NOVANEWSLETTEROFTHEVANCOUVERCENTRERASC VOLUME2018ISSUE1JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 Paul Sykes Lecture – Sat, Jan 27 @ 7:30pm Ice on Mercury, Featuring Dr. Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins University SFU Burnaby Campus, Room SWH 10081 Even though Mercury is the Dr. Nancy L. Chabot is a and Case Western Reserve Uni- planet closest to the Sun, there planetary scientist at the Johns versity. She has been a mem- are places at its poles that never Hopkins Applied Physics Labo- ber of five field teams with the receive sunlight and are very ratory (apl). She received an Antarctic Search for Meteorites cold—cold enough to hold wa- (ansmet) program and served ter ice! In this presentation, Dr. as the Instrument Scientist for Chabot will show the multiple the Mercury Dual Imaging Sys- lines of evidence that regions tem (mdis) on the messenger near Mercury’s poles hold water mission. Her research interests ice—from the first discovery involve understanding the evo- by Earth-based radar observa- lution of rocky planetary bod- tions to multiple data sets from ies in the Solar System, and at nasa’s messenger spacecraft, apl she oversees an experimen- the first spacecraft ever to or- tal geochemistry laboratory bit the planet Mercury. These that is used to conduct experi- combined results suggest that ments related to this topic. Dr. Mercury’s polar ice deposits Chabot has served as an Associ- are substantial, perhaps compa- ate Editor for the journal Mete- rable to the amount of water in oritics and Planetary Science, Lake Ontario! Where did the chair of nasa’s Small Bodies ice come from and how did it undergraduate degree in physics Assessment Group, a member get there? Dr. Chabot will dis- at Rice University and a PhD in of nasa’s Planetary Science cuss these questions and others planetary science at the Univer- Subcommittee, and other pro- during this presentation of wa- sity of Arizona. Prior to join- fessional positions. Asteroid ter ice on our Solar System’s in- ing apl, Dr. Chabot worked at 6899 Nancychabot is named in nermost planet. nasa Johnson Space Center her honour.
JANUARY 11 SFU FEBRUARY 8 SFU MARCH 8 SFU Terence Lee, senior engineer at MDA: Dr. Sean Dougherty, Director of ALMA Patrick Earl and Matt Cimone (see The Sapphire Space Telescope and (Atacama Large Millimeter/submilli- Meetup for details). Room AQ3159 a history of MDA’s space missions. meter Array). Room AQ3159 Room AQ3159 SWEET Event at Science World – Nov. 10, 2017
2 rasc-vancouver.com JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 President’s Message by Leigh Cummings Greetings to all my fellow star tive events, starting on the Atlantic the lower mainland. There will be gazers. 2018 marks the 150th anni- coast and reaching westwards (and monthly podcasts from rasc Na- versary of The Royal Astronomical of course northwards) to encompass tional telling odd stories and history Society of Canada. We have some many of our Centres. A nation-wide from the archives. There will also great things to look forward to in online welcoming between centre be images and documents of rare the coming year starting on Janu- presidents is also planned for that rasc artifacts to enhance the pod- ary 27th with a cross-country Star day. Throughout the year, there will cast experience. rasc National also Party that combines solar and lunar be events held in collaborations with has plans for special projects and observing, local Centre exhibits and other centres as well as with some competitions for our members to displays, as well as many other fes- of our other partners in science in continued on page 4 About RASC The RASC Vancouver Centre meets at 7:30 to the Treasurer at the address below. Annual essarily those of the Vancouver Centre. PM on the second Thursday of every month at membership includes the invaluable Observer’s Material on any aspect of astronomy should SFU’s Burnaby campus (see map on page 4). Handbook, six issues of the RASC Journal, and, be e-mailed to the editor or mailed to the ad- Guests are always welcome. In addition, the of course, access to all of the club events and dress below. Centre has an observing site where star parties projects. Remember, you are always welcome to are regularly scheduled. For more information regarding the Centre attend meetings of Council, held on the first Membership is currently $78.00 per year and its activities, please contact our P.R. Director. Thursday of every month at 7:30pm in the Trot- ($45.00 for persons under 21 years of age; NOVA, the newsletter of the Vancouver tier Studio in the Chemistry wing of the Shrum family memberships also available) and can Centre, RASC, is published on odd-numbered Science Centre at SFU. Please contact a council be obtained online, at a meeting, or by writing months. Opinions expressed herein are not nec- member for directions.
