- Saanich Fair – Lauri Roche
- Sep 2-4, 3 days
- Thanks to all the volunteers, but we could use more for next year
- 3,500-4,000 people visited the booth and telescopes
- Solar telescopes used to show the public the Sun
- Clear and beautiful weather except for Sunday afternoon rain
- Telescope raffle
- Island Star Party – Reg Dunkley
- Very good attendance 70 + 200
- Dave Payne project lead
- Cloudy skies on Friday but some sucker holes
- Pristine skies on Saturday night
- Zero gravity chairs were popular with cheers from the crowd when the Perseid meteors streaked across the sky
- Volunteers from Cowichan Valley Starfinders did a great job
- Two interesting speakers on Friday and Saturday night
- Next year: 1st weekend of August
- Donations more than covered our expenses
- Grand prize of a telescope and mount
- CU Star Parties – Lauri Roche
- Weekly events – mid-May to mid-Sep
- Good attendance every Saturday event
- Presentations every week – either in-person or virtual
- Monthly events during off-season
- Saturday FDAO Star Party (Sep 16th) – Mary Beth Laychak, CFHT Outreach will be presenting
- Plaskett Observing – Sep 16th
- Contact Dan Posey email
- Starts at 11:30pm
- Must be a member and registered as an Active Observer to participate
- Personal Observing Reports
- Brock Johnston – photos
- Helix Nebula
- Solar disk in Ha – discussion
- Jupiter – good seeing on Saturday
- Saturn – 3 images showing changing ring tilt
- Explore the Universe observing group – Marji & Jill
- 110 celestial objects
- Observe and/or draw at least 55 objects
- There is also an Explore the Moon workbook
- Group of 6 observing from Cattle Point
- Moon – Randy Enkin
- Sinus Iridium & Jura Mountains – comparing Mike Nash’s image & Randy’s sketch
- Island Star Party astronomy images review
- Brock Johnston – photos
- Announcements
- Teacher’s Workshop – Lauri Roche
- Mary Beth Laychak, CFHT Outreach will be leading the workshop
- Monday – 4:30-7:00pm for teachers
- Monday after the teachers – present at Astro Cafe
- 2019 AGM presenter
- Council meeting – Randy Enkin
- Tomorrow night – all members welcome
- UVic Wednesday night monthly meetings restarting – Alex Schmid
- Teacher’s Workshop – Lauri Roche
- Minima of Algol – David Lee
- Eclipsing binary
- Short cycle of 3 days
- Magnitude 3.4 to 2.1
- Dates coming up – ref S&T
- Partial Solar Eclipse – Oct 14th – David Lee and Lauri Roche
- Observe from the Centre of the Universe – 8am to 10:30am
- Solar observing glasses
- Safety briefing
- Breakfast beverages and snacks
- Activities for kids and adults
- $5/person – registration through Eventbrite
- Rain or shine event
- Volunteers needed
- Blake Nancarrow remembrance – Randy Enkin
- Memories from Bill Weir
- Black was Chair of RASC Observing Committee
- RASC Double Star program – designed for small aperture urban observing
- David Dunlop observatory champion
- Memories from Peter Jedicke
- Blake retired to St. Thomas, attached to RASC London Centre
- Blake was the first Astronomer in Residence at York University’s observatory at Killarney Provincial Park
- Blake’s obituary
- Memories from David Lee and Jill Sinkwich
- Stellarium courses
- Double stars tribute – Randy
- Different colours of binaries
- Splitting the doubles, triples and quads – challenging technique
- A Tribute to Double Star Observer and Our Friend Blake Nancarrow –The Actual Astronomer Podcast – Chris and Shane
- Lyra – 3 doubles – Marjie Welchframe
- Memories from Bill Weir
Video transcript of meeting
- Beginner Observers – report by Brenda
- Observing and sketching targets from Cattle Point
- Trying to find another observing spot to get away from the car lights
- Summer targets are next
- Four observers at Pearson College two weeks ago – liked it!
