Next RASC Meeting

Anyone reading this and wishing to see what the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is all about, feel free to come along to our next meeting. It will be held at the Vancouver Space Centre, 7.30pm on June 8th 2006.

The main speaker is Brett Gladman from UBC's Dept of Physics and Astronomy and he will be talking about some of the objects he and his team have found and what these can tell us about our solar system.

Buffy the Kuiper Belt Object is one of the teams' most famous discoveries and was first seen back in Dec 2005. The linked article is from Universe Today.

Rain Rain Rain!!

As you can tell from the title the weather here is not good. It's raining heavily and only suitable if you're a duck.

They'll be no viewing tonight.

ISS Over Vancouver

For those folks that don't know the International Space Station makes frequent passes over Vancouver skies. It can be clearly seen and looks like a bright star travelling across the sky.

Over the next two weeks it will make several pases but unfortunately most if not all will be in the small hours. So if you're awake really early or really late. Then take a peek up at the skies and you might just see it. The times below are from the NASA's ISS Tracker site. You can use this site to check nearly every city across the globe. If anyone needs any help or just needs their city finding please feel free to ask.

For Vancouver BC (local times)
Saturday June 3rd 4:25am
It should be visible for about 4 minutes. It will appear from SSW (South South West) at about 10 degrees above the horizon climbing to a maximum elevation of 19 degrees.
It will then head off in a ESE (East South East) direction at about 14 degrees.

Monday June 4th 3:37am
It should be visible for about 3 minutes. It will appear from the South at about 15 degrees above the horizon climbing to a maximum elevation of 19 degrees.
It will then head off in a Easterly direction at about 10 degrees.

More dates will be added shortly.

Viewing 29th May 2006 (Cont)

Tonight I got the 6" refractor out and set it up on my deck. The deck is not the steadiest place for serious viewing but it's okay for a bit of sky hopping.

The telescope is a Skywatcher 102 on an equatorial mount. I mainly used a 25mm eyepiece and at times put in a 2X Barlow.

First on the list was Mars. I found it easy in the Western sky just on the boundary of Cancer and Gemini. It's too far away now and low in the horizon for good viewing but it's nice to say hello to it and wave at the rovers.

Saturn was next. Saturn looks great in the refractor and without too much magnification the image is really clear. I could only be certain of two moons tonight. Those were Titan and Rhea. If I'd waited a little longer for the sky to darken a little more then I probably would have got a couple more.

From Saturn a short hop up to the M44 - The Beehive Cluster. This is one of my fave Open Clusters. I think only the Plaeides is more prettier than this one.

M67 - King Cobra was proving really difficult to get. Just when I thought a I had found it one of the Iridium Satellites went streaking past. No matter how many times I see these things they still make me jump. The viewing was still not great but I think it must have gone behind the apartment as I couldn't find it. No points for this one tonight.

M3 beckoned next. Eventually that small fuzzy ball was just barely in view. It took a while to find it way high up there, but that's what knees are for.

A phone call was then to disturb the rest of the planned viewing as a trip to collect a relative was needed. Before the telescope was put away a brief look at Jupiter was in order. It looked great as always and getting better each day. The usual moons were on display too. Callisto way out and on the other side Ganymede with Europa a little further in. Very close though was Io and I'm sure I caught a glimpse of its shadow on the planet.

Well that was it for tonight. A planned evening cut short but there will be many more to come. Hopefully this weekend will be clear and I can get back to the GMSO for some proper viewing.

Tonights Viewing May29th 2006

Well it seems I've neglected this site for a while so it's time to get back on with it.

The viewing tonight looks fairly decent compared to the last few weeks of cloudy/rainy skies. It's 9.40pm here in Vanoucouver BC and the plan is to get a few Messier objects and three planets viewed.

Obviously we're going for the easy planets. Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. Mars & Saturn are pretty much close together at the moment but fairly low in the horizon. These will have to be viewed as soon as it gets dark before they go below the apartment building opposite my home.

I've only five messier objects on the list so far for tonight.

M44- Beehive Cluster. A easy one for sure and just by Saturn.
M67 - King Cobra. Not that easy from my position. Too much light polution but I should be able to get it. Another one close to Saturn.
M3 - Globular Cluster. I'll try for this one again. I tried a few times when we last had decent weather but couldn't get it here at home. Out in a dark sky this one is fairly easy.
M5 - Globular Cluster. Same as M3 really.
M13 - Hercules Cluster. This is a pretty cluster and one of my faves.

Maybe I'll try for a few more so watch this space.

This is the start of my blog then. I thought it was about time I got myself into the 21st century and joined all the other bloggers from around the world.

So what is this blog about I hear you ask. Well I like astronomy so what better subject to blog about than that.