2018 Vancouver Centre Officers President Leigh Cummings LPA Pascal Pillot-Bruhat Merchandise Kyle Dally [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Vice-President Gordon Farrell Dir. of Telescopes Don Duthie Webmaster Ken Jackson [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Secretary Olivier Eymere Observing Robert Conrad NOVA Editor Gordon Farrell [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Treasurer Phil Lobo Membership Suzanna Nagy, Francesca Crema Speakers Scott McGilllivray [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] National Rep. Kenneth Lui Events Coord. Jeremy van den Driesen, Hayley Miller [email protected] [email protected] Past President Suzanna Nagy Librarian William Fearon Education Robert Conrad, Tim Stephenson, Andrew Krysa At Large Howard Trottier, Ken Arthurs, [email protected] [email protected] Bill Burnyeat, Isabelle Eymere Public Relations Scott McGilllivray AOMO Alan Jones Trustee Pomponia Martinez [email protected] [email protected] Honourary President 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 89608 ment. Please take advantage of this club http://astronomy.meetup.com/131/ 9000 University High Street service and visit often to check out the new http://www.facebook.com/RASC.Van Burnaby, B.C. purchases. Suggestions for future library @RASCVancouver V5A 4Y0 acquisitions are appreciated.
JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 rasc-vancouver.com 3 Map to Meeting Site Our Jan-Mar meetings are in
st We room AQ3159, located near the ve Dri ity ers southeast corner of the Academic iv P P Un Quadrangle as indicated by the AQ arrow on the map. Lecture Hall Shru m Scie nce Ctr
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So o uth w Pay parking is available at sev- Cam e pus r Rd R eral locations located around d campus (indicated as “P” on the map). Burnaby Mtn Pkwy G a g Un la iv r er d sity i Dri W continued fromve E pageast 4 a y continued from page 3 times. We had to re-apply for our our meeting locations with helpful take part in. Check out our webpage charitable status with the cra as information and possibly a few free- (rasc-vancouver.com) to be kept up well as re-register with the BC So- bies. to date on what is planned for this cieties branch. To accomplish these A new face on council will be big celebration. tasks we also had to update and re- Olivier Eymere who is taking on We start 2018 off with a new write our by-laws and have them the role of Secretary. He has the council for rasc–Vancouver. As a passed by our general membership. essential duty of keeping official re- new president, I am lucky to have Suzanna and Bruce Hutchison were cords of our meetings, events and such a large and enthusiastic council the main drivers behind all of these programs throughout the year. The to help accomplish our goals in the accomplishments and I do not know importance of his job cannot be next 2 years. I think our council is if we would have been successful had overstated, and I’m very thankful he a good reflection of our member- it not been for their keen organiza- is taking it on. ship at large as we have a good mix tional skills and ability to weave Phil Lobo has stepped up to take of men and women both young and their way through the bureaucracies over the Treasurer’s Chair from more mature (as well as a few of us of our governments. Somehow dur- Bruce. This is another essential job more ripened fellows). Our new ing all this turmoil, Suzanna found on council, keeping watch over the council has a healthy blend of both time to put together a President’s purse strings so our members can experienced members and those Manual to assist her followers in do- know their fees are being spent freshly new at their responsibilities. ing their (my) job as President. For wisely. We look forward to working A wide variety of backgrounds also that I am so very grateful! with him in order to accomplish as means a broader spectrum of talent Sharing the duties of Membership much as we can while trying to stay to bring to the table. I look forward Chair with Suzanna will be Franc- on budget. to working with every one of them. esca Crema who served last year as Gordon Farrell is continuing to Suzanna Nagy, our past presi- an At Large Councillor. Guests in- take on the arduous task as Nova dent, has stepped into the position terested in joining rasc–Vancouver Editor. As the editor, he has the un- of Membership Chair. For the last will find them to be a friendly and enviable job of rounding up a bunch two years as president, Suzanna knowledgeable pair to help you start of procrastinating contributors and did a fantastic job of navigating your astronomy adventure. You will making our scribbles into a sensible our council through some stressful find one or both of them outside all and serious bi-monthly publication