- Island View Beach may be a good observing location
- Most of the group are working on Explore the Universe observing certificate
- Special Interest Groups – David Lee
- Beaveree and Seniors event at the Centre of the Universe – solar observing – Lauri Roche
- Plaskett Observing Session – video report by Randy Enkin
- First in-person observing session on May 19-20, 2023 since 2019
- Supernova 2023ixf photographed in M101 as our last target, unknown to us at the time
- Dan Posey notified Dave Bohlender at NRC, so the SN photometry was reported online quickly
- Subsequent processing revealed the SN is a blue star
- Koichi Itagaki, amateur Japanese discoverer of SN
- The progenitor star of the SN now has a paper published about it
- Thanks to Astro Cafe volunteers – Randy Enkin
- Photos of Supernova 2023ixf (Type II)
- Dave Payne
- May 13-16 images of M101 without SN
- May 20th image of M101 with the SN
- Brock Johnston
- GIF flashing old versus new image of M101
- Light curve of SN from AAVSO
- Also imaged M51 and M13
- Sketch of SN using 6″ Dob – Bill Weir
- Photos of SN on May 20th & 24th showing the SN enlarging – Ron Fisher
- Dave Payne
- Plaskett Observing Session on May 19-20 – Dan Posey
- Objects imaged before M101 are being processed
- NGC 4565 Needle Galaxy
- NGC 4605 Faberge Egg Galaxy
- NGC 6914 reflection and emission nebula
- Objects imaged before M101 are being processed
- National AGM – June 25th online – Chris Gainor
- Restricted to RASC members – log in to member area of rasc.ca website
- Reports, financial statement, bylaw amendments, elections
- Please attend and vote
- 2023 AGM Agenda
- Island Star Party – Dave Payne
- Aug 11-13
- Still need some volunteers – sign up for email list dapayne@shaw.ca
- Discussion of Supernovae (in general)
- Type I and Type II Supernovae – Dan Posey
- SN 2016aps – Lauri Roche
- Star Parties on Observatory Hill – Lauri Roche
- Saturday nights all summer long
- RASC volunteers invited with telescopes or without
- Event info on the Centre of the Universe website
This is the last Astronomy Cafe until we restart after the Summer break.. Astro Café will resume on Monday. September 11, 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
- Saturday at Observatory Hill – FDAO event
- 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
Video transcript of meeting
- Regional Science Fair – report by Randy Enkin
- 3 prizes awarded
- Measured the period of the pendulum
- Supernovae red shift analysis – Nathan Mestleman-Keller
- Double Di-pole Radio Telescope – Io/Jupiter generates – Evan Warburton, Oak Bay High School, Grade 12
- Distinguished Service Award to Randy
- Astronomy by Night – new astronomy website hosted by Carina Ockedahl (former editor of Skynews), Chris Vaughn, Charles Ennis, and more contributors
- JUICE – Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer launch – Randy Enkin
- ESA launched this mission to Jupiter on Friday
- Lunar-Earth flyby a year from now
- Venus and Earth flyby
- Arrives at Jupiter – July 3031
- Multiple flybys of Jupiter’s icy moons
- Orbit Ganymede for 3 years
- 10 instruments onboard
- SIGs – David Lee
- Makers SIG
- Astrophotography SIG
- International Astronomy Day – Lauri Roche & David Lee
- Neutron Stars – The Quest to Understand the Zombies – a book by Katia Moskvitch – review by Ron Fisher
- Latest research and very interesting story
- Research in Italy
- NGC 4993- emitted radio waves and captured visual light from neutron star collision
- CHIME – fast radio bursts
- Astrophotos and Sketches
- Double Transit – John McDonald
- Planets and shadows visible
- Moon Shadows on Jupiter – video
- SkAc1 faint Planetary Nebula – Dave Payne
- Challenge by Bill Weir
- Double Transit sketch – Bill Weir
- Orbital Motion of Venus – Marjie Welchframe
- Bode & Cigar Galaxies, Horsehead & Flame Nebulae – Ken McGill
- Double Transit – John McDonald
Meeting transcript video
- SIGs – David Lee
- Beginners’ SIG tomorrow night
- Electronically-assisted Astronomy & Citizen Science SIG – Thursday
- Mallory Thorp – profile by Marjie Welchframe
- PhD UVic 2022
- IFS / MaNGA survey
- Working on PHANGS
- Postdoctoral researcher the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie (AIfA) at the University of Bonn in Germany
- May 8th Astronomy Cafe – upcoming speaker
- Spoke at the last year’s Island Star Party
- The ALMaQUEST Survey X: what powers merger induced star formation?
- Island Star Party 2023 – Dave Payne
- Fast Radio Cosmos lecture by Victoria Kaspi – Reg Dunkley
- Uses the CHIME radio observatory near Penticton
- 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
- Astronomy labs open
- 6 speakers
- Free parking
- FDAO Star Party – Observatory Hill – April 29th – evening hours
- Virtual General Assembly 2023 – May 5-7
- Jeremy Hansen, CSA astronaut – speaker
- RASC Victoria Hopes & Dreams – Randy’s list
Christopher Gainor, FRASC 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.
