NOVANEWSLETTEROFTHEVANCOUVERCENTRERASC VOLUME2013ISSUE5SEPTEMBEROCTOBER2013 The Eagle by Bill Burnyeat He clasps the crag with crooked hands; are eyepieces inside. Leave, says the the countryside. I’m a disciple of the Close to the sun in lonely lands, Eagle, forsake landlord, city smells, Roman hero Germanicus. Seeing fear Ring’d with the azure world, he dull and ridiculous company and in the faces of his troops, he looked stands. sail to a lonely land of skies, trees, up and saw eagles flying confidently mountains ring’d with the azure towards the enemy. Drawing a The wrinkled sea sword, Germanicus beneath him crawls; shouts to his officers: He watches from his “Follow the Roman mountain walls, birds!” The day was And like a thunderbolt won. I brandish he falls. no sword but do – Tennyson the contemporary equivalent. The The Eagle is a truck goes in for an special constellation. oil change and new Taking to the air in tires before the day’s spring, later than the departure. Once, just Harp and Swan, this once, I ignored the bird hurries to join Eagle and returned to the others after winter city habits of egotism slumbers. Aquila calls and sloth while on the Summer Stargazer, the road. The scene announcing it’s time of the backsliding was to put away mundane and hopeless world. Valemount, B.C., some few hours tasks and seek the open road; dust Each summer I obey. Only north of Clearwater and the last off the star chart, open and inspect ill health, or city-engendered town before Mt. Robson Provincial the eyepiece box. Make sure there melancholy can stop the trip out into continued on page 5 SEPTEMBER 12 SFU OCTOBER 10 SFU NOVEMBER 7 BCIT Alan McConnachie from UVic: Big Vancouver Past-President Howard Speaker to be announced. Watch puzzles with small galaxies: Galaxy Trottier will discuss his astropho- Meetup for details. formation and the problems with the tograhy efforts. Room TBA (see Meet- tiniest galaxies. Room B9201 up for updates) Members’ Gallery Sun with prominence by Gordon Farrell A bit of luck and a fair amount of processing resulted in the above image, taken in July 20, 2013. Original images acquired with a Canon 40D mounted to a Lunt 60mm solar scope, with alignment and initial image processing in Shake, stacking in RegiStax, and final processing in Photoshop. 2 rasc-vancouver.com SEPTEMBEROCTOBER2013 President’s Message by Mark Eburne The past few months for the with any major change like the one the rasc as a family is much more rasc has been a flurry of activity we have gone through, there will affordable and allows everyone to locally and nationally. be challenges to overcome but it’s enjoy the benefits. Take a moment On the national scene, with the nice to see the efforts from across and talk to Rohit, Membership new council elected and in place, the country at the national level Chair, or visit the rasc web site the focus has been to implement that will support our local vision. for more information. our new structure. Over the last As always, more information is On the local level, rasc two years, the discussion and available on the rasc web site, Vancouver Centre has hosted planning across the country has got www.rasc.ca. numerous events, both scheduled the rasc a very enviable position A new feature for membership and spur of the moment. Scott’s in the non-profit world. Of course, is the family membership. Joining 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. 2013 Vancouver Centre Officers President Mark Eburne Librarian William Fearon Webmaster Harvey Dueck [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Vice-President/Events Suzanne Nagy Past President/P. R. Howard Trottier NOVA Editor Gordon Farrell [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Secretary/Telescopes/P. R./Observing Membership Rohit Grover Speakers Barry Shanko Scott McGillivary [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] LPA Chair Jim Ronback Councillor Kenneth Lui Treasurer Ciara Morgan-Fier & Steve Coleopy [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Education Bill Burnyeat Honourary President Dr. John Macdonald National Rep. Doug Montgomery [email protected] Trustees Ron Jerome [email protected] AOMO Chair/Merchandise Leigh Cummings Pomponia Martines [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. SEPTEMBEROCTOBER2013 rasc-vancouver.com 3 Maps to Meeting Sites SFU st We ve Dri ity ers iv P P Our September meeting is in Un room B9201, in the south con- AQ Lecture course of the 3rd (main) level of Hall Shru m Scie nce Ctr P the Academic Quadrangle (indi- T So o uth w Cam e cated by the arrow on the map pus r Rd R d at left). Pay parking is available at sev- Burnaby Mtn Pkwy G a eral locations around campus g Un la iv r er d sity i Dri (indicated as “P” on the map). W ve East a y continued from page 3 Parks, hosted 850 enthusiastic where several members of the efforts to connect on Facebook, stargazers to watch the Perseid rasc Vancouver Centre had set Twitter and Meetup to members meteor shower. Unfortunately, no up solar scopes of all sizes and let and the public is paying off. If one brought a cloud filter so seeing the public see the solar activity first you are looking to get out under any meteors and stars was left to hand. Judging by the WOWs and the night sky with a group of like- the imagination. However, several COOLs at the scopes, the visitors minded people, be sure to connect activities and talks did fill the to the park enjoyed their time. with Scott. Scott also handles the evening so most of the people came rasc also set up solar scopes in the popular loaner scope program away with a better understanding of downtown park in Maple Ridge which is highly active but we still local astronomy opportunities, plus where the same wow factor existed. have scopes to lend. those who stayed had an enjoyable Public outreach is what we do and Thanks to the efforts of our local night of camping in the park. it is so rewarding to be able to be rasc councillors and volunteers, Campbell Valley was the home to part of the experience. Remember, we, in conjunction with the Metro another successful event in August if you are interested in attending any of the events, be sure to check out Meetup at www.meetup.com/ astronomy-131 to see where the next event is. If you are interested in volunteering, contact Suzanna Nagy, our Events Coordinator. Your Vancouver Centre will soon be accepting nominations for the next year’s council positions. If you have an interest to be involved in council activities, please send your name forward to any current council member. Clear Skies. cartoon by Dan Collier 4 rasc-vancouver.com SEPTEMBEROCTOBER2013 continued from page 1 telescope, I amused myself pitching it is the nearest bright star visible Park. I had decided to stop and use stones to the far shore, so I could say, at night. Altair is sometimes said a cash machine in the local bank. As back in Richmond, that I had thrown to be the eagle that Zeus assumed I got to the spot, the whole town lost a rock across the Fraser. Overhead, when he kidnapped Ganymede. all electrical power. The machine the Eagle sat in a tree watching the The unfortunate shepherd ended world was instantly idle. Gas couldn’t flying stones. up waiting table eternally on Mount be pumped, nothing was ready for Leader of Aquila the Eagle is the Olympus. purchase in the unlit stores, clerks star Altair. Altair is the 12th brightest This constellation is ancient and couldn’t see their cash registers; they star in the heavens and an electric a reference to Aquila is made in stood around forlorn like cats facing white star, most southerly of the the Oresteia, in the first act, when empty food bowls.