NOVANEWSLETTEROFTHEVANCOUVERCENTRERASC VOLUME2014ISSUE2MARCHAPRIL2014 Clear, Dark Skies at 33° N by Alan Jones My wife and I and our dog “Star” the way to the pines, starting around signs request limited use of lights just returned from a winter road trip 10,000 feet. We could feel the after dark. It was not an issue as we to southern California. We repeated shortness of breath. It didn’t bother were the only visitors. The north a similar trip we took two years ago. me because I was so excited about wind was cold at 0° C. The skies I recommend were beautiful it highly to and dark, no anyone that light domes in enjoys observing, any direction pleasant weather other than the and doesn’t mind zodiacal light some remote after sunset! camping. On the By 6:30, I previous trip, was setup and we discovered looking at the the Very Long Orion nebulae. Baseline Array I confirmed radio telescope the supernova station at Bishop, in M82 is California. This still present year we ventured but much above Bishop diminished to the east and from two weeks discovered before. It was Inyo National Forest where the observing at such a high altitude that different trying to get used to seeing Bristlecone Pines grow, the oldest night and I wasn’t disappointed. Orion so high and Polaris so low. living trees on the planet. We drove The campground is known for Just for fun I peered at Jupiter to be to 9500 feet and walked the rest of use by amateur astronomers and the continued on page 5

MARCH 13 SFU APRIL 10 HRMSC MAY 8 SFU Ingrid Stairs of UBC: A Pulsar with A special Members-Only night at the Meeting details TBA. Watch Meetup Two White Drawf Companions. Trot- Space Centre, featuring a free show for updates. tier Studio (room C9501). See map on in the Planetarium. RSVP required. page 4 or Meetup. See Meetup for details. from dust in M82’s plane. galactic Taken on Feb. 28 from Vancouver. East Note the yellow colour of the supernova with blue (indicated markers) which may due to be reddening Dueck Supernova in M82 by Harvey Members’ Gallery

2 rasc-vancouver.com MARCHAPRIL2014 President’s Message by Mark Eburne Spring is as close as M42— sky and a few bonus spectacles as at the aomo. Alan Jones, the relatively speaking of course. well like the supernova. It is true director of the observatory, has As I write this message, the rains that our clear nights have been put forward a comprehensive plan have stopped and I can almost feel very rare so far this year due to our to revitalize the site, the building the sun. It has been a long wet spell famous west coast cloudy weather and the equipment. Council has here on the west coast. Not all has but make sure you are ready to go, unanimously provided Alan and been lost as there have been a few your scope is ready to go and you his team of volunteers the funds observing events hosted by our are connected with the Meetup site and support to get this project volunteers in the past few months. for last-minute observing events. moving forward. Bringing back the It is always nice, when we can, to see They do pop up quickly. observatory to life where members the familiar treasures in the night I am very excited at the activity continued on page 4 About RASC The RASC Vancouver Centre meets at the Treasurer at the address on page 5. herein are not necessarily those of the 7:30 PM on the second Thursday of ev- Annual membership includes the invalu- Vancouver Centre. ery month at various locations in Metro able Observer’s Handbook, six issues of Material on any aspect of astronomy Vancouver (see page 1 for meeting loca- the RASC Journal, and, of course, access should be e-mailed to the editor or tions and page 4 for maps). Guests are to all of the club events and projects. mailed to the address below. always welcome. In addition, the Centre For more information regarding the Remember, you are always welcome has an observing site where star parties Centre and its activities, please contact to attend meetings of Council, held on the are regularly scheduled. our P.R. Director. first Thursday of every month at 7:30pm Membership is currently $73.00 per NOVA, the newsletter of the Vancou- in room P8445.2 of the Physics wing of year ($41.00 for persons under 21 years ver Centre, RASC, is published on odd- the Shrum Science Centre at SFU. Please of age) and can be obtained by writing to numbered months. Opinions expressed contact a council member for directions. 2014 Vancouver Centre Officers President Mark Eburne Past President/Telescopes Howard Trottier Merchandise Leigh Cummings [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Vice-President/Events Suzanne Nagy Dir. of Telescopes Kenneth Lui Webmaster Rick Vandenberg [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Secretary/P. R./Observing Scott McGillivary Membership Rohit Grover NOVA Editor Gordon Farrell [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Treasurer Bruce Hutchison LPA Chair Paul Stewart Speakers Barry Shanko [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] National Rep. Doug Montgomery Education Bill Burnyeat At Large Terry McComas [email protected] [email protected] Honourary President Dr. John Macdonald Librarian William Fearon AOMO Alan Jones Trustees Pomponia Martines [email protected] [email protected] J. Karl Miller Library On the Internet Mailing Address The centre has a large library of books, http://rasc-vancouver.com or RASC Vancouver Centre magazines and old NOVAs for your enjoy- http://www.rasc.ca/vancouver PO Box 19115 ment. Please take advantage of this club http://astronomy.meetup.com/131/ 2302 West 4th Ave. service and visit often to check out the new http://www.facebook.com/RASC.Van Vancouver, B.C. purchases. Suggestions for future library @RASCVancouver V6K 4R8 acquisitions are appreciated.