4 rasc-vancouver.com JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 for our membership and the public man’s job as our Events Chair, but as Webmaster, Pascal Pillot-Bruhat to find out the comings and goings I know he is looking forward to as lpa Chair, Scott McGillivray as in our club. And just in case that having Hayley’s help with all the PR and Speakers Chairs, Kyle Dally wasn’t enough, he has agreed to take events that will be coming in 2018, as Merchandise Chair and Howard on the role of Vice President as well. especially with this being our 150th Trottier as an At Large councillor. I am very grateful to have such an anniversary year. Thanks to all of them for continuing experienced council member ready For our members who want to to step up to the plate. to take charge if I find myself need- learn more about observing and Another couple of new faces on ing time away from my position of possibly earn some recognition for council are Ken Arthurs and Isabelle President. Vice President is one of their accomplishments, rasc Na- Eymere in At Large positions. They those positions that does not seem tional has introduced some new will help out all the other members too busy, until it is. observing programs. If you are inter- of council who need a hand as well Bill Burnyeat has stepped down ested, please get in touch with our as being available to bring members as Education Co-Chair, but will Observing Chair, Robert Conrad, concerns to the rest of council at our stay on council to help out as an At who is itching to bring more observ- monthly council meetings. Both Large Councillor. ers into his fold. have been enthusiastic event volun- We have three co-chairs taking Don Duthie will continue to take teers in the past and I am sure will over the Education folder. They are on the job of Director of Telescopes. continue to be. Robert Conrad, Tim Stephenson As you might guess, this is an im- I am also glad to announce that and Andrew Krysa and they are portant job with an astronomy club. Karl Miller will continue on as keen on public outreach and educa- Who would have thought? If you Honorary President. He is also the tion about astronomy and its related are a member and want to borrow busiest volunteer on council, always sciences. one of our loaner scopes, he is your ready to jump in and give any one Hayley Miller has jumped on man. of us on council a helping hand. I board with both feet as she has vol- Also staying in their positions cannot begin to tell you how many unteered to join Jeremy with the are: William Fearon as Librarian, times he has come to our rescue Events Chair position. Jeremy van Kenneth Lui as National Rep, Alan when we have needed that one extra den Driesen has been doing a yeo- Jones as aomo Chair, Ken Jackson continued on page 6
Membership has its Privileges! Are you tired of looking at the same • Weekly observing sessions at the ob- tunity to collaborate on observatory objects again and again (planets, moon, servatory or at dark sky locations research projects etc.)? Is your telescope collecting dust • One-one-one coaching on how to lo- • Updates on observable sky events because it’s hard to locate deep sky ob- cate thousands of objects in the night happening during the week like aster- jects? Would you like to bring your ob- sky oid/comet/deep sky conjunctions serving to a stellar level? Robert Conrad, • Attend small interactive seminars de- • Access to observing guides and lists our new observing director, revived the livered by Robert on a range of topics that Robert created that took hundreds Vancouver RASC observing group and including failsafe star-hopping, chart- of hours to create and will help with invites you to join by sending him an ing challenging objects and under- planning observing sessions email at [email protected]. standing the motions of the cosmos • Knowledge and expertise from other Some of the benefits of belonging to this • Learn to make your telescope dance observing group members group include: by locating objects such as asteroids, • Learn how to quickly and efficiently nova, and supernovae find and star-hop to deep sky objects • Hands on training on how to operate • Spectroscopy and imaging training using a range of binoculars and tele- the sfu Trottier observatory from Howard Trottier and an oppor- scopes
JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 rasc-vancouver.com 5 Upcoming Events January May August 27 – RASC 150th Anniversary celebra- 12 – Astronomy Day at SFU 4 - 12 – Mt. Kobau Star Party tion opening event 27 – Paul Sykes lecture at SFU (see June September page 1 for details) 28 - July 2 – RASC General Assembly 8 - 16 – Merritt Star Quest in Calgary March December 24 – Night Quest at Pacific Spirit Re- July 13 – AGM gional Park 28 – Mars close approach at Science World continued from page 5 on Thursday, December th7 after a him too much time on his hands. body. brave fight with cancer. He was not I won’t soon forget two years ago I would also be remiss if I did a member of rasc but a member of when he decided to try out some not pass on a big thank you to our the Fraser Valley Astronomical So- “Bear Bangers” late one dark and departing council members: Elena, ciety, where he