Our meetings are open to the public, who can attend once for free and are then encouraged to join.

Main Presentation

We are very pleased to have Dr. Wes Fraser presenting to us.

Title: The Golden Age of Astronomy: New and Upcoming Telescope Projects

Summary:

The James Webb Space Telescope is the telescope I get asked about most often. It’s easy to understand why as it provided a new ultra-high resolution window in the near Infrared universe that astronomers could previously only dream about. And the imagery is mind blowing. So it’s easy to forget about the wealth of new telescope projects just coming online, each of which will provide its own previous unavailable new window on the universe. In this talk I will go over many of these new projects, including the Roman Space Telescope, the Vera C. Rubin Telescope’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, the Square Kilometre Array, the Next Generation Very Large Array, the Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector, and the European Extremely Large Telescope. With a list this long, it’s easy to realize we are entering the Golden Age of observational astronomy. Unfortunately, astronomers are facing a number of new unprecedented challenges, most notably massive satellite swarms that are polluting of the night sky. I’ll touch on that subject and discuss ways astronomers are dealing with this new threat to dark skies.

Bio:

Wes is an observational astronomer at the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre and at the University of Victoria. Since earning his PhD from UVic in 2008, he has made extensive use of many of the world’s most powerful telescopes, including Keck, Gemini, Subaru, Megallan, Hubble, and James Webb. Wes’s research has been focused on understand the planet formation process. To that end he has run many telescope programs that focus on the discovery and characterization of the Solar System’s icy small planetesimal populations, with emphasis on the Kuiper Belt. Wes has been active in the development of the Canada-Rubin program, working on programs to maximize exploitation of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

After the main presentation and a coffee break will be our 2nd shorter presentation by VIU students Chris Lawrence & Ethan Ondzik

Title : Visualizing Gravity: From Newton to Einstein

Summary :

VIU computer science students Ethan and Chris present their interactive computer simulations exploring gravitational physics in classical and modern viewpoints, along with historical context. Emphasis is put on the visualization of gravitational effects with particular focus on the three-body problem, the Big Bang theory, and Einsteinian curvature of space-time. Join us in exploring gravitational systems and the struggles and successes of modelling 3D systems on 2D screens and see through the eyes of the greats from Newton to Einstein..

Bio :

Vancouver Island University (VIU) students with a minimum of third year standing are able to enrol in two specialized elective courses in astronomy: The History of Astronomy (ASTR 312) and Exploring the Universe (ASTR 311).  Unlike our more general “survey style” first year astronomy offerings, the third year courses emphasize a smaller but more specific set of topics without requiring previous astronomical or mathematical background.  An important component of both courses is a group presentation made to the class at the end of term.  This short “teaching” lecture is on a topic of interest selected by each group and typically falls within the scope of the material covered in the class (but without significant repetition of class material).

It had been a goal for years to expand on the existing ties between the Nanaimo Astronomical Society & VIU as well as to find more direct ways to involve students from the VIU astronomy courses in NAS events.  Those aspirations finally came to fruition at the April meeting in 2023 as students shared their ASTR 311 presentation with NAS members, and this shared venture has become an annual “tradition” ever since.  We are pleased to continue with this cooperative venture once again this year!