NOVAinside

Mt. Kobau Star Party 2006 1

President’s Message 3

Observing Sites 4

For Sale 5/6

Upcoming Events 6

More on Observing Sites 8

Members’ Gallery 10

Looking Ahead

Remember, you are alwayswelcome to attend meetings ofCouncil, held on the first Thurs-day of every month at 7:30pmin the G.M.S.O.

Sept. 14: Members’ Night.

Oct. 19: Tony Moffat of the Uof Montreal on BRITE, the fol-low-up mission to MOST.

Nov. 9: 75th Anniversary cel-ebrations.

Dec. 14: AGM.

Next Issue Deadline

Material for the NovemberNova should submitted byMonday, Nov. 6, 2006. Pleasesend submissions to:

Gordon Farrell(gfarrell@shaw.ca)

NEWSLETTER OF THE VANCOUVER CENTRE RASC

VOLUME 2006 ISSUE 5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006

IMPORTANT NOTICE:The October meeting will be held onOctober 19, one week later thanunusal. Please mark your calendars.

This year marked a couple ofnew things for my annual trek upto Mount Kobau; it was the firsttime I would tow my trailer anygreat dis-tance withthe newtruck and itwas the firsttime I’dtried totravel thehighway int a n d e mwith an-other as-tronomer.

B o bParry and I travelled from Hopeto Mount Kobau basically togetherin order to ensure there were noissues with Bob pulling Pomponiaand his new trailer with his truck.Once we had made it to the top ofthe slide, we were fairly sure Bob

Mount Kobau Star Party 2006by Craig Breckenridge

wouldn’t have any trouble on thetrip so we just leapfrogged be-tween my regular stops. I like totake a break every hour or so to

stretch mylegs.

We ar-rived at thetop of them o u n t a i nearly Mon-day after-noon andproceededto set upcamp eventhough thewind was

from the south and blowing in allthe smoke and ash from the firesjust over the border in Washing-ton State. Monday night was spentsitting under the awning of the newtrailer shining our laser pointers

Smoke plume from forest fires inWashington State

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and flashlights through the smokethat had left visibility at about 50feet. There was so much ash fall-ing that it looked like it was snow-ing at times. We both woke up thenext day smelling like we’d beensitting around a campfire.

On Tuesday we spent an houror two down inOsoyoos pick-ing up some ofthe things weforgot and get-ting some sup-plies to do somefield wiring forthe scopes. ByTuesday nightthe winds hadshifted andwere comingfrom the north.I had faith thatwe would havesome goodnights observ-ing and weweren’t disappointed. Although Ihave had some better nights onKobau over the years, this has torank as one of the better yearsoverall.

Wednesday followed withmore attendees arriving. Vancou-ver Centre had quite a contingentthere and it’s always great to seeold friends like the Paulsons andBarts at this event. There weremany observers by Wednesdaynight and it was another good onefor picking up faint fuzzies andfavourite objects.

Jason Rickerby and familyhad come up with the idea of cre-

ating an orienteering course andthis was something that Pomponia,Bob and I did over Friday and Sat-urday, Pomponia having arrivedThursday. The course tooktrekkies past some of the old sitesthat have significance from theobservatory days on top of themountain. We got to see the piers

for the solar testing equipment, thelocation of the 16" scope that onceinhabited the only dome ever to beerected there, the survey pin for themountain itself and to walk by theremnants of the old “stairway tothe stars.” It was great to go on thishike and be able to share some ofthe mountain’s history with Boband Pomponia. Next year we’retrying to wrestle Craig McCawinto giving a talk about the moun-tain during the years he was thereobserving.

Friday and Saturday nightswere also great for observing andLee and I were able to sight and

confirm on subsequent nightsIC1296 (the faint little galaxy nearM57). This has given Lee the ideato do a 2 for 1 talk next year that Iknow I’ll enjoy. This year Leetalked about some of the obscur-ing nebulae that was visible andgave us a list of objects to try andfind while we were there. It was

fun to workthrough this listas there wereseveral objects Ihad neverlooked for be-fore. The othertalks wereM u r r a yPaulson’s everpopular binowalk, RichardC h r i s t i e ’ s“ B u i l d i n gBlocks of theUniverse” andmy own ThirtyMetre Tel-escope update.

