment, models of celestial and solar system objects, space missions (like JWST). Various media for download: fly-throughs, interactive visualizations, 3D printer files, stereo images.
Video transcript of meeting
- Lunar sketching & movie review – Randy Enkin
- Randy’s Lunar “scissors” sketch, compared with Mike Nash and Bill Weir photos of the same area
- “Don’t Look Up” popular movie on Netflix
- Amy Mainzer was the science advisor for the movie, and is also the Principal Investigator for NEOWISE. So the science was quite accurately portrayed in the movie.
- Observation of Mars and Jupiter in 1802 – Piazzi discovered Ceres instead of a new planet, and Carl Friedrich Gauss computed the orbit of the asteroid
- Measuring the Earth – Gauss and von Humbolt
- JPL Horizons System (Solar System Dynamics) – solar system ephemeris computation system
- Mark Boslough movie review – don’t read before watching the movie!
- Brian Cox’s commentary about Don’t Look Up
- Astrophotos from Edmonton Centre – Dave Robinson
- Antimatter and Dark Matter cartoon
- Michael Jäger (@Komet123Jager) photo of comet C/2021 A1 Leonard from Skygems Observatories in Nambia
- Article explains why comet heads are green, but their tails are not green
- Ursa Major and snow carving of a bear – Warren Findlay
- UVic construction & Sunspots – Alex Schmid
- UVic Construction photos – An update on two new buildings – residence, lecture halls, dining areas
- Recent Sunspots – a-focal through eyepiece using a 5″ Newtonian telescope with solar filter
- James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – Chris Gainor
- Launched on Ariane 5 – Dec 25, 2021
- Journey from Earth to L2 Lagrange Point – deploying the telescope components
- Final position at L2 – arrives Jan 23, 2022 (approximately)
- First images should be released June, 2022
- Discussion about single points of failure for the mission
- JWST Control Subsystems
- RASC National 2022 calendars – Lauri Roche
- Our orders are on their way, but have still not arrived in Victoria
- Victoria Centre Observatory Upgrade – Reg Dunkley
- QHY 600 mono camera is now attached to the OGS 12.5″ telescope
- New USB3 connection in place
- Telescopes rebalanced for the new gear
- Lots of snow still on the ground around our observatory
- Our Astro Cafe speaker on Jan 24th will be Dr. Tanya Harrison, “a professional Martian”
- FDAO Star Party – Jan 22nd – Lauri Roche
- World Asterisms Project – Charles Ennis, 1st VP for RASC National
- AGM – election – Chris Purse
- Council openings are available – contact Reg Dunkley (Past President) if any member wishes to stand for Vice President, Secretary (or any other position) on Victoria Centre’s Council
Mission to Mars – Dr. Robert Thirsk
- Deep space missions being planned – returning to lunar orbit, the Moon’s surface, and onward to Mars
- Maintaining the health of astronauts will be a significant challenge to the missions
- Mars atmosphere is thick enough to sustain windstorms
- Surface is covered in iron oxide dust
- International Space Exploration Coordination Group – planning for exploration of Mars
- Lunar Gateway Spaceport to be built orbiting the Moon – build starts next year
- Canadarm 3 – using AI, 8.5m long
- JAXA (Japan), NASA (USA), ESA (Europe)
- Deep Space Transport – flights from the Lunar Gateway spaceport, ultimately to Mars after test flights
- 2030s – 2 cargo vehicles assembled in Earth orbit and flown to Mars
- Mars Ascent Vehicle – lands on Mars
- Facilities and crew quarters to be built
- Mars Transfer Vehicle – astronauts travel from Earth orbit to Mars – a 6-month trip
- Mars Base – crew quarters, nuclear reactor, supplies
- Pressurized Mars Rover allowing crew to travel up to 100kms at 72,000 kmh
- Crew will stay on Mars for 500 days
- Due to the 20 minute communication delay, Mission Control’s role in the mission will be limited
- Big issues
- Extreme isolation
- Medical emergencies – autonomous treatment is the only option, powered by AI, on-board medical lab analysis
- Exercise facilities will be very small
- Radiation shielding and a shielded safe area
- Medical Tricorder – Star Trek – now a reality! Qualcomm Tricorder
- Environmental monitoring of cabin conditions
- Crew bio-monitoring – smart shirt
- Medical technology developed for this mission can be deployed in remote areas of Canada, and even primary care can benefit
Q&A
- Radiation limits dictate that astronauts can only go to Mars once
- Advice to students interested in space missions: physics, math, but skills diversity is important, personality traits (work with diverse community), health and fitness is important. Be persistent – may take 7-8 attempts to be selected as a Canadian astronaut
- Canadian clinical research and remote health care – could result in a key role in space health – CSA’s Health Beyond Initiative
- Most physiological effects can be recovered from by astronauts, but can take a year or two. Ionizing radiation is the biggest issue.
