October 2003

Chris Gainor

A successful RASC Victoria Star Party on the third weekend of September brought down the curtain on a memorable summer for all of us in the Victoria Centre.

The clouds that came with the turn to fall weather earlier in the month parted on Friday September 19. Those of us who brought out our telescopes and binoculars to the Victoria Fish and Game Association were rewarded with clear and steady skies that were available for viewing immediately upon completion of the evening talks and prize draws.

On Friday evening, Julie Bolduc-Duval gave us an excellent presentation on the Gemini Telescopes, and the next day, John Vincent told us about this successful eclipse pursuit last December in Australia, Sid Sidhu and Lauri Roche gave us their school astronomy presentation, and David Lee spoke on astronomical imaging.

The equipment on hand both evenings ran the gamut from binoculars and small telescopes to David Luttman's 20-inch Dobsonian. Although my ETX gave me excellent performance, I spent much of the two observing sessions wandering around to see what others had on view.

By the time of the Star Party, Mars had become old hat, but I did get a couple of great glimpses of the features on Mars' surface and its shrunken polar cap to close off an unforgettable summer of Mars observing. Joe Carr gave me a rare glimpse of Uranus and Neptune, which weren't far in the sky from the Red Planet.

Most of us focused on faint fuzzies, such as the Ring Nebula, M13, the Dumbbell and even the Little Dumbbell. Some of our more experienced observers like David Luttman, Bill Weir and Guy Walton were finding faint and little-known NGC objects to add to their observing logs.

Unfortunately, the dew of September put a literal damper on each evening's activities, but not before a lot of observing had been done. During the days, we enjoyed great food and better companionship, plus some solar observing.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the efforts of Rich Willis, who organized the event, and many other volunteers, notably Frank Ogonoski. Now we are moving into our fall season, which means monthly meetings, the November banquet and other activities that are organized by volunteers in the Victoria Centre Council.

It�s time to form a new council for the coming year. If you want to help us make sure that 2004 has many memorable activities and services for all of us in the Victoria Centre, please consider serving on council. I'd be delighted to hear from you. And if I don�t hear from you, don't be surprised if you hear from me!