Saturday brought about theclosing ceremonies which wereheld on the flats beside the nowcondemned weather trailer (yes it’sstill there) and Ken Hewitt Whitegave a great update on the Plutodebate that had just been decidedby the IAU. The three astrophotocategories were all won by Van-couver Centre members (GwenRickerby – Novice Astrophoto,Jason Rickerby – PiggybackAstrophoto and Bob, Pomponiaand I for Prime Focus Astrophoto).Bob, Pomponia and I had enteredthe photo we took last March of

The Rickerby camp

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info

President’sMessage

2006 VancouverCentre Officers

PresidentRon Jerome 604-298-3292jerome3292@shaw.ca

Vice-PresidentPomponia Martinez 604-215-8844pomponia@telus.net

SecretaryBrian Morse 604-267-6717

TreasurerBruce MacDonald 604-882-3820brumac@gmail.com

LibrarianWilliam Fearon 604-317-9027williamfearon147@hotmail.com

MembershipSuzanna Nagy 604-682-5111suzannan@slatervecchio.com

CARO Committee ChairBob Parry 604-215-8844robpar@telus.net

Director of TelescopesWayne Lyons 604-467-2956lyonsww@shaw.ca

Public RelationsSimon Johnstonsimonjohnstron@shaw.ca

SpeakersBarry Shanko 604-271-0615barryshanko@telus.net

Nat’l Rep./MerchandisingDoug Montgomery 604-596-7058moondoug@home.com

Nova EditorGordon Farrell 604-734-0326gfarrell@shaw.ca

Nat’l Rep./WebmasterJason Rickerby 604-502-8158rickerby@dccnet.com

LPA Committee ChairChris Dolman 604-707-0089cdolman@telus.net

Education Cmte. ChairCraig Breckenridge 604-437-3103craig.breckenridge@shaw.ca

TrusteesSally Baker 604-324-3309Karl Miller jkmiller@direct.ca

About RASCThe Vancouver Centre, RASC

meets at 7:30 PM in the auditoriumof the H.R. MacMillan Space Cen-tre at 1100 Chestnut St., Vancou-ver, on the second Thursday ofevery month. Guests are alwayswelcome. In addition, the Centrehas an observing site where starparties are regularly scheduled.

Membership is currently $58.00per year ($34.25 for persons under21 years of age) and can be ob-tained by writing to the Treasurerat the address below. Annualmembership includes the invalu-able Observer’s Handbook, six is-sues of the RASC Journal, and, ofcourse, access to all of the clubevents and projects.

For more information regardingthe Centre and its activities, pleasecontact our P.R. Director.

NOVA, the newsletter of theVancouver Centre, RASC, is pub-lished on odd numbered months.Opinions expressed herein are notnecessarily those of the VancouverCentre.

Material on any aspect of as-tronomy should be e-mailed to theeditor or mailed to the address onpage 5.

AdvertisingNova encourages free use of itsclassified ads for members withitems for sale or swap. Notify theeditor if you wish your ad to run inmore than one issue.

CommericalRates

1/4 Page: $15.00 per issue1/2 Page: $25.00 per issueFull Page: $40.00 per issueRates are for camera-ready, orelectronic files. Payment, bycheque, must accompany ad ma-terial. Make cheque payable to:RASC Vancouver Centre.

Summer delivered those longanticipated warm days and pleas-ant evenings, along with lots ofclear skies. The Vancouver Cen-tre was active in two viewingevents—a GVRD sponsoredPerseid meteor shower gatheringand the Mt. Kobau Star Party.Doug Montgomery, CraigBreckenridge, Suzanna Nagy andJason Rickerby took their scopesto Aldergrove Lake Park for themeteor show and shared their ex-pertise with about 600 publicattendees. As the moon was justpast full, the shower was not asspectacular as it might have been.Still there were enough “Ooohs”and “Aaahs” to make their effortsworthwhile.