MARCHAPRIL2014 rasc-vancouver.com 3 Maps to Meeting Sites SFU st We ve Dri ity ers iv P P Our March meeting is in the Trot- Un tier Studio, room C9501 in the AQ  Trottier Chemistry Building of the Shrum Centre Shru m Scie nce Ctr

P Science Centre (indicated by the T

So o uth w Cam e arrow on the map at left). Road closed for pus r Rd constructon R d Pay parking is available at sev- eral locations around campus Burnaby Mtn Pkwy G a (indicated as “P” on the map). g Un la iv r er d sity i Dri W ve East a y

continued from page 3 There are a few new council with your National board. The can learn and explore any time in members now working hard behind guest speaker talks and various comfort and safety is something the scenes to make this centre presentations are all outstanding to we are all working towards. Now is roll along. Our membership is take in. Registration is now open so your chance to get involved. Talk to stable and has grown with family check out the website for further Alan or any of the councillors and memberships this year. I even see details. Hope to see you in Victoria find out how you can contribute. new rasc mugs for sale. Get them at the end of June. We are starting to put plans while they are still here. Enjoy the clear skies as they together for another big Astronomy It is never too early to start happen and remember to share your Day event at sfu on May 10, 2014. thinking about our National photos with us. We love posting With over 600 people attending last General Assembly this year being them.  year, it is one of the larger events we held in our own back yard, Victoria, put on. Watch for more details on BC. The GA is always a great event Clears Skies, our website and newsletters. This to attend, meet members from the Mark Eburne year will be bigger than ever. other centres and of course chat President, rasc Vancouver Centre. cartoon by Dan Collier

4 rasc-vancouver.com MARCHAPRIL2014 continued from page 1 Springs is a dessert community with Virgo was amazingly clear and it was rewarded for my trouble by a shadow fruit farms and golf courses. It’s easy pickings to find Markarian’s transit. Later, I watched Io tuck in so hot there in summer, camping chain. I centred the Siamese twins behind. It was delightfully easy to is not allowed in the park. One and then suggested moving the find targets and I’m enjoying Sky of the fruit farmers told us 120° scope in any direction and tell me Safari Pro in night view on the iPod. F in the summer. The community what you see. To my delight I hear We took in NGC 2903, the crab has international dark sky status. I “there are galaxies everywhere”. It (M1), whirlpool was very good (M51) and more. contrast and Andromeda seeing that night looked pretty and pleasant good considering temperatures it was low in above 10 C. Just the northwest. for fun, I texted I was pleased Mark Eburne that I could keep to let him know my audience how great entertained the observing without waiting was and he too long for the informed me it next target. The was snowing at next morning, home. And to we got up before finish the night, dawn and had a with neutral look at Saturn. The Cassini division was impressed two years ago and it filter I saw another moon ingress is easy to resolve as it is really tipped remains impressive that, with effort, on Jupiter. Couldn’t have planned with the rings passing well above the our sky needn’t be light polluted. it better. I would be happy to share pole now. I watched it well into the The nature store promotes and sells the specifics of either location with dawn light. We saw five planets that dark sky outdoor lights. anyone interested. By the way, day. Our observing experience was Mark, it was 28° C the next morning Several days later, we visited a site similar to the Inyo night but with at 8:30 am and thanks for getting up north of Borrego Springs that we some light domes and moisture in early to watch the game and let me discovered two years ago. Borrego the lower parts of the sky in the NW. know Canada won gold! 

