surprised by STF 2877 (Halifax)

I spotted clear skies moving in over Nova Scotia for Saturday night. Given the "rare micro blue puny full Hunter's aka Falling Leaves creepy Moon" was out, I thought I'd aim at a double star. Found STF 2877 in Haas's book, a pair in Pegasus, noting the interesting colour descriptors. Also known as SAO 107756.

Luminance filter, 1 second subexposures, 12 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; left is east.

The two brightest stars are A and B, what Sissy refers to as grapefruit-orange and powder-blue. I look forward to assembling this data in colour..

But there are some surprises in this image from the Burke-Gaffney robotic telescope.

There's a faint star on the left/east diffraction spike, close in. Is it another companion? Is this the C star? SkyTools 3 Pro does not list a C element.

ST3P has revealed that the next brightest star to the north-west of A is the D partner.

Compelling is the equally luminous star due west.

And then, perhaps most fun, is the faint, tight, equal, and obvious pair to the north-east. Cool! Two in the view! SkyTools has poor data for this, showing only a single star, GSC 01685-0559 at magnitude 9.7.

§

Data from Stella Doppie on Σ 2877:

22143+1711 SYSTEM COMPONENTS

First discovered in 1825. The prime star is magnitude 6.65.

COMP, PA, SEP, MAG2
AB, 25, 24.0, 9.23
AC, 44, 97.3, 12.42
AD, 309, 101.2, 11.31

A quadruple system with 4 visible stars in this system.

This means the C compatriot is to the north-east and well away, about the same distance as D. Yep, OK, spotted easily in the image. Beyond B, roughly on the same line. Dimmer than D.

§

Searched the WDS. Found the faint pair: 22146+1714 HDO 170. First discovered in 1867. PA is 241 and the last separation was 7.3. Mag 11.4 and 11.6 stars. Precise location is 221438.65+171333.5. Angle, separation, and brightness values all look good.

§

As usual, the more I look...

§

OK. Here's the full colour version.

FITS Liberator, Photoshop.

The A star of STF 2877 is definitely intense orange. B is pale blue. So there ya go.

D looks a bit red!

C is a darker blue than B.

HDO 170 A and B are nearly equal. A is maybe white or white with a hint of blue. B seems a tiny bit warmer. Tricky.

studied PSA

Analysed the Pocket Sky Atlas for labelled double stars.

A surprise was seeing how many unlabelled doubles were shown...

reviewed viddy

Reviewed the TSTM Oct-Nov video.

are sleep aid sales increasing?

Some Google bot showed a letter to an editor in a feed in my smartphone that I was reading in bed. A phrase caught my eye: "Light pollution is already robbing us of our inherent right to darkness and is manifested in our ever-increasing consumption of sleep aids."

The full letter I transcribe here:

Dear Editor:

Re:  the proposed lighthouse at a new West Kelowna winery:

One of the most appreciated attractions of the Okanagan is the natural beauty of it, both day and night.  We celebrate images of the full moon reflecting on the lake and have areas of dark sky that reveal ancient celestial wonders to tourists who come here to escape city lights.

We also are fortunate enough to have an observatory attracting hundreds every year.  People young and old alike are encouraged to look up to see the timeless wonders of our solar system and on a good night, the Milky Way.

We, in the Okanagan, have the ability to share a far richer experience than an obnoxious flood light overpowering our little piece of paradise.

Light pollution is already robbing us of our inherent right to darkness and is manifested in our ever-increasing consumption of sleep aids.

Please oppose this obscene proposal of a giant lighthouse and encourage instead, an observation tower where people can sip wine by starlight.

Patricia Reid, West Kelowna

It is from the Letters to the editor, Oct. 30, 2020 page of the Kelowna Daily Courier, mid-way.

OK. Lots of hyperbole but there's a good point within. 

We often say light pollution is unhealthy.

If I can find trend data for sleep medication prescriptions, that would be helpful.

surprising clumpiness

Read an article at Phys.org about our galaxy's clumpy halo. University of Iowa astronomers using the HaloSat launched from the Space Station observed that the Milky Way is surrounded by a large disc-like halo of hot gases, material that is being both pulled into the galaxy and is being ejected. Recycled material.

X-ray emissions show it is not uniform. 

Also, the researchers are wondering if there are more halos around the galaxy, larger still, dimmer, that may harbour large amounts of baryonic material.

changed IP

Applied the change to the static IP at the Carr observatory as per our service provider's backbone change. All went well. Let the staff at Bruce Street Technology know.

ran vpub 2

Ran another virtual pub night. Interesting crowd and interesting questions from some new members.

For thematically appropriate content, I had a virtual background in Zoom from Engineering Room of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701. While I enjoyed a Captain's Log beer by Cameron's Brewing.

helped with Delaney's talk

Assisted during the Speaker's Night virtual meeting. I actually operated the admin account this time, relieving Andrew of that. And I was in charge of questioning. Fun interacting with members and Paul Delaney.

§

It was good to have Tom L onboard too. To see The Magic.

§

Video available on the RASC Toronto Centre YouTube channel.

created the new calendar

Built the 2021 calendar for RASC Toronto Centre events. Saved it to the Volunteer Coordination Google Drive and gave edit grants to the prez, EPO, DDO, RAN, the veep, CAO, et al. Pre-loaded it with Canadian holidays, special dates for the Islamic and Jewish calendars, and all the significant astronomical events, thanks to SkyTools.

sent VC report

Submitted a report from the Volunteer Coordination committee to the secretary of RASC Toronto Centre, in advance of the annual general meeting.

posted Nov 2020 doubles

Prepared my double star "bulletin" for November 2020. It is a short list of suggested targets. I will share this on the RASC Toronto Centre forums. And I post here for everyone.

§ 

hello,

Here we are tumbling into November, trying to stay within our postal code (whatever that means), lamenting the bright Moon. Well, you can enjoy some quiet solo time at the telescope in the backyard or driveway. View those proximal planets. And view always interesting and evocative double stars.

star	also known as	alternate catalogue(s)
42 Psc	STF (F. Struve) 27	SAO 91866, HIP 1772
HD 220334 Peg	Σ (F. Struve) 3007	HIP 115417, SAO 91222
HR 8 And	OΣ or STT (O. Struve) 549	SAO 73743, HIP 544
TYC 04281-1453 1	STI (Stein) 1213 in Cas	Gaia DR2 54834143744
HD 11092 Cas	STF 163	SAO 12006, HIP 8626

I love how double stars fight light pollution—and win! Can you split them? What subtle colours do you see? How different are they in brightness? I hope you will share your double discoveries with us.