Mt. Kobau was well attendedbut the weather was windy andcold. Smoke from the forest firein Washington State clouded thesky intermittently and the final re-port was only one night of reallygood seeing. Vancouver Centregarnered a trophy for excellencein three categories ofastrophotography. One of the win-ning images had been taken ear-lier this year using the ChrisGraham Robotic Telescope(CGRT). The CGRT program hasnot been active the last two monthsas a result of the monsoon-likeweather plaguing the southwestUS. The domes at New MexicoSkies have remained closed formuch of that time. Once the skiesclear, we will start our imaging

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Observing Sites

Dale McNabb Observatory inAldergrove Lake Park (RASC Van-couver Centre's regular viewingsite)Contact Mike Penndelton (604-888-1505) or Howard Morgan(604-856-9186)

Site of the annual star party organ-ized by the RASC Vancouver Cen-tre

Site of the annual Mt. Kobau StarParty organized by the MountKobau Astronomical Society

Site of the regular Saturday nightstar party. On the dike at the footof 72nd St.

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centre s

ervic

es

FOR SALE

RASC MERCHANDISEAvailable for purchase after meetings:

Calendars $14.00Golf Shirts $30.00Sweat Shirts $30.00Centenary Mugs $ 7.00Beginners’ Guides $15.00Observers’ Guides $20.00Cloth Crests $11.00Lapel Pins $ 6.00L.E.D. Flashlights $22.00

ASTROCOMPUTINGSpaceBase™ (604-473-9358,59).Affiliated since 1992 with RASCVancouver, our link to RASC Net,RASC Members only chat area.Future data distribution hub forCARO Project. Features includelatest HST images, current worldspace news and astronomy pro-grams.

LIBRARYThe centre has a large library ofbooks, magazines and old Nova’sfor your enjoyment at the GSO.Please take advantage of this clubservice and visit often to check outthe new purchases. Suggestionsfor future library acquisitions are ap-preciated.

RASC-VC on the Internethttp://www.pcis.com/rascvan/ or

http://www.rasc.ca/vancouver

H.R. MACMILLANSPACE CENTRE

The Pacific Space Centre Societyis a non-profit organization whichoperates the H.R. MacMillan SpaceCentre and Gordon M. SouthamObservatory. Annual Membership($30 Individual, $80 Family) in-cludes a newsletter, Discounts onSpace Camps, special programsand lectures, Vancouver MuseumDiscounts, and free admission tothe Space Centre. Admission to theSpace Centre includes: Astronomyshows, Motion Simulator rides, mul-timedia shows in GroundStationCanada, and access to the CosmicCourtyard Exhibit Gallery. For Mem-bership information, call MahiJordao at 604-738-7827, local 237for information. You can also reachthem on the Internet at http://www.hrmacmillanspacecentre.com/

MEMBERSHIPHAS ITS

PRIVILEGES!New members, did you know?

The Vancouver Centre has 8 tel-escopes available for loan free ofcharge! We have telescopes rang-ing from 60mm to 10" diameter.For more information see WayneLyons, Director of Telescopes in themeeting room of the GSO after themembers meeting. All telescopesare to be picked up and returned atthe GSO. The loaner period is forone month, to be returned after thenext meeting. Telescopes are notallowed to circulate outside of thesemeetings. You can now reserve 2different telescopes per year anduse what is left at the end of themeeting anytime. Wayne can bereached at 604-467-2956.

Your greatest opportunity as amember of the R.A.S.C. is to takeadvantage of the company of otherenthusiasts to increase your knowl-edge, enjoyment and skill in as-tronomy.

The best thing you can do togain the most from your member-ship is to get active! Take in theclub meetings; engage other mem-bers with questions; come out to ob-serving sessions (also known as“star parties”), and, by all means,volunteer to take part in our manypublic events.

Observing takes place atBoundary Bay on the dike at thesouth end of 72nd St. in Delta (seemap on p. 4). We are there mostclear Thursday/Friday nights. Con-tact Jason Rickerby at 604-502-8158.

