Astronomy Cafe – Monday November 16th 2020

Posted by as Astro Cafe, Meetings

Video transcript of the meeting

UVic Observatory Open House – Lisa Wells, CFHT Remote Observer, talks about Supernovae

You are invited to a Zoom presentation by Lisa Wells at 7:30 PM on Wednesday November 18th 2020. In addition to talking about her research interest in Supernovae, Lisa will describe how she remotely uses the Canadian France Hawaii Telescope.

The talk will explain the current thinking of the star classes producing these bright events, why a star dies in such a spectacular way, and give insights into their classification and naming scheme. Next you will learn about the first of the major searches and how that led to the Nobel Prize.

Join the Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 935 9678 6035
Password: 566494​

The Research Legacy of the Lowell Observatory: Monday November 23rd at 5:30 PM PST

You are invited to a presentation on The Research Legacy of Lowell Observatory
Presented by Klaus Brasch
Sponsored by RASC History Committee
Abstract:
Percival Lowell founded his observatory in 1894 and commissioned the famed firm of Alvan Clark & Sons, to build a 24-in aperture refracting telescope among the largest in private hands at the time. Clark himself deemed it as one of his best. Both Lowell and his great refractor soon gained notoriety with reports of putative canals on Mars, allegedly the work of a dying civilization to channel water from the planet’s poles to its desert equatorial regions. Amid all the ensuing controversy, the Observatory’s many other scientific achievements are not as widely known as they should. This talk will review some of those and also current research and educational efforts at this historic institution.
Bio:
Klaus Brasch is a retired biomedical scientist and a volunteer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. Born in Germany, his family emigrated to Canada in 1953, where Klaus got hooked on astronomy in his teens, joined the Montreal Center of the RASC in 1958 and has been an avid amateur ever since. He earned his BSc at Concordia and Ph.D. at Carleton University, before joining the biology faculty at Queen’s University in Kingston. In 1990 he joined California State University, where he served as department chair, dean of science and director of campus research. Klaus has translated popular French astronomy books into English, lectured widely on topics ranging from life in the universe to astrophotography and published articles in Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Sky News, JRASC and elsewhere. Asteroid 25226 Brasch, was recently named for him by Lowell Observatory.

Link to register

The Iris Nebula and Dust Clouds of Cepheus by Dan Posey

Dan captured this beautiful wide field image while visiting the Cowichan Valley. This is 1h58m (236x30s) of frames into the Cepheus constellation with the Iris nebula (NGC 7023) at centre frame. The shots were captured through a Sigma 105mm f1.4 at f1.4 on an unguided iOptron Skyguider Pro using a Canon Ra at iso 640. The lights were calibrated with bias and flats, and stacked/processed in Pixinsight.

Your Invited to the FDAO Virtual Star Party 7:30 PM Saturday Nov 21st

SELENOPHILE OR LUNATIC? THIRTY YEARS OF OBSERVING AND LOVING THE MOON

Randy Enkin avidly followed the Apollo missions from when he was 8 years old, and had decided he would grow up to be an astronomer. With life’s turns, he ended up being an Earth Scientist working for the Geological Survey of Canada. But the moon always attracted his attention and he is now more than 30 years into a lunar observation time series. For 6 years, Randy has been posting an artistic image of the moon every day on

https://www.facebook.com/EnkinsDailyMoon and https://www.instagram.com/enkinsdailymoon/.

Randy is often out with his telescope in the middle of the night sketching the moon. He is an enthusiastic member of the Victoria Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Click here for the Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2503633638?pwd=ZWhQaTd2RmpjOXFnanBsVkhaOGoydz09

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