served as president. cloudy night. You didn’t need any Adrian, and Bruce. They set the He also was president of the Merritt caffeine to stay awake after that. I bar high for those taking over from Star Quest which is where I first met shared many an afternoon, as well as them. him. None of us will soon forget some cloudy nights, sitting around Rounding out our fine group is hearing his booming voice break- his campsite soaking in the stories our “Canine Unit” consisting of ing the wilderness silence when and knowledge that years of observ- Star and Kepler. Their duties consist some unwary soul foolishly allowed ing produce in a person. We will all of tail wagging, floor cleaning and some white light to leak out across miss him. council stress relief. the pristine darkness of our gravel I know that Paul would wish On a sadder note, I wish to men- pit. He also had a mischievous sense us a New Year full of clear sky and tion the passing of Paul Greenhalgh of humour when foul weather gave burned-out lights.
6 rasc-vancouver.com JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 How to View Iridium Flares in the Telescope Eyepiece by Robert Conrad An Iridium flare is a specific type of http://www.heavens-above.com/ see a screen like the one at the top of page 8. satellite flare made when the antennas In the upper right corner of the screen you Enter your location in the Enter place of an Iridium communication satellite will see the following box: to search for field and click the Search reflect sunlight directly onto the surface button. of the Earth. At this moment, the object can be as bright as –8.5 which is almost 20 Scroll to the bottom of the page and times brighter than Venus. There are apps click the Update button. that you can obtain that tell you where to You will be taken back to the main page. look in the sky and when but how about I’ve set my location to Vancouver, but From here click on the Iridium Flares link if you could see it move through your tele- you will likely need to set your location in the Satellites section: scope eyepiece at the very moment that initially. If you clear your browser history, it hit peak brightness for a few seconds? you’ll need to update each time, or alter- This guide will walk you through how to natively you can set up a free account and achieve this with precision. select your default location, so it appears each time. However, again if you clear your Part 1: Find out when Iridium Flares will pass history, you’ll need to login again for it to overhead from your location show your location. Access the following website: When you set your location, you will continued on page 8
RASC – Celebrating 150 Years by Suzanna Nagy (with excerpts from www.rasc.ca) On December 1, 1868, the To- A number of celebratory activities wish to join the Star Party will be ac- ronto Astronomical Club met for the will be held throughout 2018. The tive and online. At 6:15 pm est, the first time having for its objective “the first event will be Saturday, January president of the rasc will deliver aiding of each other in the pursuit of 27. Our National Office has orga- greetings, and announce officially the astronomical knowledge.” On March nized a cross-country Star Party that commencement of the celebrations 10, 1890, the organization was in- will combine solar and lunar observ- for the 150th anniversary of the rasc. corporated as The Astronomical and ing, local Centre exhibits, and other The cross country link-up concludes Physical Society of Toronto. activities. The event will start on the at 8 pm est. In early 1903, the King of the Do- Atlantic coast and reach westwards By chance, the date of January 27 minion, Edward VII of England, was (and of course northwards) to encom- is also the date of Vancouver Centre’s petitioned through official channels pass many of our Centres, and thus annual Paul Sykes Memorial Lecture to allow the Society to adopt the our membership. (details of the Memorial Lecture can “Royal” style. On the 27th of Febru- Starting at 3 pm in Atlantic Can- be found on page 1 of this newsletter). ary, the Society was informed that ada, and then as each Canadian time Therefore, your Vancouver Centre “His Majesty the King has been gra- zone reaches 3 pm local time, rasc will be celebrating the rasc 150th ciously pleased to grant permission Centres will join the internet gather- opening event at sfu in conjunction to the Toronto Astronomical Society ing. Towards 5 pm est, there will be 3 with the Memorial Lecture. to adopt the title of the Royal Astro- minutes of time per Centre starting on For more information on the na- nomical Society of Canada.” We have the Atlantic coast and again working tion-wide January 27 event as well been known by that name ever since. westwards to send greetings across the as other anniversary events planned 2018 marks the 150th year since country to all astronomy enthusiasts. throughout the year, please refer to the Society’s inception. By 6:00 pm est, all Centres who the national website, www.rasc.ca.
JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 rasc-vancouver.com 7 You will see the screen at the top of the opposite page (be sure at this point you are connected to the Internet). The default Update frequency (hours) is set to 72 hours. Change it to 1 or 2 and click the Update now button. Now, click on the Iridium flares tab, then click the Predict Iridium flares but- ton at the bottom (be patient as it takes a few seconds to refresh and if you start click- ing before the list populates, it will freeze).
Notice that the Iridium flare that we want to chart is also in the table at the bot- tom of the opposite page. continued from page 7 the screen and click the Configuration Before we leave the Satellites Configu- You will see a table that looks like this: window icon then click the Plugins tab. ration window, click the Settings tab and at the bottom of the window, click the Save settings as default button:
To turn the satellites on in Stellarium, ensure the Satellite hints button is enabled (See square box around icon in the image below). This will show you about a week’s worth of Iridium flares. To advance to the next week, click the next arrow: On the left side of the screen, scroll near Note that if you set your location and the bottom of the list and highlight Satel- Part 3: Find the Iridium satellite in Stellarium time zone correctly earlier, then the times lites in the menu. Now advance to the date and time for will show correctly, and you won’t need to the Iridium satellite you want chart. Hover do any time zone conversions. your mouse over the left side of the screen So, let’s say that we want to view the and select the Date/time window: Iridium flare that will appear on the morn- ing of December 27 at 5:57:46 am. We will need to make a note of the date and time, brightness (–5.0) and the Satellite # Enter the date and time from Heaven’s (Iridium 49) and use this information in Place a checkmark in the Load at start- Above. Recall that the Iridium flare peak Stellarium. up checkbox. Then click the configure for the morning of the 27th is 5:57:46 am. button: Part 2: Set up Stellarium for satellites Let’s make sure that we have the Satellite plugin installed. To pause Stellarium at the exact time, Hover your mouse over the left side of you can click the play/pause button on the
8 rasc-vancouver.com JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 = 03:20:20.23 and DEC = 77:44:04.9
Note: If there aren’t any bright stars in the field of view at peak brightness you can always advance forward or backward a few seconds until the Iridium flare passes a brighter star that you feel you will be able to starhop to comfortably. menu at the bottom of the screen. See the tions on how to set up and use the ocular plu- Part 4: Deciding your starhop to the star that square around the icon in the image below. gin: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3 the Iridium flare will pass by OWwyrmlJowNnZYWmlmUkVBdXM) You have a few options as your starting You will see that at that time, the Iridi- star for your starhop—the closest ones are um flare will be passing through the 5.4 Polaris (mag 1.95), Gamma Cephei (mag When Stellarium is paused, the play/ magnitude star HIP 15547. A few min- 3.2), or Gamma Camelopardalis (mag pause icon will change to the following: utes before 5:57:46, this is the star that we 4.55). The closest is Gamma Camelopar- will want to have centred in our eyepiece so dalis but it is also the faintest of the three. that we can watch it pass through our eye- Which star you choose will depend on piece at peak brightness. your experience. Notice that the Iridium flare 49 is bright at 5:57:46 am, near the constellation Ca- melopardalis.