RASC1100 Chestnut Street

Vancouver, B.C.V6J 3J9

604-738-2855

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Upcoming EventsOctober13 – Sidewalk Astronomy (rainday Oct. 14)

November9 – 75th Anniversary ofVancouver Centre

December12 – AGM

the Flame Nebulae with the CGRT(processing by Brian Morse). Theaward for mechanical excellenceand innovation also went to a Van-couver Centre member who’sname slips my mind right now forhis 12" bino scope (Don’t be of-fended – you guys all know I canbarely remember my own name attimes!).

All in all the week was an-other great one for relaxing andobserving—two of my favouritethings to do. I can hardly wait fornext year. �

The old pier for the 16” scope

A 12” binocular scope

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training sessions and interestedmembers are invited to join theprogram.

Anne and I packed up ourtrailer and headed to the RockyMountains—Yoho, Banff and Jas-per. Over the years we have trav-elled through the area. This timewe lingered, spending nearly twoweeks hiking and star gazing. Eachday was magnificent. In thecampgrounds, bulle-tin boards describedevening events—generally talks re-lated to local history,flora and fauna. Toour surprise and de-light, one of the eve-nings was to be anastronomy talk bythe Space Centre’sroaming communityastronomer, BillBurnyeat, travellingthe countryside witha 25" Dobsonian intow.

Bill delivered his first presen-tation at Lake Louise, a very en-tertaining recap of some astro-nomical history, sprinkled withpersonal stories and some “howto” ideas for those with piquedcuriosity. One of his suggestionswas to take a toilet paper roll, holdit up to the night sky and count thestars within that circle. This wouldbe a sample of one percent of thesky and, when multiplied by 100,would tell the observer how manystars could be seen under the lightconditions from that location.Pretty simple and quite clever!

When it got dark, Bill un-packed his light bucket and intro-duced his audience to the night sky.I set up my 8" Newtonian as well.While Bill attracted the longestline-up, it was fun to show peoplea variety of sights and discuss dif-ferent telescope options. After thelast camper had gone to bed, heintroduced me to some interestingnew objects, including the doublestar Eta Cassiopeiae. We even

caught sight of a few meteorstreaks before moonlight envel-oped the sky.

His presentation the followingnight was in Yoho and Anne and Idrove the short distance to see it.Murray Paulson from Calgary wasthere as well, on his way to Mt.Kobau. Bill’s second talk wasequally entertaining and he foundways to reach the younger view-ers in the audience. The night skywas far less cooperative as cloudsmade targets harder to find. It wasprobably the worst night of the twoweeks of our holiday. Still, people

waited patiently for a chance tolook at whatever presented itself.

Over the next eight or ninedays, as Anne and I travelled toJasper and back, I managed tospend a few hours nearly everyevening under the Milky Way withmy scope. I added a few moreMessiers to my list (89 in totalnow) and discovered double stars,a target group I had generally ig-nored until this summer. The Night

Sky Observer’sGuide, an addition tomy library before ourholidays, beginseach constellationchapter with a list ofvariable and doublestars. Those two vol-umes have greatlyaided my celestialnavigation andadded to my enjoy-ment.

Over the Sep-tember long week-end, I was invited toattend the founding

meeting of the Cultus Lake Astro-nomical Society. PomponiaMartinez and Bob Parry choseCultus as their quick get-awayfrom the city and organized a fundraising event for the RV Park theysettled into. After a fine potluckmeal and a short astronomy intro-duction by Bob, the residents weretreated to as many interestingsights as we could find. No onewent away disappointed and Ithink we recruited one grade-fivestudent as a future member.

It was a good summer.– Ron Jerome �

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The Cultus Lake Astronomical Society

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RASC-VC Observing Sitesby Wayne Lyons

Having just returned from theMount Kobau Star Party, it is a lit-tle difficult to think about goodobserving sites in our local area ofthe world. It truly was amazing toview NGC 7331 in Pegasus atnearly 50 million light years andthen slide over about one half adegree South West to locate a faintpatch of light known as Stephen’sQuintet about 300 million lightyears from home.

Wait a minute. After spendingseven days camped out at the topof a distant mountain my logshows that there was one nightcompletely washed out by cloudand smoke, one night spent jump-ing to sucker holes, four nights ofabove average skies and only onenight that made the whole tripworth while.