- Sky At Night Podcasts – Bill Weir & David Lee
- Lance Bass (nSync boy band) – selected to be a Russian cosmonaut! “The last Soviet citizen”
- JWST podcast series
- Victoria Centre Observatory (VCO) – Reg Dunkley
- Active Observers to have access soon
- Tech committee needs to check on the health of systems up there first
- No more than 16 people at a time, with social distancing and health precautions (personal choice)
- Ad hoc observing sessions for favourable weather to start with
- Scheduled observing sessions later
- Must be an Active Observer and must adhere to safety procedures
- Gate codes for existing MICs have been refreshed for the coming year
- Astrophotos during galaxy season – Dave Payne
- M94 galaxy – elliptical shape and outer ring of material
- M106 and friends – 4 arms in M106
- National Council – Chris Gainor
- Complete staff turnover at the National office is ongoing
- Randy Atwood is interim Executive Director, working with the Board to recover
- Annual Report – Victoria Centre’s report still needed
- Skynews magazine is still being wound up
There will not be an Astro Café next week as it is a holiday Monday. We will be back on Monday, April 17
Video transcript of the meeting
- Vernal Equinox Today – Jeff Pivnick
- Caused by axial tilt of the Earth
- Celestial Equator intersects with the Ecliptic
- Babylonians picked 12 constellations 3,000 years ago, but Ptolemy named them later
- Declination and Right Ascension coordinates are referenced to the equinox
- Astronomy Day – Lauri Roche
- Sunday, April 30th 11AM – 4PM at Bob Wright building lobby at UVic
- Free parking on outside of the Ring Road in Lot 1
- Setup is Saturday afternoon
- Leads
- UVic Site Manager – Sam Fielder
- Technical Support – David Lee
- Welcome Table – Marjie Welchframe
- Telescope Show & Tell – Bill Weir
- Children’s Astro Crafts – Rachel & Ryan Holmes
- Astrophotography – Brock Johnston & Dan Posey
- Responsible Lighting – Dave Robinson
- Planetarium – need a lead to used Starry Night on TV
- Solar Observing outside – Alex Schmid, Sid Sidhu
- Ask An Astronomer – need a lead and 3 or 4 astronomers (UVic students?)
- Speakers – Lauri Roche
- 3 speakers signed up, 3 to go
- 20-minute talks
- FDAO, NRC, Science Venture, Camosun College, Mt. Doug High, Vic High & Oak Bay High
- Tour of the Bob Wright telescope
- Need volunteers – 2-3 shifts is ideal – contact Lauri Roche roche.lauri@gmail.com
- Saturday, April 29th 7-11PM Star Party on Observatory Hill
- Open House – Centre of the Universe – March 25 – Lauri Roche
- Free tickets available
- Volunteers needed
- Victoria Centre Observatory – Randy Enkin
- Will open to members once the road is open
- Standing Where Ansel Adams Stood – Randy Enkin
- Moon and Half Dome – Dec 28, 1960
- When the Light, Shadow and Stars Aligned: Standing Where Ansel Adams Stood – Kim Beil, NY Times
- Ansel Adams joined Sierra Club Outings
- 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.
- Council Meeting – March 28th – 7:30PM
- Open to all members
- Budget for coming year – we have funds to spend!
- Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair – Dorothy Paul
- April 16th
- 100 projects, 150 students
- Need some specialty judges from RASC – about 2 hours
- Astrophotos from members
- Moonrise from Clover Point – Randy Enkin
- Jones-Emberson 1 Bubble planetary nebula – Brock Johnston
- 2023 RASC General Assembly – May 5th – May 7th, 2023
- 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.
Next Astronomy Cafe in 2 weeks – April 3
Video transcript of meeting
- Randy Enkin (video recording)
- Venus-Jupiter Conjunction
- Some great photo taken of the conjunction both by members and others
- Venus can be up to 47º away from the Sun
- Venus-Jupiter Conjunctions 1990-2060
- March 1st conjunction – Venus-Jupiter had 0.5º separation
- Victoria Centre’s Annual General Meeting – March 13th (virtual)
- Need 25 members for a quorum
- Links to Zoom sent to members along with supporting documents
- Social dinner at the Moon Under Water Pub to be held on March 27th
- Venus-Jupiter Conjunction
- The Hunt for the Culprit – Part 2 – Reg Dunkley
- Jan 9th – Part 1 was presented
- Iron 60 and Supernovae relationship
- Are Supernovae responsible for climate change on Earth?