Part 5: Using the AAVSO Plotter to chart the star that the Iridium flare will pass by Refer to my Charting Asteroids guide to complete this step: https://drive. So, we need to make a note of the RA google.com/open?id=0B3OWwyrmlJo If you turn on the ocular plugin (See my and DEC (J2000) coordinates for the wQUI2dlYtUlZ4Qmc general Stellarium guide starting on page 10 star. Look in the upper left corner of the in the linked document below for instruc- screen when you have the star selected. RA Final Notes: Be sure to give yourself ample time to starhop to the star and to account for dif- ferences in your watch time. Ideally you want to make sure that you are at your star 2-3 minutes prior to the peak time and be sure to keep centring that star since it will slowly move from the centre due to the Earth’s rotation.
JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 rasc-vancouver.com 9 Photographing an Iridium Flare by Elena Popovici I like photographing things in the a lot in brightness and the brighter setting for arbitrarily long exposure, sky. Whenever I go observing, I take a flare is the more impressive it is to so I had to settle for the maximum of my camera along and often I get re- see. So, during spells of clear weather, 30 seconds available via the shutter- warded with spectacular views to be I regularly check the above website for release button. The chart showed the captured. And sometimes I go out flares of 0 or negative apparent magni- satellite would travel a reasonable with the explicit goal of photograph- tude (that’s brighter than Vega) and go distance in the sky over the course of ing a particular event or phenomenon. out and watch them whenever I can. 30 seconds, but it didn’t tell me how This is the story of the latter type of Back in August of 2016, I was plan- bright it would be the beginning and fun. What further made it different ning an astro-photo outing to cap- end of such an interval. But since the from all my other astro-photo outings ture the day-to-day change of a pretty name “flare” indicates sudden bright- was the fact that I was going have a sin- Mars-Saturn-Antares conjunction and ening and dimming I hoped I would gle opportunity to press the shutter-re- I checked for Iridium flares as well and catch a wide range of brightness. lease button to get the photo I wanted. discovered there was going to be one of My prior experience photographing I was going to photograph an Iridium peak magnitude –8! For comparison, the International Space Station (iss) flare. I needed a lot of preparation and, at its very brightest the planet Venus had taught me that iso was key as well, as it turned out, also a fair bit of luck. only reaches –5, the full moon is –13 given the light pollution of an urban What is an Iridium flare? From an and the Sun –27 (keep in mind it’s environment: for a long exposure, even observer’s point of view, it is a moving a logarithmic scale). So –8 sounded a typically low iso value could yield star-like light that suddenly brightens pretty darn impressive and I decided to a washed out photo. So I planned and then just as suddenly dims and dis- add that to my task list for the evening. to arrive at the location a little earlier appears—thus the “flare” name. If seen I had never photographed an Iridi- and take some test shots with different by chance by someone not accustomed um flare before—nor since, as it turns isos to figure out the right value (and to the various things visible in the out it’s not an easy feat. So I started hoped that the lowest of 100 that my night sky, it would probably look eerie thinking about what would be in- camera allowed was not already too or perhaps scary and suspicious. Here’s volved and how to go about it. high). what actually causes such flares, quot- Location-location-location: The When to push the button: This was ing from heavens-above.com (which chart from Heavens Above showed the trickiest issue. I couldn’t just rely on is the website to check for when such the Iridium flare would be at its peak my phone’s clock, as it could be off by flares are visible from your location): brightness a little before 10pm some- a significant number of seconds, and “An Iridium flare is caused by the sun where in the constellation of Lacerta, seconds were of the essence. So, us- being reflected from one of the three to the right of Cassiopeia, due East ing a ruler, the Heavens Above chart, main mission antennae (mma) of an and about 60° high. So one of my fa- as well as more detailed ones from Iridium satellite. Themma s are flat, vourite photo-op locations, Yaletown’s skymaponline.net, I found a reference highly polished aluminium surfaces, George Wainborn Park, sounded like a star that the satellite would pass by ap- and when the angles are just right, they promising spot: hopefully the tall tow- proximately 15 seconds before peak can reflect the sun just like a mirror. ers lining the edge of the park would brightness. The problem? It was a mag- There are over 70 of these communi- provide some foreground elements for nitude 5 star. There was no way I was cations satellites in orbit, and they are the photo, as 60° is pretty far up from going to be able to see that with the operated by the Iridium llc Consor- the horizon. naked eye in downtown Vancouver. tium.” Camera settings: To get a nice streak The plan? Arrive early, take some long- I like watching Iridium flares and of the satellite I had to use a long expo- exposure test shots, hope the reference they’re fairly frequent. Most days sure. I did not have a remote control for star would show on them and corrobo- there’s one or more, though they vary my camera to allow me use the “bulb” rate its position with some foreground