Be seeing you.
Blake

found a 3D Mars map app

Dang! Just found Adrian ('Ade') Ashford's Mars Mapper! 3D. Spherical. Albedo features wrapped to a globe! Looks like he's the guy that wrote a bunch of the apps at Sky & Telescope and the British Astronomical Association.

Maybe this is the one that I had seen some years ago? I recall an app, as noted in my Oct 6 post, that looked eerily similar to the flat map tool currently on S&T but that presented a 3D globe. This must be it.

Apparently he updated Mars Mapper for the 2020 apparition... [ed: Confirmed. The JavaScript code was updated 10 August 2020.] Fantastic! I like how you can show or hide the labels easily.

Sadly, it does not allow flipping for when one uses a mirror or star diagonal...

Kinda funny the path to this. Was reading Unk Rod's blog (article 569 on Mars) and he shared an image. I googled the title. One hit took me to a BAA version. Another hit landed me at the Stargazers Lounge where "paulastro" said he had spoken with Ade and said that he and others enjoy using the app in the past. The author then updated it.

It's available on his web site at
http://www.nightskies.net/mars/mars.html

Crumb. Could have used this 2 weeks ago. Alas. It's good to know Ade is keeping this up to date.

Enjoy the views. Mars is still great. But getting smaller every day.

uploaded files

Uploaded the backed up files from the old CAO Admin Yahoo!Group to the new shared Google Drive.

§

Added my new Inkbird user guide.

helped with this week's SN

Helped Andrew with the Speakers Night prep. The meeting is this Wednesday. After a call with the A/V team lead, I set up the rehearsal Zoom meeting and the backstage Zoom meeting and forwarded the practice meeting deets. I collated the OBS Ninja links and forwarded a set to the speaker, Mr Delaney. Then I made a card/thumbnail for YouTube.

helped with AM information

I helped in rolling out the member information for the Annual Meeting coming up in November. I conducted tests in Zoom of the polling feature. I built a meeting placeholder in Zoom with participant registration enabled. I created a web page of the RASC Toronto Centre web site, collating information from past newsletters and current documents, including the proposed slate, and details on how Zoom was required. Linked to past minutes. Provided proofs for people to review and the final copy for the member notification. All ahead of the president issuing the notice by MailChimp.

§

Members can check out the annual meeting information page.

designed v2 of heater

Considered a revision to the custom dew heater, after repairing the first. Version two point oh. I extended a inner plastic core a bit, with longer tabs at the end, to accommodate holes.

These can be mounting points, anchor holes, for fasteners, or rivets, to interconnect the nichrome wire and power leads. With the power wires anchored to the plastic, any flexing into the nichrome will be eliminated.

explained lossy compression

Answered a member's question about camera RAW format and JPEG images. I also referred to the Canon Digital Photography Professional software...

half-lit (Bradford)

We had drinks on the deck. Rhonda spotted the half-lit Moon. I thougth of the Lunar X and the Railroad as silent lightning short circuited in the darkening clouds.

sat the council meeting

Attended the Toronto Centre council meeting. Wore the IT hat and the AV hat. Shared my analysis of the membership stats, the report I generated from Power BI. Asked about logistics for the upcoming Annual Meeting.

received SkyNews for Nov/Dec '20

Received SkyNews. The November/December 2020 issue.

Neat cover with magnetic field lines. Huh. Rather small font at the top. But more space for the image, which I've always wanted.

I look forward to reading Warren Finlay's article on viewing 2000 NGC objects.

Lots of great photos, as usual.

Oh, yes, and Arushi's article on her journey in the Explore The Universe certificate. She's so awesome.

And beside Sahar Fatima's piece on the Stellina observation station is my sidebar on Electronically-Assisted Astronomy. 

My first official article for the magazine...

§

48 pages including the covers.

an opportunity

Mentioned the S&T article about booming telescope sales to Ralph. I suggested, "Perhaps there is an opportunity here?"

received a nice thank-you

Received a nice personal thank-you note from Denise for helping at the Mars Madness event on Oct 11 (and 12 sorta) at the David Dunlap Observatory.

She recognised my collaborative efforts in setting up the 74-inch telescope in the cold dome, work behind the scenes, my knowledge and expertise and words during the live camera views, and asking questions leading up to the event. That was pleasing as I worried I was a bother.

She said it was the event resounding success! She shared it was validating to receive great feedback from attendees. Yeh.

§

I thanked her and Jim!

started the doubles program

Today we rolled out the RASC Double Star Observing Program.

https://rasc.ca/double-stars

I uploaded the updated files, built the program web page, and added the relevant paragraph to the main observing page.

It's live. It's official.

Wow.

It's kinda weird to see it there, for real, on the national site.

I have worked on this project for over 6 years. The project team web site I built back in October 2015. I hatched the idea some time before that. And joined the Observing Committee in 2014 as it was the right thing to do. That we were ready last year but the team had some concerns was tough. But it's a better product a year later.

Of course, I enjoyed visiting all of the candidate doubles. I'm not sure exactly the number but I probably personally evaluated 200 to 300 doubles (and multi-star systems) so to produce the final list of 110.

I am grateful for the support and contributions of many people across the country including Andy B, Michael B, Bill C, Frank D, Lucian G, Ed H, Katrina IL, Guy N, Millie R, Paul Ma, Stu M, Ted S, Chris V, and Ian W. 

If I remember correctly, it was with Stu that I first shared my idea and he ran it up the flagpole.

Lucian deserves special recognition for vetting many of the candidate doubles.

The current and past members of the national Observing Committee were tremendous, challenging me, pushing me, and cheering. I thank Blair S, Dale A, Chris B, Randy B, Dave C, Charles E, Melody H, Roger H, Bruce M, Murray P, Karol S, Jo V, Bill W, Alan W, and Vikki Z. 

Chris B was an early supporter. I thank him for accepting my proposal back in October 2013.

Dave has bolstered my spirits along the way.

I particularly want to thank Melody for enthusiastically embracing the program, asking great questions, the big questions like "Why are you doing this this way?" and "What does this mean?" Keeping me honest. I particularly enjoy when she shares her observations and sketches.

It's exciting. I hope a number of our members will pursue this.

It's immensely satisfying knowing that the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will officially recognise double star observers.

§

Update.