The point is that taking advan-tage of local viewing opportuni-ties is just as rewarding as plan-ning a trip to some far off dark skyobserving site in the hopes ofcatching a glimpse of some faintobject. Even at such a locationthere is no guarantee of viewingall of the objects on your observ-ing list.

The RASC-Vancouver Centrehas an active group of observers.We have a selection of sites beingused in the Lower Mainland andall amateur astronomers are wel-come to attend our observing ses-sions.

At Mount Kobau I was ap-proached by a few people inter-ested in setting up sites closer to

their homes. Tsawwassen andNorth Vancouver were suggestedif there is a contact available tocoordinate observing sessions. Ifyou have any other suggestions,please pass them along.

Having an observatory in yourback yard all set up and ready togo is the most ideal way to ob-serve. The next best viewing isgetting to a good site and beingready to observe in a reasonabletime period. With a little bit ofwork you should be able to find arelatively dark site not too far fromhome and find a group of peopleto share the night skies with.

Local Observing SitesSee the sidebar on page 9 for

a list observing sites and contacts.To find directions to any of

these Observing Sites:• Go to the Vancouver Centre website:

http://www.pcis.com/rascvan• Click “Observing:” from the

Contents menu on the left.• Click “Observing Sites” from

the Contents menu on the left.• Select & click the Observing Site

for which you need directions.

The Observers GroupThe RASC-Vancouver Centre

does have a list of observers thatare contacted by e-mail when oneof their members has planned anobserving session.

To see if your name is on ourObservers list:• Go to the Vancouver Centre website:

http://www.pcis.com/rascvan• Click “Sign In” above the Con-

tents menu (the screen willchange to the Sign In page).

• Enter your username and pass-word.

• Click “Sign In”• Click “Members” from the

Contents menu on the left.• Click “Groups” from the menu

on the upper right.• Click “Observers” to verify that

you are on the list.

If you would like to be con-tacted by e-mail when an observ-ing session is scheduled to occurplease contact a member of Coun-cil to have your name added to thelist.

In order to preserve privacynotification e-mail is sent out asBcc. Bcc is an abbreviation forblind carbon copy. If you add a re-cipient’s name to this box in a mes-sage, a copy of the message is sentto that recipient, and the recipient’sname is not visible to other recipi-ents of the message. �

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Local Observing Sites

Vancouver Space Centre – GMSOContact: Simon Johnstontel: (604) 616-7009e-mail: simonjohnston@shaw.caContact: Suzanna Nagytel: (604) 230-0106e-mail: snagy@slatervecchio.com

Boundary BayContact: Jason Rickerbytel: (604) 502-8158e-mail: rickerby@dccnet.comContact: Doug Montgomerytel: (604) 322-3345e-mail: dougmont@shaw.ca

Cammidge House, Boundary Bay Regional ParkContact: Jim Ronbacktel: (604) 948-1589e-mail: Jim_Ronback@dccnet.comNote: booking required

Campbell Valley Regional ParkContact: Bruce MacDonaldtel: (604) 882-3820e-mail: brumac@gmail.comNote: booking required

Pitt-Addington MarshContact: Wayne Lyonstel: (604) 467-2956e-mail: lyonsww@shaw.ca

Aldergrove Lake Regional ParkContact: Mike Penndeltontel: (604) 888-1505

MacDonald Park, AbbotsfordContact: Paul Greenhalgh, FVAStel: (604) 302-2921e-mail: fvas@shaw.ca

All members are in-vited to come out tothe November 9th

meeting to help uscelebrate VancouverCentre’s 75th anniver-sary. We’ll have spe-cial presentations,prizes, food and, ofcourse, cake!

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Members’ Gallery

M45 - PleiadesJason RickerbyMount Kobau 2005Canon EOS 20DCanon EF 70-200mm f/4L USMPiggyback image on CelestronUltima 2000 8’. 200mm FocalLength, F5, ISO 400, 10 minutes

Newish MoonJason Rickerby

Canon EOS 20DCelestron Ultima 2000 8”

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Star Trails – Craig Breckenridge

3303 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6R 1N6, Canada