Membership has its Privileges! New members, did you know? The can now reserve two different telescopes tive! Take in the club meetings; engage Vancouver Centre has 8 telescopes avail- per year and use what is left at the end of other members with questions; come out able for loan free of charge! We have the meeting anytime. to observing sessions (also known as “star telescopes ranging from 60mm to 10” Your greatest opportunity as a member parties”), and, by all means, volunteer to diameter. For more information see the of the RASC is to take advantage of the take part in our many public events. Director of Telescopes after the mem- company of other enthusiasts to increase For the usual observing sites and bers meeting. The loaner period is for your knowledge, enjoyment and skill in times, visit our website at http://rasc-van- one month, to be returned after the next astronomy. couver.com/observing-sites/ or contact meeting. Telescopes are not allowed to The best thing you can do to gain the the Observing Chair at observing@rasc- circulate outside of these meetings. You most from your membership is to get ac- vancouver.com.

MARCHAPRIL2014 rasc-vancouver.com 5 Upcoming Events March June August 22 – Night Quest at Pacific Spirit Park 25 - 30 – RASC GA in Victoria 23 - 31 – Merritt Star Quest

May July December 10 – International Astronomy Day at SFU July 26 - Aug. 3 – Mt. Kobau Star Party 11 – AGM

Time for “T” by David A. Rodger One of my all-time favourite of this interesting object many thousands of nights I had watched astronomy books is Starlight years later, he decided to make over it as it slept and then it Nights by Leslie Peltier (1900- T Coronae Borealis a regular arose in my hour of weakness as 1980). My copy, well-worn by part of his variable star observing I nodded at my post. I still am decades of use (it was published program. And so, on every clear watching it, but now it is with in 1965), occupies a prime spot in night for more than 25 years, when a wary eye. There is no warmth my bookcase, and I return to it for Corona Borealis was easily visible, between us anymore.” inspiration frequently. For those of he pointed his telescope that way Sixty-six years since its last you who may not know who Leslie to see whether T was stirring. He outburst, T Coronae Borealis Peltier was, he was an Ohio-born noted occasional minor variations continues to be closely monitored amateur astronomer who made in its light output but nothing like by observers all over the world several hundred thousand variable the 1866 outburst. “Then, one —and above by space telescopes. star observations over his lifetime night in February 1946,” he writes, To say it’s overdue for another and discovered many comets. Few “it stirred, slowly, opened its eyes, eruption is to state the obvious. people before or since have known then quickly threw aside the Corona Borealis (the Northern the sky as well as he did. No one draperies of its couch, and rose!” Crown, i.e. Arianne’s Crown, has ever written about a love of A variable star observer’s dream according to legend) is prominent astronomy more passionately than right? Not quite. on summer and fall evenings, he did in Starlight Nights. “I had set the alarm for 2:30 am midway between Bootes and Our story begins in 1866, intending to get up and observe Hercules. Need I urge you to when a faint star in Corona some early morning variables,” he check out this famous star, even Borealis suddenly brightened recalls. “The alarm clock did its if you just glance in its direction to 2nd magnitude. For several part. I looked out the window and with your eyes alone or with weeks it was one of the brightest the stars were clear and bright. But binoculars? objects in its region of the sky, apparently I was not, for I sneezed A new edition of Starlight rivalling Alphecca, Corona’s once or twice and got the feeling I Nights by Leslie Peltier, with principal star. Eventually it faded was coming down with a cold. So I a foreword by David Levy and to 10th magnitude, becoming went back to my warm bed. Thus photos from the Peltier family invisible except in telescopes. I missed the night of nights in the archives, is available at Sky Subsequent analysis revealed it to life of T Coronae. Publishing for US$19.95 plus be a recurrent nova, which meant “I alone am to blame for being shipping and taxes.  that it was likely to repeat this remiss in my duties,” he concludes spectacular performance again. It sadly. “Nevertheless I still have the David A. Rodger is a Life was given the official variable star feeling that T could have shown Member of the rasc, and has been designation, T Coronae Borealis. me more consideration. We had an active amateur astronomer since When Leslie Peltier learned been friends for many years; on the great Mars Opposition of 1956.