Others supported this project at various stages: Randy A, Phil G, and Robyn F. My spirits were bolstered by many in the Toronto Centre including Ralph C, Rhonda G, Tom H, J.B., Peter V, Ward L, Tom O, Reza M, Steve M, and Phil C.

fixed strap

Fixed the custom dew heater. After finding two broken/failed leads during some bench testing...

Powered by a SLA battery, I tested the first configuration I had tried on Friday night. Kendrick 8-inch dew strap for the C8 corrector plate, my home-made eyepiece dew strap, and the Kendrick controller. I felt the 8" wrap getting warm, then hot, and the home medical thermometer read to 41.8°C, and then it conked out. I think over 42° means the patient is dead. 

The DIY eyepiece strap was cool. Oh oh.

Continuity checks revealed the circuit was open. Sheesh.

Rolled back the cover to find the copper backbone power lead had separated. I don't know why but for some reason I never soldered this. Duh. 

"It's always the wire."

But more continuity checks showed that wasn't the only issue! Now what?!

Rolled back the fabric more and spotted broken nichrome. Dag nab it.

I wasn't surprised. This was a weak point. It needed a stable mounting point...

Lost about 1 cm of heater wire. I wondered what impact that might have.

Drilled a hole in the plastic core for an anchor point for the nichrome-to-copper wire interface. This will eliminate flexure of the brittle nichrome. Buttoned that up.

Soldered the other power lead.

Used lots of electrical tape to shore things up.

Tested again. All is well.

Tried with None More Black, my custom controller. Fine.

Thermometer climbed to over 39°. Yes! 

This speaks to version 2 of the strap: it will feature mounting points in the plastic core.

§

Made changes to the next version.

you can attend

The next RASC Toronto Centre council meeting is on Thursday 22 October. All members are welcome to attend.

we need to help them!

Sean Walker recently crafted an article entitled Pandemic Inspires Surge in Telescope Sales at the Sky & Telescope website. Interesting!

Is it because people are cooped up?

He posits, "People have been stuck at home and having to entertain themselves in seclusion, all of which seems to have inspired a newfound interest in the night sky."

Huh.

That's good news for astronomy clubs and societies...

It means that now, more than ever, we need to be helping people...

took in Mars and Cetus doubles (Bradford)

It was clear!

But it felt felt humid, damp... 

7:33 PM, Fri 16 October 2020. Completed a very fast setup. Quick polar alignment putting Polaris (just at the roof line) at the centre. Did not do a multi-star alignment; simply picked up a planet, and turned on the sidereal (Cel.) tracking. Started with the baader planetarium aspheric 36mm 2-inch. 

Did not have a table. Grabbed a bunch of lawn chairs.

Saturn was down in the trees. Jupiter hidden. Ecliptic low. 

Saturn was heading to a clear patch...

Instrument: Celestron 8-inch SCT
Mount: Vixen Super Polaris
Method: slewing and tracking with IDEA GoToStar

Rhonda came out. Invited her to have a seat. "Very nice."

Offered to bump the power. Went with the Pentax 20mm XW 1¼-inch. Centred.

7:38 PM. Nice. The shadow on the rings was more pronounced (than earlier this year). Could see the equatorial belt. The Cassini division easily seen on the west; less so on the east. Lots of moons. Seeing was fair.

Rhonda returned. "Oh wow. Can see the stripes." She asked if she was seeing the shadow. You bet.

I wondered how long Jupiter would take to clear the tree.

I took in the whole sky.

7:44. Bright satellite heading due north. Quite bright, actually. Perhaps a minus magnitude?

[ed: Flyover info...
name: CZ-4 R/B
Spacetrack catalog number 29507
COSPAR ID 2006-046-C
Orbit 530 x 600 km, 97.7°
Category unknown
Country/organisation of origin China
Launch date 23 October 2006 
Launch site Taiyuan Space Launch Center, China
From Heavens Above.]

We talked about work, the weather, tonight's conditions, the next few days, winter tires, working from home, office access, eyeglasses, turkey dinner.

7:55. Headed to Jupiter. No GRS. Barges. Decent seeing. Missing one moon.

[ed: Io was behind. Would emerge from eclipse around 10:30...]

We talked about satellite distances or elevation. ISS was 400 kilometeres. Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Thickness of the atmosphere. Average height of passenger aircraft. The Right Stuff. Geostationary satellites are at 1000s of km. The next Dragon crew launch. SpaceX's plans for ferrying 100 humans. 

8:11. Three moons. Where was the other one? I had the netbook nearby but didn't feel like firing it up.

We talked about colonising Mars. The age we grew up in, including the first humans touching around world; what kids today will experience as we go interplanetary. We went to school without the internet. Paper books. The crazy racket at university. Baby blankets. Another racket. DIY. The missing roll of red film.

Observed Cygnus straight up, Lyra past the meridian, Aquila low, Hercules over the house, little Sagitta.

Another bright satellite went south. Rhonda spotted some others...

Rhonda asked if I was getting cold. Yes. Went for a coat.

8:33. Rhonda thought the view "really nice." She asked what was next... She walked west in the yard. Mars was visible over the hedge... But it would be a while before it was attainable. Unless I moved the 'scope. Didn't wanna do that.

Back to Saturn.

We talking about paintings, nurseries, stars, constellations, planetarium software. Découpage. How to deliver effective Zoom presentations. Messy office backgrounds. Rachel Willis not pulling punches.

Wondered if there was dew on the corrector!?

8:53. We agreed to reconvene in an hour...

Turned off the mount. Headed indoors. Goofed around.

Peaked outside. Mars was good! Mars was clear of the hedge. w00t! Told Rhonda.

10:09. Returned to the backyard. The Red Planet was very good in the telescope. Northern region flat orange, southern hemisphere dark and mottled. A notch. The South Polar Cap (SPC) did not jump out at me.

Neighbour's light was on. Boo.

Eyepiece fogging. Boo.

Rhonda had a look. "Not bad. Crisp edges." Uh huh. 

She wondered if Jupiter had set. Nope, but low behind the west trees.

Installed the 8-inch and eyepiece dew heaters, driven by the Kendrick controller, powered by the hacked computer PSU.

Mars was so bright. It looked white on top... Clouds? Haze? Weird. "So amazing," I thought. I felt the view was incredible. North was up.

The seeing looked fair. "Let's give it a shot." I installed the Tele Vue Type 6 Nagler 9mm. 

10:27. Got it! Saw the SPC. Tiny!

Rhonda saw the lightness at the top, at the 12:30 or 1:00 position. Yep. North polar hood, likely clouds.