- Spinning the spacecraft to create gravity isn’t going to happen due to engineering limitations
- Test missions to a Lagrange Point and a nearby asteroid
- Shielding research – NASA/Johnson and ICRP (upcoming Vancouver meeting)
- Lunar Gateway – private partners like SpaceX are being used by NASA
- 2 flights for 2 Canadian missions to the Moon are in place – Artemis 1 and 2
- Would JWST failure affect the Mars missions? Not really – the missions are separate.
Transcript video of the meeting
- Edmonton astrophotos – Dave Robinson
- Time lapse video over 2.5 hours – Arnold Rivera
- Astrophotos – Dave Payne
- Pleiades – pleased with the nebulosity
- Owl Cluster NGC 457 – young star cluster
- Cave Nebula – reprocessed using Dave’s new PixInsight script
- Lauri Roche
- Thanks to Jeff Pivnick for bring Dr. Thirsk to talk to us
- Sat, Dec 18th – last FDAO Star Party – JWST speakers from the NRC
- RASC National 2022 calendars have not yet arrived. Still a few available – contact Lauri.
- Dec 22nd is the JWST scheduled launch update (see 60 Minutes) – Chris Gainor
- Randy Enkin
- RASC Victoria Centre 2022 calendar – a limited run, but 4 still available – view the gallery and contact Joe to order ($15 each)
- Encourage members to talk to us at next week’s Astro Cafe – what interests you about astronomy?
- Comparison of two comets: NEOWISE (last year) and Leonard (this year)
- RASC Victoria Centre Council vacancies: 1st VP and Secretary
- Maker’s SIG meeting online this Thursday – David Lee
The final Astro Café of 2021 will be held on Monday, December 20, 2021. Astro Café will resume on Monday, January 10, 2022.
Transcript video of the meeting
- Review next week’s presentation by Dr. Robert Thirsk – Chris Purse
- Connection to meeting will be through a waiting room
- Jeff Pivnick will host
- Link for this meeting will be unique, and emailed to all RASC Victoria members
- Maximum of 100 attendees
- Total Solar Eclipse from Antarctica – Joe Carr
- Fred Espenak’s map of the track
- Photos of eclipse from Antarctica and satellite
- NASA EDGE video of the eclipse (skip to the 20:45 mark) as viewed from Union Station Glacier
- Astro Compass – Randy Enkin & Peter Kabel
- Frank Younger’s estate donated the Compass Astro to Victoria Centre
- Used in aircraft when they are flying a long way north, where the magnetic field isn’t reliable
- “It’s a sundial in reverse”
- Need to know your position and time, sighting on a celestial object with known Right Ascension & Declination. North will be indicated accurate to within about 1º.
- Edmonton Astrophotos – Dave Robinson
- Photo of Comet C/2001 A1 Leonard near M3 cluster – Arnold Rivera
- Sketch of Comet C/2001 A1 Leonard with observing narrative – Berta Beltran
- Rosette Nebula photo – Arnold Rivera
- Chris Gainor
- James Web Space Telescope update
- Completed fuelling operations for the JWST itself
- To be mounted onto the Ariane 5 rocket next
- Dec 22nd launch date
- Launch website
- Not Yet Imagined – Chris’ new book about Hubble Space Telescope’s history. Book should be available for sale in awhile through RASC’s e-store and FDAO’s e-store locally. Electronic versions from NASA
- James Web Space Telescope update
- Comet C/2001 A1 Leonard – observing report by David Lee
- Observed and photographed through some clear spots over the last few days
- Poor conditions for photography, but managed to get a good wide field image of the comet using a dSLR and tracking mount
- Virtual Telescope broadcast – tomorrow 8PM PST
- Lauri Roche
- 2022 RASC Calendars
- Send any more requests for calendars to Lauri
- Should be $16 each
- FDAO e-store – astronomy and space themed fun items available for sale. Free local delivery or shipped by mail (extra cost).