- Star formation near the Sun is driven by expansion of the Local Bubble by Catherine Zucker, et. al. – Jan 2022
- Caroline and William Herschel
- GAIA – astronomical big science, inspired an astronomical gold rush
- ESA video on GAIA
- 3D map of the Milky Way
- Photometric instrument
- Measures: Brightness, positions, proper motions, radial velocities, spectra
- 11 years of data, 150 complete surveys of the sky
- How this data is being used – a review
- Interstellar Extinction
- H-R Diagram: Colour Index vs Magnitude
- 3D Mapping of Interstellar Dust
- The Local Bubble – dust map
- Traceback of Star Cluster
- Idealized Model for Local Bubble Evolution – Stellar and Solar Orbits animation
- Location of the Culprit
- Summary of Zucker et al findings
- A Golden Opportunity!
- Data freely available along with analysis routines
- Do some citizen science?
- Radcliffe Wave by Brian Ventrudo
- Special Interest Groups – David Lee
- Beginners SIG – tomorrow evening
- Citizen Science SIG – Thursday evening – sign up with David Lee
- Photos & Observations by members
- Venus-Jupiter conjunction from Hawai’i – photo of closest approach (0.5º) by Dave Payne
- Jones-Eberson Bubble planetary nebula – photo by Brock Johnston
- Jones 1 in Pegasus – next object to try for – Bill Weir
- Explore the Universe observing program – Marjie Welchframe
- Moon-Jupiter-Venus conjunction on Feb 23 – iPhone photo taken from the city by Doug Hardy
- Photos – Ken McGill
- Horsehead and Flame Nebula
- Orion Nebula – Ken Burns effect
- Moon-Jupiter-Venus conjunction on Feb 23 – Marjie Welchframe
- Reports – Lauri Roche
- Centre of the Universe Open House on March 25-26
- RASC Online General Assembly (no AGM)
- Virtual tours of DDO and DAO (7-8pm on Fri)
- Poster sessions – April 1st call for papers
- RASC National AGM – June 25th (virtual)
Video transcript of meeting
A Special General Meeting (SGM) was held before Astronomy Cafe commenced. After the SGM concluded, members heard a guest speaker and reports.
A Brief History of Galaxies: from the discovery of island universes to a clash of the Titans – Dr. Sara Ellison, UVic Astronomy professor
- Our own Milky Way and other galaxies showing light and dust features
- Deep field taken by JWST
- FOV: a grain of sand held at arm’s length
- thousands of galaxies in the image
- History
- Charles Messier – a 17th century comet hunter who listed 110 objects that are notcomets
- Lord Ross used the 1.8m Leviathan telescope to sketch spiral galaxies
- Shapely-Curtis debate in 1920 about the nature of nebulae
- The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars: Sobel, Dava: 9780143111344: Books – Amazon.ca
- 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.
- Hubble Tuning Fork classifications of galaxies
- Halton Arp studied Peculiar Galaxies – guide: arpgalaxy.com
- Early modelling of interacting galaxies
- Video – current modelling of interacting galaxies
- Toomre Sequence – showing different morphologies
- Galaxies cluster in groups, which is how they grow mass
- Stellar streams in the Triangulum Galaxy – research at Herzberg
- Tidal streams in the Milky Way are remnants of small galaxies that have interacted in the past
- How a galaxy merger transforms it – simulations predict:
- Isolated disk
- Small group
- Gas funnels to the galaxy centre
- Black hole accretion
- Decay
- Dead Elliptical
- Sara’s research – Sara Ellison – University of Victoria
- Observations of irregular galaxies
- Test whether star formation is quenched as galaxies merge
- Used Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS UNIONS) to find merging galaxies using AI
- Q&A
Announcements
- Council meeting coming up – Tue 28th – AGM planning
- Awards Nominations and nominees for Council – contact Reg Dunkley pastpres@victoria.rasc.ca
- AGM will be held online, tentatively on March 13th
- Social dinner will also be held later – awards
- SIGs
- Makers SIG – David Lee
- Beginners SIG – report by Jill Sinkwich
No Astro Cafe next week. Next Astro Cafe will be held on Feb 27th
Video transcript of the meeting
- Special General Meeting – Feb 13, 2023
- 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
- RASC Victoria Centre Picnic at Pearson College – Bill Weir
- Late August would be best
- AAS conference in Seattle – Chris Gainor
- 3,400 attended the conference
- Some good reports about JWST and Hubble
- Chris did a book signing for his Hubble history book
- Peter Broughton – awarded for his book Northern Star: J.S. Plaskett: Broughton, R. Peter, Hesser, James E.: 9781442630178: Books – Amazon.ca
- Canadian Astronomy Data Centre – presentation by Chris
- Review of conference: Unlocking the next great observatories by Jeff Foust
- RASC Victoria AGM tentatively to be held on March 13
Video transcript of meeting
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