I asked what she thought. She seemed nonplussed. Mind you, she had watched our live video from the 74-inch so the bar had been raised pretty high. And the processed pictures that had been shared were pretty impressive.

We talked about how big Mars could appear. Oppositions versus superior conjunctions, equipment, aperture, resolution. I wondered if I had every seen Mars in my 'scope so big. The 2003 event at York... I reflected back on that. But I had been a little preoccupied. And back then? What eyepieces did I have?! Now I had the 9mm. 

10:41. I did not think I was feeling any heat off my new custom DIY dew heater. Was there a problem? Had it failed?!

10:42. Checked the Sony voice recorder. Only 2½ hours left. Battery level: middle. I considered VOX. Then I shut off continuous recording.

Mars: North Polar Hood (NPH) was quite large. SPC visibile. Dark band through the equator. Looked like Mare Cimmerium... [ed: Yes! To the east. Mare Sirenum to the west.] There was a split. Another dark region to the south. Tremendous size at 222 times magnification. Tried to detect features in the north...

Rhonda retired.

Installed the occulting ocular, the Meade (4000) 32mm Super Wide Angle (SWA) (from Tony dos Santos). Recently painted. That is, the field stop occulting sheet (aluminium duct tape) I had recently paint flat black (with Rhonda's help). [ed: I believe this is a Plössl-type eyepiece with a 67 degree AFOV. Long eye relief.]

11:04. Started field identification of stars...

11:09. A batch of clouds came through. Scuppered for the moment. Checked the Oregon Scientific Instruments portable weather station: 76% relative humidity, pressure dropping, rain tomorrow, 1.0°C air temperature, new Moon phase, October 16, battery level OK. 

Clouds got worse.

Headed inside again!

Toes were cold.

11:14. Back inside. Clouded out. Checked the AWC site. Just at the edge of skirting clouds.

Put on my Baffin Island -100°C boots!

12:01 AM, Saturday 17 October 2020. Popped outside. 100% low cloud! Boo! It was eerily bright, the local light pollution reflection off the low layer.

Killed time.

Peeked out the window. Dark. Stars! OK. Back on the horse.

12:29 AM. Pleiades was up. Mars was really high. No clouds. Good for a while. Also keen to get Cetus targets... Meade was still installed. I wanted to get some moons.

Noted a ring or halo again! Seen before... I had seen this with Vega (back in June). Around Mars. Bright objects. It went out just beyond the nearest star [ed: TYC 00026-0648 1]. I wondered what the diameter was... [ed: It is around 12 arc-minutes.]

Needed more grunt. Installed the Tele Vue PowerMate doubler. The Beast!

12:46. Got the star TYC 00026-0162 1, north of Mars. Magnitude 11.5. Deimos was mag 11.8. The star would not take direct vision. Oh boy...

12:52. Spotted to the north and east Pisces stars that were magnitude 11.5 and 11.7. With the Tele Vue PowerMate 2 and Meade 32.

Should have been possible!

Ugh. Not seeing anything. 

Put the 9mm in.

12:58. Never done before. 2x with the 9mm. So, that's 444 power, right?

Gave up. Could not see moons near to Mars. I was disappointed...

OK. Switched to double star mode. I had a couple of targets in Cetus I wanted to check off. Chose my first.

The body of the sea monster, quadrangle of faint stars, was to the south.

While star hopping from ε (epsilon), I spotted the target in the finder scope (Orion 9x50). A relief as I thought for a while I was going the wrong way. From a semi-urban location. In other words, should be visible in binoculars.

Arrived HD 9336 in Cetus.

1:14. Yellow and blue stars. Very wide in the 36mm. To the east was a big isosceles triangle. Bright star at the edge of the field, to the north-east [ed: HD 9421, a triple!]. Mostly empty field. Faint stars. Up was north-west for me. The pair was oriented (somewhat) east-west. Same brightness? I think? That was the first impression. Yellow to the west; blue to the east. Not Earth shattering. Doable.

I had a really hard time focusing. Poor seeing. The trees breathing? In and out.

Below the triangle, on the west side of the double, there was a line of stars, in a slight arc.

It occurred to me that I did not have the "compensating" magnifier/reducer factor in the SkyTools on the John Repeat Dance computer.... for visual. To re-scale the view, given the focuser. 1.1? Need to add.

Maybe the A (west) star was a touch brighter? Just a hair. [ed: SkyTools says 6.8 and 7.4.]

Seeing went bad. In and out.

Next: HD 2394 aka HJ 1968.

Starhopped from β (beta). Used the field stars using a faint little triangle.

1:27. Didn't see it at first. Primary is obvious; the companion is much fainter. Unequal pair. White and orange, maybe?. Oriented north-east to south-west. Widely separated with the 36mm. But the B star was just borderline visible. SkyTools said B was 9.8. Different by over 2½ magnitudes. 

Noted an inline star, SAO 147293, to the north-east.

A line of stars to the south going east-west.

1:32. Could not spot the C star. 

AB: Yellow and orange. 

I was angled low. I was aimed into light polluted skies from Toronto and Mississauga.

Not a great pair...

The RA motor cover was starting to press on the mount. Did a meridian flip.

One more in Cetus. HD 3125. [ed: The Washington Double Star database designation is D 2.]

Started at ι (iota). Frustrating star hop but worth it. There were a couple of bright stars, a decent star hop, but I got all turned around...

2:00. Oh. I like it! White and orange. Very close. Attractively close! The main pair was oriented south-west to north-east. About a magnitude or two different. 

[A and B are too tight.]

Outlier. The D star was to the south-south-east. 10 times the distance. 

Spotted another star, kind of opposite. North-west. Not related. [ed: ST3P says TYC 04675-0149 1.] 1.5x times the AD distance.

Another star to the north. 2x the AD separation. So a big triad.

Nice. OK. Good. Mission accomplished. Nice to close that chapter...

Returned to Mars.

2:12. 9mm. Now south was up. SPC was easy. The notch was pretty well at the Central Meridian (CM). [ed: The gab between Mare Cimmerium and Mare Tyrrhenum.] Seeing was really good. So big. Lovely colours, pale orange, very uniform in the north. Tried to spot features, like Cerebus. Between the highlands at the equator and to the south, it was somewhat mottled black and grey. 

Was Syrtis Major rounding the bend?

Three days after opposition. Wow. Really nice.

Similar view as the DDO night...

Didn't seem like the dew heaters were not working. I had switched to my custom controller with an active duty cycle on both. And I tried the cup warmer on the eyepiece. So now I was sure it wasn't a problem with my new hand-made unit. I wondered if the computer power supply was not putting out enough amps. I thought I had used it before... Maybe I should always use a SLA battery.