- 2022 RASC Calendars
- Astro Cafe hosting – Randy Enkin
- John has resigned as a meeting host, so we need a new second host
- Job description
- Send meeting link to members on the Skynews list
- Create a short slide show for Astrophotos from Edmonton
- Keep a list of speakers and presenters for the evening
- Host the online meeting
- Contact Randy Enkin or Chris Purse for any questions about hosting or to volunteer
- No Astro Cafe will be held on Dec 27th or Jan 3rd
- 2022 RASC Calendars – Chris Purse and Lauri Roche
- Delivery from National office is pending
- Local delivery will be done by our volunteers
- Dr. Laurie Rousseau-Nepton – profile by Marjie Welchframe
- Canadian Women Astronomers series (have 9 more to present)
- Indigenous woman from Quebec
- Laval U – PhD
- CFHT resident astronomer – 2017-present
- SITELLE instrument – Fourier transform spectroscopy
- SIGNALS – principal investigator – star formation survey
- First Nations culture helps with conducting quality scientific research
- NFB – she is finishing the film “The Northern Star” for high school students
- Edmonton Astrophoto – Dave Robinson
- Lunar Eclipse composite – Jan 21, 2019 & Nov 19, 2021 – Alister Ling
- Astronomy & Space Book Reviews/Recommendations by members
- Randy Enkin
- The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
- Description of Apollo lunar missions – Chris Gainor
- Martin Gisborne
- Lunar Module at Grumman Factory photos
- The Victorian Amateur Astronomer – 1820-1920 – by Alan Chapman – fascinating star parties and people, how photography changed astronomy
- John McDonald
- Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos by Dennis Overby
- Empire of the Stars by Arthur J Miller
- Miss Leavitt’s Stars by George Johnson
- Decoding the Heavens by Jo Marchant
- The Glass Universe – by Dava Sobel – transition to spectroscopy and variable stars
- Derek Trimmer
- Violent Universe ‘An eye-witness account of the commotion in Astronomy 1968-69’ by Nigel Calder, published by the BBC, 1969 – a mid-teenager favourite
- David Lee
- A History of the Universe in 100 Stars – Florian Freistetter (current)
- The Hundred Greatest Stars Hardcover – Illustrated, June 19 2002 by James B. Kaler
- Oliver Robinow
- The Perfect Machine – Ronald Florence, 1995 – building the Palomar telescope
- Lauri Roche
- The Glass Universe – by Dava Sobel – women in astronomer
- The Last Stargazers – Emily Levesque – Elizabeth Griffin mentioned in the same sentence as Vera Rubin. Presentation by Emily at Astro Cafe – Nov 15, 2021.
- Chris Gainor
- When the Earth Had Two Moons – Erik Asphaug
- Across the Airless Wilds – Earl Swift – about the lunar rover for the last 3 Apollo missions
- Liftoff – Eric Berger – history of SpaceX
- Garry Sedun
- The Stars: A New Way to See Them – H. A. Rey (of Curious George fame)
- The Last Stargazers – Emily Levesque
- Neil Banera
- A Manual For Amateur Telescope Makers – Jean-Marc Lecleire & Karine Lecleire (Willman Bell) – good descriptions of how to make corrections to mirror figures, tools to use, 3 telescope configurations
- Meteorite Hunter: The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters by Roy A. Gallant
- Randy Enkin
- Telescope Building with John Dobson – figuring mirrors on Youtube – Martin Gisborne
- Astronomy Cafe – Chris Purse
- Need another host for Astro Cafe – talk to Chris Purse
- Need another person to video record the meeting (and take notes) for posting on Victoria Centre’s website and Youtube – talk to Joe Carr
- We will need several hosts when we return to in-person, hybrid Astro Cafes in Fairfield
- Chris Gainor
- Hubble Update – only one instrument is still non-functional
- JWST virtual launch event signup