Kyle Dally, RASC Vancouver’s Merchandise Director, talked about Mar’s opposition in a WeMartians podcast on May 30 (Mar’s closest approach to the earth).
WeMartians Podcast
In Transit – June 2016
RASC Vancouver President, Suzanna Nagy, revived the “In Transit” presentation at the June 2016 member’ monthly meeting. “In Transit” is a short presentation of interesting astronomical events that are visible in the current sky.
Three Bright Planets
The Sun is Getting Less Active
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 4 days
2016 total: 4 days (1%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)
2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Updated 10 Jun 2016
Open Star Cluster NGC 457
An owl …
or ET!
Report on the Mercury Transit Outreach Event
Reported by Adrian Mitescu, RASC Vancouver Secretary
On May 9, RASC Vancouver organized an outreach event for the Mercury transit. Four RASC Vancouver hosts (three council members and one volunteer) welcomed 170-200 people over four hours in the public plaza at 200 Granville St, Vancouver. We had three scopes: two with mylar filters, one with an H-alpha filter, one pair of binoculars with a mylar filter, and eclipse glasses. Several other council members stopped by at various times and provided backup support.
We set up right in front of the office tower in which The Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers are located. Several reporters came down and interviewed us for two Vancouver Sun articles: one article with video and another article with photos.
Overall, we judge this event to be a success, with many “wow” moments and repeat customers. Some members of the public stopped by multiple times to see Mercury’s progress. From our conversations with those present, many people had never even looked at the sun through eclipse glasses before, much less solar telescopes.
Rare chance to see planet Mercury cross paths with the sun early Monday
Mercury's transit of the sun draws Vancouver astronomy fans
Mars Close to Opposition
Mars will be well placed for observing this long weekend as it will be at opposition on Sunday, May 22 at 04:10 PDT. Opposition occurs when the Sun and Mars are on exact opposites sides of the Earth. Mars is fully illuminated by the sun during an opposition and briefly rivals Jupiter in brightness during this year’s opposition. Mars reaches opposition every 26 months so the next one is not until 2018. Mars will be relatively large during this opposition, with an apparent diameter of 18.6 arc-seconds, because it is making its closest approach to Earth in 11 years a few days later on May 30th.
Mars is the only planet that reveals much of its surface features. Even a small 100mm telescope will show features such as dark shadings and the bright polar caps. Look towards the south around midnight – Mars will be the bright star-like object in the sky. But observing from Vancouver poses some challenges: Mars will appear no higher than 20 degrees above the horizon so the views may be blurred by turbulence in the atmosphere, and the weather forecast is predicting cloudy skies for the next few nights. Nevertheless, Mars will remain well positioned for observing for a few weeks after opposition so there is time to wait and hope for nights with clear skies and steady seeing.
Image from May 13th, 2016 using a Skywatcher ED100 Pro refractor, a ZWO ASI 224 camera and Antares 3X Barlow.
NASA released a beautiful hi-res view of Mars taken by the Hubble Telescope.
Check out the the Guide to Observing Mars from SkyNews magazine.
Space Talk with Scott: May 7, 2016
Scott McGillivray from the Royal Astronomical Society talks about the latest discoveries in space. This week: stargazers celebrate Astronomy Day in Vancouver, Mercury tracks across the sun’s path and researchers discover three earth-like planets.
Livestream of Hubble’s 25-Year Odyssey by Ray Villard
Ray Villard’s 2pm talk will be livestreamed here.
2016 Astronomy Day @ SFU – May 7
If last year was any indication, the upcoming Astronomy Day and Science Rendezvous should be a busy one!
Things get underway at 11am and run until 3pm, with a list of activities that include:
- Apollo rockets and Moon display
- Jim Bernath and his hands-on science displays
- Solar system displays, walk, and bean-bag toss
- Three craft tables for children (alien figures, alien masks, and phases of the Moon with Oreo cookies)
- Astronomy bingo
- Solar telescopes (outside the Trottier Observatory, weather-permitting)
- Planetary Society display
- Vancouver Telescope display
Our featured lecture will be Hubble’s 25 Years Odyssey, presented by Ray Villard of the Space Telescope Science Institute. There will be a 2pm talk for kids and a 7:30pm talk for the general public. Registration is required. Please follow this link for details.
We will also have a series of talks throughout the day. The talks will be in room 3150 on the East Concourse of the Academic Quadrangle.
| 11:30 | Stanley Greenspoon | What’s New in the Search for Exoplanets and Extraterrestrial Life |
| 12:30 | Kenneth Lui | What’s up in the Global Space Community |
| 1:30 | Ted Stroman | The Creation and Formation of the Moon |
| 2:30 | Scott McGillivray | It’s 2016 – Astronomy is More than Telescopes |
The Trottier Observatory will also be open for tours throughout the afternoon.
Space Talk with Scott: January 3, 2016
Scott McGillivray from the Royal Astronomical Society talks about the latest discoveries in space. This week: Scott’s top-3 news items for 2015, plus his top-3 predictions for 2016.
Space Talk with Scott: November 8, 2015
Scott McGillivray from the Royal Astronomical Society talks about the latest discoveries in space. This week: NASA’s report on the loss of Mars’ atmosphere, Earth’s Aurora Borealis, SETI’s search for ‘Alien Mega Structures’.
Europe and Russia’s cooperation on a Lunar mission.
Additionally – a look at images submitted by viewers, and Howard Trottier’s first image from the SFU’s Trottier Observatory.
Space Talk with Scott: Asteroid headed for Earth
Scott McGillivray from the Royal Astronomical Society talks about the latest discoveries in space, including an asteroid named ‘Spooky’ that is flying right past the earth.