Should I keep observing, I wondered? Will there be other opportunities? Is this as good as it gets? Should I sketch?

Tired...

That's it. 

2:18. Humidity 82%, 1.1°C, pressure steady, rain tomorrow.

Did a very rapid tear down, intending to sort in the morning...

Grass was wet.

2:37. Back inside. Finished hauling gear from airlock.

I enjoyed that. Great views of Mars! I enjoyed soaking in the view. The Martian moons still elude my eyes though. That the dew heaters weren't working is odd but it must be the source. Tracking was pretty amazing for the night. That was especially amazing given I did not to a star alignment and I had put Polaris in the centre.

§

Learned the reason the custom eyepiece heater wasn't putting out power. Two faults actually. The "rail" copper power lead had not been soldered and unwound itself, through flexure. I don't know why I didn't solder it. Easy fix. More seriously, the leg of the nichrome wire broke, near the mechanical fastener. Damn. Knew that was going to happen, with too much flexing. It needs to be stabilised...

After bench testing, found the 8-inch outputting heat. Yeh. It's a trooper!

found red film

Scared myself (again). Thought I had lost the roll of red film.

I had had the Rosco 42 red film at the DDO so to replace the bit for the television connected to the 74-inch finder scope. I remembered packaging it up and putting it in one of my tote bags after the Mars Madness event. Of course, we hauled all our gear from the dome to the circle. That was where I got fuzzy. I don't recall touching it after that. Vague recollection of grabbing the roll and tossing it in the car. Was that going or leaving? Did it fall out of the bag onto the lawn to be discovered by a perplexing dog walker? I was saddened at the thought of having misplaced it...

Found it!

Behind my hallway door.

On a whim.

I had unpacked it from the car!

I was so sleepy that night, it didn't find it's way into short term memory.

considered Mars

Wanted to see Mars, from the backyard, with my gear.

Simple, quiet, not 'cast on the web.

Clouded out on opposition night, sadly.

Tonight's looking good...

§

Set the OTA outside to cool.

tested polling

Tested Zoom with polls to see if it will work for the RASC Toronto Centre Annual Meeting and voting by members. Looks like it will do what council wants.

helped at RAN

Helped backstage at the RASC Recreational Astronomy Night meeting. The presenters were great, adapting to the OBS Ninja environment. Ennio moderated the YouTube and forwarded questions. I just kind of monitored and assisted Andrew. The server hiccupped and crashed but things, in general, went pretty smooth.

§

Learned later Rhonda watched it on her TV via YouTube tethering. We talked about the speakers and the Q&A period.

§

Raw video available on our YouTube channel.

top-down

Re-wrote the presenters guide for delivering virtual presentations with the proper emphasis on using OBS Ninja. I had to step away for a few days to reset my brain.

helped at rehearsal

Helped at the RAN rehearsal. Oh oh. A couple of people had not been prepped... Hopefully one won't go too off-piste...

happy opposition

Mars is opposite the Sun.

Clouds over Ontario.

commented on TWN article

I submitted a response to an article by Scott Sutherland on the Weather Network. There was no way to comment specifically on the article so I had to use the general contact form.

I said the article was a lot of hokum, filled with half-truths, sensational remarks, and distorted facts. I said the video showing a blue tinted moon was most egregious (particularly upsetting to Rhonda).

I encouraged the author to seek our an expert astronomer to check facts.

relieved of duty

Denise sent a note. The subject line read: Re: Telescope operators NO GO for Mars Madness tonight. They are going to use the clips from last night and she'll just introduce them as recorded. So we get to relax and enjoy the long weekend. She thanked me and Rhonda for all the hard work!

Unpacked the car.

ran the 74 during Mars Madness (Richmond Hill)

Rhonda and I travelled to the David Dunlap Observatory so to arrive around 7:00 PM. I wanted lots of time to set up. Denise was heading to the dome when we arrived.

I had her help me with dome prep, telescope setup, and camera steps.

We had a scare when I couldn't get the MallinCam Universe camera going. Had I damaged it? Had it been damaged during the previous test run? When Ward and started playing with it on the bench, it started working. He operated the TEC cooling switch. That was weird.

And then we were concerned when my computer would not run the OBS Ninja links. Wasn't just my computer, actually. The RASC laptop didn't respond either. Somehow, more black magic, the links started working. A few minutes before the 9:00 PM go-live. Crikey.

After that, it was pretty smooth sailing.

Focus was off at the beginning but it was hard to improve upon with the low elevation and bad seeing.

Rhonda and I got Mars looking better later in the program.

I did live talking for the Mars Madness program. Four segments in total. Used three of my prepared scripts. Discussed orientation (got it wrong first time). Turned out that south was up. Discussed visible features. Did some flag waving and a plug for MallinCam.

11:30 PM. Wow. It worked with Denise shooting from the hip, Andrew in Calgary, Celia monitoring in the Warm Room, Ward up top with Denise, and Rhonda helping in so many ways (including centring and focusing). Intense evening.

The 'scope worked great.

After the show, I went to Uranus. It was pretty soft. But colourful.

We did a hybrid shutdown assuming a return in less than 24 hours...

Long night. I was exhausted.

§

Another first for me: having the OTA so low in the east, almost to the point of touching the dome walkway. Had to use the tallest ladder to work at the spectrograph.

I understand we had a decent turn out and good interactions in the YouTube chat.

I installed a ring into the MCU cooling grill for tethering.

During a break, I put a new larger piece of red film on the finder scope TV.

get the facts

Prepared a bunch of Mars facts, in case I might be called upon tonight...

Many of the temporal items are based on 11 Oct 2020 at 2300h EDT.

DISTANCE

• Earth-Mars Distance or Separation: 0.4 AU (62 million km)
• in light-time, that's 3.5 minutes
• when Mars is on the other side of Sun, light-time can be over 20 minutes
• the Sun is 8 light-minutes away from Earth
• Moon 1 to 2 light-seconds
• Mars Distance (average) from Sun: 1.4 AU (212 million km)
• it's taking the spacecraft from mid- to late-July 2020 to Feb 2021 to reach Mars, i.e. 6 to 7 months
• currently the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance probe is travelling at 104 000 km/h
• that's 1000 times faster than you driving on the highway

When we communicate with landers and rovers, there can be significant delays.

SIZE 

Diameter, true, physical: 6800 km.

