Mississauga Astronomical Society

Fortyseventh Meeting

Members’ Night

Day:                Friday, September 23, 2005

Speakers:         Kirsten Vanstone

                         Phil Mozel

                         Randy Attwood

Lost in the Fog, A Canadian Astronomer’s Adventures in California

Kirsten Vanstone studied astronomy at U of T, graduated in 1994 and moved to San Francisco.  She was hired by the California Academy of Sciences and went to work in their planetarium. She spoke about her experiences with amateur astronomy in California. 

Kirsten provided a list of about 30 astronomy clubs in north end California and Nevada. The clubs operated largely on their own and Kirsten’s job was to organize them, a no easy feat.  One of the clubs she was involved with was the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers who held a star party with much expensive equipment and technology at Glacier Point in Yosemite Park.  She described John Dobson, creator of the dobsonian telescope, at age 90 at the Grand Canyon and spoke about his unorthodox theory of cosmology wherein the universe recycles its material.

The East Bay Astronomical Society and Chabot Observatory has an 8” Alvin Clark telescope and 8.5” Brashear refractor, founded by Anthony Chabot of Quebec. 

She then described the astronomy groups of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Astronomical Association of Northern California, The Astronomical League, Night Sky Network and Riverside Telescope Makers.  Some observatories hold with regular public nights such as Fremont Peak Observatory with its 30” telescope.

Kirsten described Lick Observatory built with money from James Lick who made his fortune in Peru selling pianos and came to San Francisco in 1846 where he increased his wealth with real estate.  His body is buried under the refracting telescope which was build on a mountaintop. The observatory pioneers in adaptive optics using a laser artificial star.  There are 6 planetaria in Northern California compared to 19 in all of Canada.  The Morrison Planetarium of the California Academy of Sciences, where Kirsten works, celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2000.  In World War II the optical shop there repaired binoculars for the military.  Russell W. Porter designed the Star Projector.  Plates were made from carburundum with 3,800 precise star positions from the Norton Star Atlas.  A new planetarium is to be built with a new star projector.

Kirsten emphasized that although Northern California has many astronomy clubs the comeraderie cannot compare to that of the R.A.S.C. in this country.  

Award

Gordon Williams presented an award to Terry Hardman for helping with astronomy for scouts during the summer. 

Mars Global Surveyor Telescope

Phil Mozel described Malin Space Science Systems Telescope at www.msss.com . 137,000 photographs of the martian surface have been obtained with the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft launched in 1996. MSSS are inviting interested persons to recommend a specific site for imaging the MOC at a resolution of 1.5, 3.0 or 4.5 meters/pixel.  The area cannot have been imaged at such resolution before and an argument must be put forth to explain why to image the area.  Phil has chosen a specific type of crater, a splash crater, in the Hellas Basin which appears to contain mud and ice when formed.   His proposal located at 50.9144 south and 259.8789 west has been approved and is now waiting to be imaged by the spacecraft.

1991 Solar Eclipse Film

Randy Attwood created a film about the 1991 total solar eclipse.  At the time the film was made, video cameras were finally able to faithfully record sound and colour in great detail.  The film puts together the recordings of ten separate individuals at different locations on the eclipse path and shows the excitement and drama of the eclipse as it occurs.

Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to M.A.S. meeting reports page
Mississauga Astronomical Society