President's Message - November 2007

by Joe Carr

Observatory Project

Victoria Centre members are obviously just as excited about our Observatory Project as I am.  I'm pleased to report we are now over our $10,000 fundraising target - we have raised $10,275 to date!. Thank you to everyone.

Victoria Centre Council has approved purchase of a Skyshed for the site, and we have a new Project Manager: Bruno Quenneville.  Thanks go to Bruno for contributing his unique talents to this project.  Bruno reports he has plenty of volunteers, once the construction actually starts.  We expect NRC to put the paperwork in place shortly, and then we will build our observatory this Fall and Winter.

You can still contribute to the Observatory Project. We will be happy to credit next year's budget with your contribution. Please send your cheques to our Treasurer:

RASC Victoria Centre
c/o David Griffiths
333 - 1900 Mayfair Drive
Victoria, BC V8P 1P9

Make cheques payable to "RASC Victoria Centre"  Tax receipts will be issued for all donations.  Please refer to the Observatory Project.web page for further background information and ongoing status reports about this project...and thanks again everyone!

Observing

Our members who observe visually, sketch, and take photographs were rewarded this past month will an unexpected show from Comet 17/P Holmes. Refer to Observing Highlights for our members' observations, sketches and photographs of the most interesting comet to come along in several years Observing reports posted to our RASCVic Email List were frequent as our active observers shared their enthusiasm with their fellow members.  Refer to our Zenfolio RASC Victoria Centre Astrophoto Galleries for photos and sketches of the comet and lots of other beautiful phenomena as well.  What a talented group of observers we have in Victoria Centre!

Speaking of observing, in my role as Webmaster, I have revised the Observers Resources web page to include information about observing our Solar System.  I have also changed the layout of the page to better reflect our observers' needs and interests.  As always, I'm happy to hear feedback from members about our website.  Please keep in mind this is your website.

The AGM

Our Annual General Meeting for Victoria Centre is coming up on November 17, 2007.  If you plan to partake of the wonderful buffet Gorge Vale Golf club always serves, please reserve your spot ahead of time.  Our caterers need to know how many servings to prepare by the Monday before the event (Nov 12th), so please contact David Griffiths. Of course, the whole purpose of this event is to elect a new Council, so if you have any late nominations to propose, please contact Scott Mair, our Past President and Nominating Committee.    Please refer to the RASC Victoria Centre 2007 AGM web page for more details about this fun event.