Apparent diameter: +0° 00' 22.4"
That's just 1.8" smaller than in 2018.

For comparison, the Moon is 0.5°, 30', or 1800". No, Mars is not as big as the Moon.

	Mars	Earth	Moon
mass x 10^24 kg	64.2 (1/10th)	598	7.4 (1/100th)
diameter km	6800 (½ of Earth)	12800	3500 (¼)
rotation period	24.6h i.e. 24h 40m	23.9h	27.3d

Some fun facts emerge here.

The Martian day is longer. This makes for interesting shifts for humans, back on Earth, when monitor probes, landers, and rovers. And when humans work on the surface of Mars, again, it will make for interesting times.

Also note the Moon rotation period or Moon "day" is 27.3 Terran days. Some believe the Moon does not rotate. Yes, it does.

GRAVITY

• Mars gravity is stronger than Moon 
• but it's just 0.376 of the Earth standard
• person who weighs 80 kg on Earth would weigh only 32 kg on Mars

WHERE

• Azimuth: +132° i.e. south-east
• Elevation or Altitude: +41°
• 30° higher in the sky than it was two years ago
• rise time 7:00 PM
• set time 7:30 AM
• in Pisces
• moving eastward (or to the right) which is called retrograde

OUR AIR

• our air affects the view
• Airmass: 1.5
• 50% more atmosphere than looking straight up
• 150 km of air
• Mean extincted magnitude: -2.1
• we're losing a 1/2 mag to the air
• the low elevation dims Mars and reddens it and it's already red!

APPARENT

• Magnitude: -2.6
• Jupiter right now -2.1
• Apparent RA: 01h 24m 48.1s
• Apparent Dec: +05° 33' 11"
• again, 22" in size

CONDITIONS

It's a bit hostile.

	Mars	Earth	Moon
avg temp °C	-55	13	-30
nitrogen %	3	78	0
oxygen	0.1	21	0
CO2	95	0.03	0

dust storms are fairly common

It's windy:

• highest wind speed recorded 144 km/h
• same as a category 1 hurricane on Earth
• "Very dangerous winds will produce some damage"
• that's above the Beaufort wind scale maximum rating

higher levels of radiation at the surface

water is present in vapour, ice, and snow

sunsets are blue

DATES

• near opposition (Oct 13)
• near closest approach (Oct 6)
• next opposition 2+ years from now, 26-27 months... early Dec 2022
• next closest opposition 2035

FYI

• 1 year from now
• 11 Oct 2021
• Mars will be on the other side of the Sun
• about as far away as it can get...

one Martian year is 687 days

MOTION

• Orbital Velocity: 26 km/s
• apparent hourly motion: 52"

OTHER

moons, two, small

• Phobos
• Deimos

Illuminated: 99.9%

Albedo: 0.150

found raw Mars data

Found the Mars Viking Colorized Global Mosaic 232m v2 web page.

It is a global image map of Mars with a resolution of 256 pixels per degree (with a scale of approximately 232 meters per pixel at the equator).

This is from the Astrogeology Science Center of the United States Geological Survey. Part of the AstroPedia, a lunar and planetary cartographic catalogue.

I think the USGS offers data products in a raw form. Then others can manipulate this data as they see fit.

This is the horse's mouth.

Discussions with Chris suggest that Starry Night allows the user to control the data source for Mars rendering. He specifically chose the Viking data.

Wish I could do this in my software apps...

I'll put a pin in this one...

found Gardner's Mars page

Old but good.

I found Bob Gardner's Mars page, from 2001, in my internet web travels. He shared graphics from Sky & Telescope magazine.

I really like the magnitude-diameter chart.

And, even though cylindrical, I like the details in the albedo features map with the 8 globe positions.

Continued my search for an interactive globe-style presentation.

Mars and a meteor (Bradford)

Popped out, just for a second, to see what I could see. From inside, the southern sky over the trees looked a dark violet. Ah, was it clear, after such a grey day? Yes, stars were visible from the deck, even to my bleached eyes. I moved further away from the house, clearing the upper deck. Bingo! Mars! Bright and orange. I immediately thought of the RASCals down at Long Sault. Good for them. And then, suddenly, a short meteor, near zenith, heading south-east. Boom. Nice little treat. Oh, to be out here now... but I was hazy from tryptophan. And I have a big day tomorrow...

if he can't

Saw the message from Claudio.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to enhance the details in the images because it looked like the camera connected with the 74 inch telescope wasn't capturing high speed video (so only a few FPS = video affected by atmospheric turbulence).

That was irksome. And oddly comforting.

It explains why I struggled trying to stack images from my captured Mars video from the DDO Sep test run. If Claudio can't do it, then I can't.

But it also speaks to something very wrong in the MallinCam Universe software. It's junk.

That's so disappointing. Great hardware and no way to properly exploit it.

beware the disguise

Read a great remark in Broca's Brain by Carl Sagan while discussing the interplay of science and speculative fiction:

We also find straight science fiction disguised as fact in a vast proliferation of pseudoscientific writings, belief systems and organizations.

A good reminder to check your facts. And your fiction.

so long and thanks, CalSky

Chris told me the bad news.

He saw a little farewell message that Calsky is shutting down! "Yikes!"

I have enjoyed the notifications of:

• aurora
• visible International Space Station fly-overs
• ISS-Moon transits
• ISS-Sun transits
• bright comets

Yikes, indeed. This is going to leave a big hole...

painted it black

With Rhonda's help, painted the aluminium duct tape inside the Meade 32mm SWA eyepiece. 

Painted it black. To cut down reflections. In anticipation of viewing Mars. And hoping to occult the planet so to exposed the little moons!

so much confusion

The media really messes things up with astronomical events...

Super moons are not super.

Blue moons are not blue.

What the heck is a "Super Blue Blood Moon?" Please.

Penumbral lunar eclipses are very difficult to detect.

That newly discovered asteroid near the Earth is not going to kill us. Probably.

The next meteor shower is not the be all and end all. Also, meteor showers require dark skies and a lot of patience. Finally, they generally have a short or narrow window. The peak (and best showing) is for a few hours, usually after midnight. Essentially, one night only.

Mars is not as big as the Moon.

And planet oppositions, in contrast to meteor showers, are not one-night-only events.

Mars is great right now. And it will be excellent for weeks. But slowly, over time, as the Earth pulls away, the Red Planet will get smaller and dimmer. 

Closest approach was 6 Oct 2020. Mars opposition will occur one week later.