10 rasc-vancouver.com JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 objects; then for the actual shot press worked out that it was roughly verti- it to process the 30 seconds exposure the button when the satellite reached cally above a top corner of one of the for display. Yes! There was a tiny white the determined location with respect towers. Figuring that out was not easy streak of light in the small preview. to the foreground. either, as I had to zoom in and scroll Zoom, zoom, zoom... hurray! It had As you may have noticed, the word around on my tiny camera screen. captured all of the peak brightness and “hope” featured a lot in my plans. If Just in time, too! As I was determin- was nicely centred around it. And the I had noticed the predicted flare a ing all that, miraculously, the clouds clouds off to the right actually added a few days earlier, I would have done a continued to drift off, appearing to little extra pizzaz to the scene. separate trip on an earlier day to check clear my area of interest just as the sat- At home, on the large computer whether what I was trying to do was ellite appeared off to the left as a very screen, it looked even better. And, un- feasible at all. dim moving light. I kept glancing back like most of the photos I’ve had pub- One thing that didn’t even dawn and forth between the brightening lished in past novas, there was no sift- on me that I should hope for was clear satellite and the corner of the marker ing through a dozen shots of the same skies. The forecast for that evening had tower until finally... I pressed the but- scene to pick the best one for submis- been spotless on all websites, includ- ton! This was it, there was no second sion. There was only one photo, and it ing cleardarksky.com. And yet, as I try, nothing else could be changed at didn’t even need any further process- got to my location, a fairly large area this point, so I just let the camera be, ing! The only reason I didn’t submit it of white fluff loomed over the towers crossed my fingers, and watched the right away is that I wanted to make the to the right of Cassiopeia. Uh-oh. I got flare. time to write its story. to shooting the planetary conjunction The –8 was amazing. At the peak it It is one of the photos I am most to the south, nervously checking over was so incredibly bright, I have noth- proud of, and yet, looking at it, I know my shoulder the cloud situation to the ing to compare it with, because I’ve it can’t by itself convey what it was like east. not seen anything else similar. The seeing the flare with my own eyes. But With 8 minutes to go, I took my full moon, while much brighter, is not it does help me relieve it in my mind’s first test shot to check the iso and the concentrated in a single spot. eye. So the next time there’s clear(-ish) framing of the scene. Luckily it showed As the flare faded away, I heard the skies, go out there and look up. And that setting 100 didn’t wash out the camera shutter close and hurried to see maybe snap a handful of photos (or photo. But there were some street the results of my efforts. Still had to just one!). There’s always wonders to lights that came out really bright and wait for a few tantalizing seconds for be seen and then reminisce about. were competing with the sky for atten- tion. More importantly, Lacerta was nowhere to be spotted amongst the clouds! I wasn’t even sure it was in the frame. Not only did I not see my ref- erence star in the test photo, but if the clouds didn’t move out of the way fast, there would be no flare to photograph anyway. Luckily, they did appear to be moving slowly towards right. Nervous waiting ensued. With 4 minutes to go, I took a sec- ond test shot, adjusting the framing to catch more of the sky and less of the ground. It just barely showed my ref- erence star at the edge of the clouds. I
JANUARYFEBRUARY2018 rasc-vancouver.com 11 Members’ Gallery
The Running Man nebula by J. Karl Miller I connected to one of the remote-controlled Slooh.com telescopes on the Canary Islands and acquired a picture of the Running Man nebula. I leave it to you to discern the shape which gives that object its name. This is a reflection nebula (actually three separate ones) located near the famous Orion Nebula and illuminated by bright stars in the vicinity. Its distance is about 1,500 light years and it is about 7.5 light years in diameter. The Running Man Nebula is actually made up of three different HII gas clouds, each of which has its own designation: NGC 1973, NGC 1975, and NGC1977.