6 rasc-vancouver.com MARCHAPRIL2014 Status Report on the SFU Observatory by Howard Trottier At long last, the sfu scope is big and fast: a 0.7m is planned for October. Astronomical Teaching and (27”) aperture at f/6.8, with a Thanks to the amazing piece Public Outreach Observatory razor sharp imaging circle 70mm of real estate provided by sfu, is moving from concept to in diameter (the spot size at that the form and scope of the project construction, so this is a good distance from the optical axis is has been propelled in directions time for a status report! Some of a mere 6.8 microns). The field far more ambitious than any of the information that you’ll find of view will be just shy of 0.75° us could have conceived of just

in this article is already in the using a 16 megapixel camera a few years ago. More than an public domain—in particular, with 9-micron pixels! The scope observatory, the site will be a new some of the renderings shown has an alt-azimuth direct-drive focal point for campus life, with here were unveiled at a public mount, dual Nasymth focus, a landscape architecture that ceremony in January. On the and built-in field derotator. A will have a significant impact on other hand, a lot of this stuff is tender for the prime contractor the look and feel of the Burnaby not yet public, so please don’t will go public within weeks, now campus, and which will amount get me in trouble by spreading that the genuine architectural to a very public statement of the the news too widely ;). drawings (electrical, mechanical, central role of science in society. Here’s the surest sign of plumbing, plantings, etc.) are The site is a grassy rectangle progress: the dome and the ready. Construction should start just east of the Academic telescope have been ordered, at the end of April or beginning Quadrangle, the central feature with delivery expected at the end of May, with the facility of Arthur Erickson’s original of August! The dome is a 20-foot expected to be ready for first- campus design (the interior of Ash Dome, and the telescope light and operational shakedown the AQ is considered hallowed is the PlaneWave cdk700. The in September. A public opening continued on page 8

MARCHAPRIL2014 rasc-vancouver.com 7 continued from page 7 eliminated on observing nights. the AQ courtyard). The top ground at sfu). The site is While we must contend with surface of the plinth will have roughly 25m north-south by the surrounding campus and etchings that trace the structure 60m east-west, and is alongside suburban light pollution, we can of the universe on a logarithmic the principal pedestrian pathway also look forward to some non- (or powers of ten) scale, from that runs the length of the trivial compensation owing to the subatomic realm to the east-west axis of the campus. the big aperture! cosmic horizon. The sides of the Thousands of people will pass The actual configuration of plinth will have slits illuminated by the observatory every day. the landscaping (at least in the by low-level colour leds that