The point is, Mars is very close to us now, so look while you can. But if you don't get a chance until next week, don't sweat it.

Jeepers. If you don't get any chances at all over the next month or so, fine, no worries. Mars will be back in about 2 years.

Some are saying that "if you miss it, you won't get another chance until 2035." False. Earth-Mars oppositions occur every 26 to 27 months. So the next close approach and opposition is around December 2022.

The 2035 reference is that the Earth-Mars separation will be the same or less than now. In the winter of 2022, it won't be as good as what we're currently enjoying, but it will still be pretty awesome.

Half the time, a media piece is written by someone without the scientific background to understand many of the nuances. So, they should know to reach out to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Ask RASC. Or the Canadian Space Agency. Ask a specialist.

The other half of the time, they are just trying to sell more newspapers or drive more hits. So, reader beware.

Madness!

Images made with SolarSystemScope. Not to scale.

reduced again

Hadn't looked for a long time. On Sep 12, prices seemed to return to the "regular" levels. Plus $20 and Pro $53. But when I checked the SkySafari products in the Google Play store I saw them on sale again. $9.49 and $26.99 respectively.

Why don't they say that? "On sale!" That would drive more traffic, no? Daft.

Huh... My little blurb here might help them. But I'm loathe to do them any favours after their rough handling of my complaint in the summer.

MallinCam hotline

Helped Denise, by remote, while she did testing at the David Dunlap Observatory.

9:15. PM. I pinged her. She was setting the sidereal time.

She asked if I was heading down. Ha! Funny.

10:09. She said she was having trouble getting the exposure right with the MallinCam Universe software.

She emailed a screen snap. Mars was blown out.

I phoned her.

Tried to explain the cruddy MCU software. She, like me, was tripped up by the bad interface design. 

But we got it sorted. She was happy. 

She saved video and streamed with Andrew. Andrew was happy.

I was happy. Two computers were set up with the MCU app. Two DDO 74 operators had successfully captured the Red Planet.

Ready for Mars Madness.

spots available

Still seats available for the RASC Toronto Centre Mars Madness events at the David Dunlap Observatory on Sunday 11 October and Monday 12 October.

Visit the Richmond Hill registration web page to buy your tickets.

selling newspapers

Spotted this on a newsfeed on my phone. I hate these things!

Um. That's not a photo of meteors. That is a long-exposure photograph of star trails.

Also, the photo appears to be taken near a city with a poorly lit bridge. In general, you need to avoid light pollution to see more meteors.

The sky will not look like this during the Draconid meteor shower.

You should also know that the Draconids are a weaker shower. At peak, they produce, on average, 50 sightings per hour at the zenith (ZHR). Perseids, the summer favourite, produce 70 ZHR at peak while the Geminids in December can make 120. Of course, meteor showers have a random component, so it could be more, it could be less. You's takes your chances. And you must be patient.

And if one can successfully avoid wasteful human-made light pollution, then there's natural. The Moon is at Third Quarter phase, rising at 10:00 PM. We usually tell people meteors are best seen after midnight. Well, guess what? The bright Moon will be well up by then and rising higher and higher to dawn. So good luck seeing anything!

Who is Inverse? Clearly they don't know what they're talking about.

Remember, consult the experts. Visit the American Meteor Society or the International Meteor Organisation for the correct and current information, the facts.

§

Update from IMO: There was a purported outburst with more than 100 ZHR. That's cool but the meteors "were mostly faint (+4 to +5 magnitudes), with few bright meteors." So, most would not be visible in bright urban skies.

§

By the way, the banner photo is by Yuri Smityuk via Getty Images.

met with IT chair

Had a meeting with Denis, the new RASC TC Information Technology chair. High-level plans, got him into the web site, some of the interested people. Good to get this portfolio going.

simulating Mars

I've been trying to simulate good (that is, accurate) views of Mars.

After the camera test at the DDO, I had a go. Tried to find some online resources. Reviewed my Journal article from June 2018. Had a quick look at my software apps.

Today, I started thinking about it again. Phoned Chris from some ideas.

I collate my findings... 

I set the date and time in all these tools to 11 Oct 2020 at 11:00 PM.

Unless otherwise noted, south is down.

SkyTools 3 Professional

Skyhound. Commercial. The Pro package was around $200, I think. Windows only. Version 3 superseded by 4.

ST3P is, in general, extremely accurate in its displays. For planets this is also true. The rotation factor is correct meaning the software is showing the correct features for the date and time. It has surface feature labels. I played with the font colour and size to improve from the default appearance. What I don't like is the planet rendering. It is soft, simulating the resolution of a small telescope. Can show direction indicator (N-E) in telescope view.

SkyTools 4 Visual

Skyhound. Commercial. Standard is $100 and Pro is $180. USD. Windows only.

A little surprised to see no improvement in the planet surface rendering or albedo features. Again, I customised the text display. Looks like the leader line algorithm was changed... Can show direction indicator (N-E) in chart and telescope views.

Physical Mars 1.12

Requio Web Design. Commercial. Less than $3. For Android. Last updated 2014... web site gone...

Does not support all telescopic views (rotate, yes, for Newtonians; mirror, no). Rectangular map shows sunlight and sub-Earth point and adjusts for either real-time or a custom date and time. Labels for craters, monts, mons, or landing sites can be shown on this display, but not at the same time. The globe view is realistic but does not support labels! Argh.

Mars Atlas 2.6

By Julian James. Commercial. Less than $10. Screen grab from iPad. Available at the App Store.

Date and time is not the same as the others... I used to have this on an iOS device but I deleted it. I recall it was a great app. Surface feature labels, lander locations, gridlines, real-time view option, customisable date and time, simulated sunlight. Supports different telescopic views.

Sky and Telescope

Web site. Free. Uses JavaScript technology in a web browser. Can run standalone without an internet connection. Visit the information page to get started.

Old snap. Not set to Oct 11. Flat rectangular project so a lot of distortion in the corners. Adjustable date and time (note: UTC). Sub-Earth point in the red circle. All the telescopic view options.

SkySafari 6 Basic

Simulation Curriculum. Free version. Screen grab from Android. Visit the SkySafari web page for more info.

Correct rotation, proper features shown. Detailed image, which is great. Gridlines can be toggled. But surface features are not labelled. And the free version does not offer field-of-view orientation controls so up is up and left is left.

SkySafari 5 Plus

Simulation Curriculum. Commercial. In the $30 to 40 range, if I remember correctly. Screen grab from Android, older version. Visit the SkySafari web page for current info.

