Supermoon by André Vaillancourt

Over the weekend of May 5 and 6, 2012, the full Moon was unusually close to Earth – only 356,400km away, compared to its usual distance from Earth of 384,000km. As a result, the moon appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter than an average full moon. For more about how a “Supermoon” occurs, check out this webpage.

There are a few Supermoon image galleries on major news and astronomy sites; here are a few of our favourites:

Supermoon Gallery – National Geographic

Supermoon Gallery – CBC News

Super Lune – MaxiSciences

Our members have taken some photos, here are some examples:

Supermoon by André Vaillancourt

Supermoon by Andrew Fazekas

Supermoon by Morrie Portnoff

The May-June 2012 issue of Skyward! is now available for download in pdf format on our website. Please link to the Members Only page and click on Montreal Member Access. Log in with our Montreal Centre username and password to access the Skyward! page. Get in touch with us at info@rascmontreal.org if you have any questions.

In this latest issue Ron Baran updates us on the latest news of our Bellevue Observatory, Andrew Fazekas preps us for the impending transit of Venus, Mark Milas reviews our Earth Hour 2012 activities, and David Levy invites us to his ninth Annual Adirondack Astronomy Retreat.

Happy reading!

The RASC Montreal Centre is participating again in the annual Earth Hour celebrations at the Victoria Hall Community Centre in Westmount, Montreal.

Earth-Hour 2012 Theme: Energy

Saturday March 31
6 – 10 pm
Victoria Hall Community Centre
4626 Sherbrooke Street West
at Lansdowne, H3Z 1G1

Programme

M.C. Dr. Anthony F. J. Moffat, Professor Emeritus in Astronomy, Université de Montréal

6:00 PM: Concert Hall: doors open; exhibits on display related to energy and climate change.

6:15 – 09:45 PM: Finger food, hot soup & drinks available at cost (bring your own cup and save!).

6:30 – 09:45 PM: Continuous screening of an environmental film.

6:30 – Storytelling (English)

6:45 – Storytelling (French)

7:00 – 7:45 PM: Concert Hall: introductions, oral presentations: Mayor Trent, MP Marc Garneau, MPP Jacques Chagnon.
Invited speaker – Johanne Roby, professor, Dept. of Chemistry, CEGEP de Sherbrooke:
“Light and Health”.

7:45  – 8:30 PM: Musical entertainment by Stan Grossman and friends.

8:15  – 9:30 PM: Outside: several telescopes will be set up by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada to observe several bright planets, the Orion Nebula and other celestial delights.  Events continue in parallel inside Victoria Hall.

8:30 – 9:30 PM: actual Earth Hour, initiated by raising a ruckus (bring a bell or other noise-maker); nearby streetlights will be turned off.

10:00 PM: Doors close.
Contact for exhibits: Virginia Elliott: velliott@westmount.org, 514-217-0824

Note : The Arena will dim its lights at general skating between 8:30 – 9:30 pm. A thermos of hot spiced apple juice  will be available to the people there who bring their own mug.
Organizers:  Westmount Healthy City Project/Environment-Committee – Earth-Hour Subcommittee (Eve Aspinall, Patricia Dumais, Paul Marriott & Tony Moffat – chair), with the cooperation of Virginia Elliott, Councillor Theodora Samiotis,  Hydro Westmount and Westmount Public Security.

Perseid Meteor Shower at David Levy's Astronomy Retreat

By David Levy

I wish to invite the members and friends of the RASC Montreal Centre to consider coming to our ninth annual Adirondack Astronomy Retreat. It is held each year at the Twin Valleys Camp, owned by The State University of New York (SUNY) at Plattsburgh. In 2012 the first retreat will be July 15-18; the second from July 19-22.  Both events are already wait-listed, but you may write the Sharing the Sky Foundation at info@sharingthesky.org for details.

In past years we have enjoyed some lovely nights, and spectacular days.  In 2010, Clara Scattolin, age 12 at the time, delighted us with her “Star Trek Observing Project” for which she prepared a list of objects that were featured in at least one of the several Star Trek series.