The site will be transformed project’s first phase) will depend represent the visual part of the into a science plaza, with the on the total project cost as spectrum of some important observatory as its focal point. It determined by the contractor, elements, like hydrogen and will have design elements that are in consultation with sfu helium. The site will have an meant to represent our scientific Facilities Management, which 8-foot high berm with an open understanding of the cosmos, is heading up the project, and path through its centre; the berm and that are meant to convey the architectural team (pwl is meant to represent an ancient some of the wonder of the night partnership for the landscape observatory with a “slit” through sky. It will also have elements architecture and overall vision which to observe the movement to turn the site into a campus for the site, and Kasian for of the celestial sphere. The destination and communal the observatory building current design calls for realistic meeting space. While easy architecture). One of the main seasonal star charts to be etched access to a public observatory architectural elements is a into the concrete walls of the necessitates a compromise in concrete plinth or bench that path through the berm, with the terms of light pollution, local runs the length of the site (and stars to be faintly illuminated at lighting at the site will be all but will eventually be extended into continued on page 9

8 rasc-vancouver.com MARCHAPRIL2014 continued from page 8 night. The exterior wall of the observatory next to the entrance is expected to feature a mosaic portraying an element of First Nations astronomical knowledge (possibly a lunar calendar for 2014, the year of the observatory opening). The design also calls for a large sundial, and the site will eventually have three large community tables, each seating about twenty people. “Star” tables seating 4 or 5 people are also planned for several spots on the site. The observatory will be located in the outlined area, east (right) of the AQ The opening of the observatory will bring the partnership singled out rasc Vancouver operation of the observatory between sfu and the rasc in her public remarks as the for students and the public, Vancouver to a new level. At the project’s principal community a portion of the observatory January unveiling of the concept partner. In return for rasc programming will be set aside drawings for the observatory Vancouver volunteer support for Vancouver Centre’s own site, sfu’s Vice President of at sfu’s public star parties, and purposes. We are about to get Advancement, Cathy Daminato, its technical support in the very busy! 

MARCHAPRIL2014 rasc-vancouver.com 9 Paul Skyes Lecture with William Borucki

Visiting TRIUMF (above, right) Signing a Kepler model (below)

Meet-and-greet with RASC members (above) and lecturing about the Kepler mission (below)

10 rasc-vancouver.com MARCHAPRIL2014 Revitalizing our Vancouver Centre Observatory by Alan Jones For the past twenty years, our members to learn about supernova in M82 was discovered Vancouver centre has enjoyed astrophotography, astronomy by graduate students by accident an observatory built by member research projects and running and while learning to operate an volunteers for the purpose of operating a remote observatory. observatory. I was lucky enough member amateur astronomy Council funds the operational to observe the event through our research projects. It is situated in cost annually and helps find funds observatory telescope and it was the ubc research forest adjacent for special projects. This year quite an amazing site. When the to the ubc liquid mirror telescope the observatory is due for extra facility is fully operational again in rural transition dark skies at an special maintenance and we need we can easily record such an event. elevation of 400 metres. It’s less interested members to help with Thank-you to all of you that than an hour drive from Vancouver. the project. have offered to help already. As the We have a permanent pier, a I like to think of our observatory weather improves we’ll be planning fork-type EQ-mounted 16-inch as our largest member loaner and tackling the work. If our Schmidt Cassegrain telescope, an telescope, so large that you can’t amateur research observatory and sbig camera, and a guide camera take it home. We are looking for the revitalization project appeals in a secure facility with heat and enthusiasm, talent and time from to you and you would like to be power. members interested in getting involved, please send me a email Our observatory is a fantastic the observatory into top shape via: AOMO@RASC-Vancouver. asset for our club. It represents again and using it for interesting com. Or introduce yourself at one an opportunity for interested astronomy projects. The recent of the member meetings. 

VANCOUVER TELESCOPE CENTRE Serving the Astronomers of Vancouver and British Columbia since 2004

Nickolas Seiflow and Keith MacNutt 2580 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J7 Tel: 604-737-4303 email: [email protected]

MARCHAPRIL2014 rasc-vancouver.com 11 This issue of NOVA is proudly sponsored by

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