Astronomy Cafe – May 1, 2023

Meeting transcript video

• The Dual Dipole Radio Telescope – Evan Warburton, Oak Bay High School, Grade 12
  • Io generates a band of electrons around Jupiter
  • Setup dipole antenna on the Lansdowne Middle School field
  • 20MHz ionized radiation – copper wire cut to half the wavelength
  • “Floating” coaxial shield, not grounded
  • SDR Console software – gain, bandwidth, Io A, B and C phase predictions – Software Defined Radio
  • Spectrograph software
  • Detected a radio storm – short, random bursts
  • 10-40 MHz is the observable bandwidth range
  • Observing time: about 1 hour per week
  • NASA’s Radio JOVE Project: Home Page– helpful forum
  • Project planning and execution – discussion
  • Q & A
  • Evan is travelling to the Canada-wide Science Fair in Edmonton May 13, and is attending UVic Physics this Fall with a prestigious Schulich scholarship to his credit.

• International Astronomy Day – April 29 & 30, 2023 – report by Lauri Roche and David Lee
  • Saturday at Observatory Hill – FDAO event
    • Event recording
    • Astronomy Day | Star Party — Centre of the Universe
  • Sunday at UVic Astronomy – RASC & UVic event
    • School astronomy groups – Monterey, Shawnigan Lake, Victoria High
    • About 100 public attended
    • Needed more media coverage and promotion
    • Need a discussion about next year’s effort
    • Zenfolio | RASC Victoria Centre | Astronomy Day 2023
  • Discussion of both events
• RASC Victoria Centre Council meeting on May 9th – Randy Enkin
  • Members are welcome to attend online
• Beaveree at Camp Barnard – May 27th (9am-2pm) – Bill Weir
  • Need volunteers for outreach – email Bill
  • Solar and possibly daytime planets
  • Telescopes – both Ha and white light
• RASC GA 2023 – CONNECT with the cosmos & community – May 5-7 – Lauri Roche
  • Gather Town – social interaction
  • Friday – Dr. Shandin Pete, Salish Sky Lore, 1 hour live from Victoria’s DAO (7-8pm) – contact Lauri to volunteer
  • Saturday – combatting science misinformation, CSA Astronaut Jeremy Hansen
  • Sunday – Dr. Linda Shore, Astronomical Society of the Pacific
  • Members: $35 admission
  • Zoom call is used for all sessions
• Astronomy by Night – A new Canadian website for amateur astronomers. – Michael Webb
• Explore the Universe – Marjie Welchframe
  • Lunar crater sketches
• Astronomy Cafe – next week’s speaker is Justin Albert – cube-sat ORCASat
• Beginner’s SIG – tomorrow night – Jill & David