The site is very special to me. During the summers of 1964, 1965, and 1966, I attended the Adirondack Science Camp there. In 1965 we were asked to come up with science projects that could be presented, in whole or in part, at Parents visiting weekend at the end of the season. The director, Ernie Coons, said back then that this would NOT be a traditional school science fair.  “I want your projects to soar,” he suggested;  “Your project should stretch you to your limits—so much so that it could actually fail.”  When we heard these words we laughed, since Ernie was a teaser at the time.  “I am not joking now,” he insisted. “Do you think this is a joke?  It is not.”  Ernie framed his words deliberately, because he felt that failure was the great teacher.  If  you never fail, he believed, then you were not trying hard enough.

I came up with something, an observing plan based on what Miss Williamson was encouraging us to do in Montreal.  It turned out that my observing logs, now posted on the national RASC website, were a part of that. But I left camp that year with what I thought was an unsatisfactory project. Two months later, while walking to  a French Oral examination at Westmount High, I thought of the newly discovered comet Ikeya-Seki. The thought hit me with full force.  I was going to begin a search for comets!  “Je veux decouvrir une comete!”  I announced at the French Oral. My French teacher was flabbergasted.  “How the heck to you expect top make any money doing that?” Mr. Hutchison asked. He then warned me to keep at it, adding that if I didn’t find a comet within 20 years, he’d come back and lower my mark!”  I began my project, called CN3, on December 17, 1965, and discovered my first comet 19 years later.

In 1967 I was almost expelled from the Centre and the Society.  I was accused of breaking the antique barograph and then being impolite to Miss Williamson. “Whatever you do,” one new member was advised back in 1968, “avoid Levy, our persona non grata.  He will never amount to anything.”

I am glad I never abandoned the Montreal Centre and the RASC, which I love and cherish deeply. Miss Williamson and I even became good friends later in her life. More than four decades later, my wife Wendee and I hold an increasingly popular Adirondack Astronomy Retreat at Twin Valleys Camp. The year 2011 was one of our best seasons ever. Our week was a symphony of sparkling nights.  When we arrived late in July, the forecast was not favorable, with some rain forecast for almost every day.  However, the rain generally was light and the sky cleared off before nightfall almost every night. For the first time since our event began, we had desert-like conditions, with good viewing available on six out of seven nights. These nights reinforced my feeling that the clarity of the Adirondack sky can exceed that of the Arizona home that Wendee and I share.
The purpose of our retreat is to rediscover our astronomical roots, to remind its attendees why we became interested in astronomy in the first place. This place is a land of unsurpassed magic and peace, a site whose visitors have the opportunity to step back from life’s raging waters, and reflect calmly. Here we return to our roots.
As usual, the week is divided into two sessions of three nights each. Those who wish to attend both halves get the “interim day” as a bonus.  In 2011 even that night was clear.
The “VIP Night” is an annual event we all look forward to.  On this night faculty and administration members from SUNY Plattsburgh join us for dinner and observing. Most years William Ehmann, who played a crucial role eight years ago in getting this event started, comes all the way from Mercy College near New York City. Thanks partly to what goes on during these VIP nights, the AAR now has an observatory with a large Meade 14-inch reflector telescope which I used for comet hunting one night. It is similar to the one that our Sharing the Sky Foundation recently donated to the Montreal Centre.

Unlike other conventions or professional gatherings which cram many papers into brief periods of time, thanks to the AAR’s emphasis on “retreat” we are pretty light on our lecture schedule. Last year I began with a presentation on NASA’s evolution from its origins in 1958 to its finest hour only 11 years later when Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the Moon. NASA used the time since then to build the largest building ever constructed in Earth orbit, the International Space Station. I made this talk personal by recounting the honor I felt when I had a chance to use the great Hubble telescope to observe Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, and about the week of that comet’s impacts into Jupiter, during which I got to meet President Clinton and Vice President Gore.  But as thrilling as that week was, nothing can beat the pure joy and sense of accomplishment that I feel whenever I am at the AAR.

Even though both sessions are wait-listed, we hope to see many of you at AAR in July. The people are fun and special, but the location, which boasts a sky among the darkest in eastern North America, is unsurpassed. I look forward to seeing you there.
2012 dates:
July 15-18 first retreat
July 19-22 second retreat.  Both events are already wait-listed.

Please write Sharing the Sky Foundation at info@sharingthesky.org for details.

