Astronomy Cafe – Jan 31, 2022

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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
  • 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
  • James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – Chris Gainor
  • Victoria Centre AGM – Randy Enkin
    • Monday, Feb 21st – starting at 7PM online
    • Keynote Speaker: Life and Times of the Sky Quality Meter – Doug Welch

Astronomy Cafe – Jan 24, 2020

Posted by as Astro Cafe

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
  • 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

Astronomy Cafe – Jan 17, 2022

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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.

Astronomy Cafe – Jan 10, 2022

Posted by as Astro Cafe

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