Like Basic but surface features can be labelled. Automatic density, i.e. when you zoom, more labels appear. FOV controls but they were not set in the screensnap.

Stellarium 0.18.0 for Windows

Free software. Ur, free for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux users. Visit the main web site. There are mobile version but they cost...

Offers full FOV controls. Planet labels or nomenclature supported; unfortunately, there does not appear to be a density control. Too much! I customised the colour. Correct rotation.

Stellarium Web

Web site. Free. Pretty easy to use. Light weight. Jump into the online tool.

Surprisingly detailed view but you cannot rotate or mirror-reverse for telescopic views. No labels. No grids. Is this view right for the date and time...? Doesn't seem like it... That white bit at the top... Is that the north polar cap? Is so, then this presentation is definitely off.

CalSky

Source: Arnold Barmettler, www.calsky.com. Web site. Free/donate-ware. UPDATE: CalSky just shut down! :-(

Chris's suggestion. I hadn't thought of it even though I rely on the web site for alerts sent via email. I was surprised by the aperture setting which increases the resolution of the image. Very cool. I set to the largest they have, a 40" or 1.0-metre telescope. Supports gridlines. But I don't see labels for surface features. Too bad.

Mars Trek

From NASA. Web site. Free. Visit the Mars Trek web site.

Very resource heavy. Very detailed. I think it supports high resolution of the USGS survey data. Obtuse—so going through the tutorials is recommended. Various projections are supported with rectangular as the default. I struggled with find common albedo labels. I cannot seem to find a way to set the view for a specific date and time. Is that the north polar cap? I dunno... Good luck!

Solar System Simulator

NASA JPL. Web site. Free. Similar to Dial-A-Moon. Access the fill-in form to start.

The input screen allows you choose your planet, vantage point, date and time (in UTC), field of view size or percentage of target size, and toggle orbits, brightness, and spacecraft. Not bad. In fact, it's very accurate in turns of rotation. Sadly, no albedo features are labelled. And no flipping or mirroring.

Mobile Observatory 3.3.3

Commercial. Around $7. Screenshot from free version. Android only. Hop into the Google Play store to check out the free version from Wolfgang Zima.

Nice detailed map. Looks accurate in terms of rotation. Shown at maximum zoom level. Supports horizontal and vertical flipping (but not apply for this image). While the app supports labels, there don't appear to be options for planet surface features...

others...

Chris said StarryNight was fair. Required manual adjustment.

Had a go at Eyes On The Solar System. It's really a space-flight simulator...

Telescopius? Nope.

AstroPlanner. Right! Forgot I had AstroPlanner. But it does not show any surface detail or labels for planets.

Tried Software Bisque's TheSkyX. It shows a mottled view of the fourth planet which rotates but other than the south polar cap, I did not see discernible features. There are no planet albedo labels. Can show direction indicator (N-E).

Mars Xplorer. Free. Android. I have tried this app with high hopes more than once: 3D globe, features labelled, current data. But it is bad. I remember this on my previous phone; it does the same thing on the "new" motorola. The panels of the map flash on and off. People with photosensitive epilepsy may want to avoid.

I asked Chris if he knew if the SVS group did anything like Dial-A-Mars. Nope.

closing thoughts

"But I still haven't found what I'm looking for..."

I want:

• three-dimensional globe rendering
• medium to high resolution
• proper lighting angle
• major surface features accurately rendered or positioned, accurate rotation, accurate axial tilt
• major features labelled, not too much, or adjustable label density
• simulated telescopic views for both odd and even numbers of reflections
• direction indicator e.g. N-E

Nice to have:

• axes positions, labelled
• gridlines, optional longitude numbers
• arbitrary field of view rotation

It is Mars Atlas, really, that I've been thinking of all this time... Arguably the best.

I thought, when I was researched the Journal article, I had found something eerily similar to the S&T product but that showed Mars as a sphere. Was that my imagination?

§

Update.

My buddy Chris V sent over a snap from Starry Night Pro 8.

Labelled. Supports grid lines. I played with SN back in the day and I recall it was fully featured then, so can flip vertically and horizontally, do field rotation, etc. In this case, north is up, east is left. Chris says he "skinned" it with the Viking mosaic as opposed to the default.

§

Found it! I think. w00t! Ade Ashford's (the guy that wrote the S&T apps) 3D globe rendering of Mars. Yes! This must be the one I was thinking of...

viewed Mars (Bradford)

Popped outside a couple of times during the evening. The sky looked fantastic, cloudless, transparent. Mars was obvious, a bright orange, rising high. Later the Moon chased the Red Planet. I stood such that the upper deck blocked the Moon. Better.

let's learn about Mars!

It's Mars madness week... Closest approach is today and tomorrow. And Mars is at opposition around the 13th. Lots is happening this week.

RASC Toronto Centre in particular is conducting multi-media events the evening of Sunday 11 October and Monday 12 October. We're hoping the skies will be clear so we can show live views through the 74-inch telescope.

Visit the Richmond Hill DDO web site for general information. To buy a ticket for either night, head into the bookings page.

matter update

Read an article at Astronomy Now about a new measurement of the matter in the cosmos from a study at the University of California. Old numbers were 5%, 23, and 72.

Had to update my graph.

Their graph is lame.

helped with online event

Helped backstage with the diversity panel discussion, an online presentation by the David Dunlap Observatory. Good event, great speakers.

Lots of personal takeaways too. Like, we must always consider:

Who's not in the room?

odd

Feels weird to not be at a work party at the Carr Astronomical Observatory...

know that the stars belong to everyone

Tune in this Saturday 3 October for a special event hosted by the RASC Toronto Centre associated with the David Dunlap Observatory.

The Stars Belong to Everyone: Fostering Diversity and Inclusion in Astronomy 

The DDO subcommittee, 7:00 pm, will discuss expanding diversity and inclusion in astronomy in Canada with several panelists

• Science Advisor to the CSA and professor at UWO, Dr. Sarah Gallagher
• planetary scientist and science communicator, Dr. Sara Mazrouei
• CBC Senior Science Reporter and editor of the RASC Journal, Nicole Mortillaro
• astrophysicist and scientist working on the intersection of science, astronomy, and Indigenous knowledge, Dr. Hilding Neilson

This will be webcast live on the RASC TC YouTube channel.

See the card at the RASC web site.

11 hours

I finally finished uploading my Mars videos from the DDO MallinCam test. Sheesh.

funny timing

Submitted my items to the editor of the RASC Journal, for my next column piece, moments before the reminder notice...