The March-April 2012 issue of Skyward! is now available for download in pdf format on our website. Please link to the Members Only page and click on Montreal Member Access. Log in with our Montreal Centre username and password to access the Skyward! page. Get in touch with us at info@rascmontreal.org if you have any questions.

In this issue read about Mark Milas’ adventures in Atacma, Chile, Laurent V. Joli-Coeur tells you how to ‘Shoot the Moon’, Ron Baran unveils our observatory’s name, and Bettina Forget has another brain teaser for you.

Happy reading!

The January-February 2012 issue of Skyward! is now available for download in pdf format on our website. Please link to the Members Only page and click on Montreal Member Access. Log in with our Montreal Centre username and password to access the Skyward! page. Get in touch with us at info@rascmontreal.org if you have any questions.

In this issue you’ll get the latest update of our RASC Montreal Centre observatory by our president Ron Baran, Laurent V. Joli-Coeur shares tips on photographing startrails, Mike Simonson explains the concept of “Goldilocks Moons,” and you can browse the many photos taken during our 2011 RASC Montreal Centre Christmas party.

Happy reading!

Our RASC Montreal Centre Honourary President David Levy has received an outstanding review by the Globe and Mail. The article profiles Dr Levy’s start in astronomy, his successes as a comet hunter, and his online observation archive now available at RASC National.

His is a life spent pressed to a telescope eyepiece, at hours when most people are sanely asleep, in thrall to the mysteries in the darkened vault above. And now, his entire observation archive has been posted online by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, the first such recognition for any Canadian astronomer.

“If you don’t write it down then you’re not observing,” Mr. Levy said from his home near Tucson this week, after coming in from his backyard observatory to prepare entry No. 16,449 in his logbook.

“This,” he says of his 23-volume archive, “just gives a sense of what one man’s passion has led to, session by session, night by night.”

Read the entire article here.

The September – October 2011 issue of Skyward! is now available for download in pdf format on our website. Please link to the Members Only page and click on Montreal Member Access. Log in with our Montreal Centre username and password to access the Skyward! page. Get in touch with us at info@rascmontreal.org if you have any questions.

This issue’s highlights include an article by our youngest member and newest regular contributor Laurent V. Joli-Coeur, who with this issue launches a column on astrophotography, Ron Baran‘s Observatory Update (and there is much news to tell!), photos from our recent social events, and astronomical brain teasers by Mark Milas and Bettina Forget.

Happy reading!

Intriguing Herschel Objects

Friday, November 4, 2011, at 8 PM
Vanier College, room B-223
821 Ste-Croix Ave in Ville St. Laurent
This is a free public event.

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Montreal Centre is proud to present the next lecture in it’s Free Public Event Series, the annual Townsend Memorial Lecture and the year’s keynote speaker.

Presenter: Mr. Mark Bratton
The Complete Guide to the Herschel Objects
Sir William Herschel’s Star Clusters, Nebulae and Galaxies
Mark Bratton, Webb Deep-Sky Society

ABSTRACT
Sir William Herschel’s contributions to astronomy during the late eighteenth century are unrivaled. His lasting legacy is his dedicated all-sky survey of star clusters and nebulae, and these objects continue to be among the most studied in the night sky. This unique book provides a complete re-examination of Herschel’s entire catalog of non-stellar discoveries, making it the most accurate and up-to-date reference of its kind. Retrace the footsteps of one of history’s greatest astronomers and explore every one of Herschel’s landmark discoveries, including those considered to be lost or non-existent. Read detailed notes about each object’s appearance and physical characteristics, and view hundreds of photos of the most intriguing Herschel objects, along with dozens of sketches of what is visible at the eyepiece. This superb book is a must-have for amateur astronomers seeking new and exciting observing challenges, and as the ultimate reference on the Herschel objects.

BIO
Mark Bratton is a Past President of the Montreal Centre. He could be called an avid amateur astronomer after completing a twenty year journey of the heavens that resulted in this book. He currently lives under Sasketchewan’s dark skies near a town that has more cows than people.

PARKING
1- There is plenty of free parking spaces on the streets around campus on Friday nights
2- Parking on campus now costs $4 for the evening – park in lot P6 orP7
3- Various combinations of STM busses Metro and commuter train make it easy to get there.

The Montreal Centre presents major talks by professional astronomers, graduate students in astronomy as well as the Centre’s own members on various aspects of astronomy. Talks are scheduled each month.