Due to the COVID-19 situation, this meeting was held via Zoom.

Featured Speaker: Erik Rosolowsky – The PHANGS view of Nearby Galaxies

This talk will present new observations from the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) survey, a coordinated effort to study nearby galaxies with some of the world’s best telescopes.  New data from the Atacama Large Millimetere/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Hubble Space Telescope are being explored together to create a new view the small-scale physics of galaxies.  I will discuss how each of these telescopes contributes insight to the questions of how galaxies evolve over cosmic time through the process of star formation and stellar feedback.

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Also featured: The 100th issue of AstroImaging Corner.

Free and Open to the Public 

Telus World of Science – Zeidler Dome

7:00 PM – Pre Meeting Mix & Mingle

7:30 PM – Meeting

Featured Speakers:

Bruce McCurdy – “Dynamic Astronomy: A ringside seat to our sensational Solar System”

Mark Zalcik – Ambler; A Closer to Home Graze

Free and Open to the Public

Telus World of Science: Zeidler Dome

7:00PM: Pree Meeting Mix and Mingle

7:30PM: Regular Meeting

Featured Speaker:

      Dr. Sharon Morsink

 

 

 

 

Topic: Using Gravity to View Neutron Stars

“Gravity causes light to travel on curved paths, leading to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. This effect allows us to view far away galaxies, the back sides of neutron stars, and the regions near black holes! Neutron stars are tiny stars with ultra-strong magnetic and gravitational fields and densities larger than nuclear. Their small size and large average densities allow them to spin at very rapid rates, with surface velocities that are a large fraction of the speed of light. The pulsed X-ray emission from hot spots on the surface of a rotating neutron star contains encoded information about the neutron star’s gravitational field and the properties of the spot’s emission pattern. NASA’s NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR) X-ray telescope is mounted on the International Space Station and is designed to do detailed observations of neutron stars. In this talk I will show how we used the observations of one X-ray pulsar to create a map of its surface emission and to determine other properties of the star. I will also talk about some of the other interesting observations of black holes and neutron stars made by NICER.”

Free and Open to the Public

Telus World of Science  Zeidler Dome

7:00 PM Pre Meeting Mix and Mingle

7:30 PM Annual General Meeting

8:15 PM RASC Edmonton Member presentations plus the regular business and features.

Free and Open to the Public 

Telus World of Science – Zeidler Dome

7:00 PM – Pre Meeting Mix & Mingle

7:30 PM – Meeting

2020 RASC Calendars will be on sale at this meeting

Featured Speakers:

Elliot Saive & Nick Sorensen

AlbertaSat: ExAlta 1 & 2:

Alberta’s First Satellites

AlbertaSat is a student-run satellite project based out of the University of Alberta. With a membership of over 100 students (primarily undergraduate), AlbertaSat began by designing, building, and testing its first satellite, Ex-Alta 1, which was deployed into low-Earth orbit from the ISS in 2017. AlbertaSat is now designing and testing its second satellite, Ex-Alta 2. Ex-Alta 1 focused on magnetometry and the acquisition of space weather data, while Ex-Alta 2 will host a multispectral imaging payload for wildfire monitoring and research across Canada and the United States; this second project is scheduled to launch to the ISS in late 2021.

Image courtesy of NASA

Free and Open to the Public 

Telus World of Science – Zeidler Dome

7:00 PM – Pre Meeting Mix & Mingle

7:30 PM – Meeting

Please note, the November meeting is the third Monday of the month due to Remembrance Day 

2020 RASC Calendars will be on sale at this meeting

Featured Speaker:

Dr Warren Finlay

“van Gogh, Turbulence and Star Formation: Are They Connected?”

Warren Finlay is a Distinguished University Professor and Canada Research Chair in Aerosol Mechanics at the University of Alberta. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Aerosol Science and Technology and is the recipient of numerous international awards for his research, as well as a lifetime designation as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.  As part of his duties as a professor at the University of Alberta he instructs a senior undergraduate course entitled “Busting Myths with Analysis”. His talk will touch on material from this course in which he examines the myth that van Gogh’s Starry Night painting captures turbulence like that occurring in star forming giant molecular clouds. As an amateur astronomer, he is the author of the book “Concise Catalog of Deep Sky Objects”, and is a Simon Newcomb award winner. He is also a passionate visual observer and is an award winning nightscape photographer.

 

Free and open to the public

Telus World of Science – Zeidler Dome

7:00 PM Pre meeting Mix & Mingle

7:30PM  Meeting

Please note the October meeting is the Third Monday of the month. 

2020 RASC Calendars will be on sale at this meeting

Featured Speaker:

Dr. Martin Connors

“How to die on the way to Mars“

“Space is Radioactive!” were words spoken by a junior researcher at the dawn of the Space Age. The Van Allen radiation belts had just been discovered, now over sixty years ago. How can a “vacuum” be radioactive? Magnetic fields trap high energy particles, shielding us from them while making a radioactive zone near our planet. When we venture beyond this protective shield, we take risks of a solar radiation storm, and a steady, known hazard from galactic cosmic rays. To make matters worse, mass must always be reduced in spacecraft, yet it is the best protection against radiation. This talk will look at the science behind radiation hazards, which is a bit different from that in the comic books. The sad conclusion is that we are likely to see people die in space unless this hazard is taken seriously.

Free and open to the public

Telus World of Science – Zeidler Dome

7:00 PM Pre meeting mix and mingle

7:30 PM Meeting

Summer: We hardly knew you edition.

With presentations from

Alister Ling

Bruce McCurdy

Steven Kovick

and others.

Plus our usual features