This past weekend, Quarky Science took part in the Northwest Mathematics Conference, held in Victoria, British Columbia. It could almost be called the Cascadian Mathematics Conference, given where the teachers are coming from, referring to the occasionally proposed nation made up of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. The event ran from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon, filled with workshops and lectures for the benefit of mathematics educators.

The Quarky Science booth was in good company. Across from us was Texas Instruments, who were also running four workshops at the conference. Next to our booth, were Stephen and Paul from Explorelearning: a company that creates online interactive simulators for math and science. The event was held in the Victoria Conference Centre. In addition to the excellent staff there were event volunteers to make certain everything ran smoothly. As exhibitors, we were spoiled rotten by organizers, who ensured that we were brought coffee and lunch, while we were manning our booths.

The one T-Rex Skeleton I brought to gauge interest on the product was sold in a matter of minutes, making me wish I’d brought half a dozen more of the massive dinosaur model kits. The product getting the most attention from the teachers was the Deluxe Handheld Digital Microscope. As we have at other events, Quarky Science held a free draw for one of the microscopes, which was won by Ashley from Vancouver. She was in the process of purchasing an 8 piece Human Torso (anatomical model) for her school when she noticed the sign announcing her as the winner. I met a lot of great people at the conference and was invited to bring Quarky Science to Seattle for next year’s mathematics conference.

It was a big step for Quarky Science to have a commercial booth at the Saanich Fair. Coming off our success at the Vancouver Island Maker Faire, we caught a bit of the booth bug and decided to go all in! It was a bit of a marathon to run the booth over the entire Labour Day weekend, but well worth it. It was nice doing another local fair, when you only have a ten minute drive to work in the morning. We met a lot of new people and got better connected with the community we live in. Quarky Science gave out about a thousand business cards over the course of the long weekend. One friend of ours has suggested that we have a Robot Arm Edge, from Elenco, set up to hand out business cards and on consideration it does seem like a pretty cool idea!

It was also a big step forward for us in terms of mobile E-Commerce. We purchased a Blackberry Torch, for what we hope is a five year investment, to use to as an internet hotspot. It effectively gives our laptop access to our website, from the booth.  I could forgo the laptop and run it all off the phone, except that for those of us with big fingers it’s a lot easier to use the laptop’s mouse and keyboard than the phone’s tiny buttons. For our needs the Blackberry was an easy decision, given that they have the top security among smart phones. We might not have all the cool aps available for other phones, but being an online business, security comes first. The hardest part about using a laptop at a booth, on a sunny weekend, is fighting past the glare of the Sun on the screen.

The biggest regrets of operating a booth at the Saanich Fair were not being able to volunteer at the Royal Astronomical Society’s booth, like I did last year, and not being able to wander the fairgrounds to take in the festivities. I did hand out some RASC pamphlets to some patrons with an interest in astronomy and directed more than a few people to the astronomy booth, where they were letting the public view the Sun with solar telescopes. Viewing the Sun through a hydrogen alpha filter is an amazing sight, so I made sure to get over to the RASC booth at least once a day to take a look through one of them myself.  I also managed to get spelled off from work a few times to grab a bite to eat at one of the fine ethnic food booths or to briefly watch equestrian events in the riding ring, but most of the time I was manning the Quarky Science booth. We did another free draw for another Deluxe Handheld Digital Microscope, something that is beginning to become a bit of a habit for us at fairs.

I was only two years old when Neil Armstrong said those famous words and became the first man to set foot on the Moon. My parents sat me in front of the television to watch the Apollo 11 landing, but when you’re only two years old these kinds of world changing events don’t have any meaning. Growing up as a science and science fiction fan though that moment was one that grew to have greater meaning over the years. It was the moment when science went from finding better ways for us to kill each other to truly opening up a new frontier of discovery. The speech Kennedy gave in 1961, to inspire the American public, was made manifest in that moment when pictures of astronauts walking on the Moon were beamed to television sets around the world. For as long as there have been people they have been looking up at the Moon and wondering. Now there were people up there walking on another world.

Neil Armstrong and the other astronauts of that era took us with them on their missions. They were the living symbols of the efforts and dreams of a generation. People were personally invested in the tragedies and triumphs of the space program. Amazing people were being allowed to do amazing things, with the full support of their nation behind them. We all wanted to be up there doing those amazing things. Kids grew up dreaming of one day themselves becoming an astronaut, traveling in space. When one of these astronauts dies, it’s like losing someone in your own family.

Part of the sadness we feel at the passing of Neil Armstrong is the fading legacy of the greatest moment in the history of human exploration. After the last Apollo mission in 1972, humanity has been limited to low Earth orbit. Our dreams are still big, but the political will doesn’t exist to do more than grandstand about the possibility of returning to space. With the exception of China, most nations have slashed the budgets of their space agencies and with them the dreams of several generations. Sending rovers to Mars is important, but nothing compared to what it would do to our collective consciousness to have humanity walking on the surface of Mars. It would electrify a generation about science in the same way that the Apollo landings did.

Neil Armstrong was a remarkable man who was given the opportunity to do remarkable things. There is no doubt that his name will be remembered for as long as humanity endures. He always made a point to make it clear that landing on the Moon was a team effort. You probably couldn’t have chosen a better person to bear the honour of being the first man to walk on the Moon. People wanting to learn more about Armstrong should consider reading First Man: the Life of Neil Armstrong, by James R. Hansen. It’s the official biography of Neil Armstrong and one of the few biographies I have in my personal library.

The family of Neil Armstrong issued a statement today, summing up their feelings:

“We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.

Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He also found success back home in his native Ohio in business and academia, and became a community leader in Cincinnati.

He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits.

As much as Neil cherished his privacy, he always appreciated the expressions of good will from people around the world and from all walks of life.

While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

On Friday afternoon, I packed everything I thought I might need into my little Toyota Corolla and drove out to Metchosin for a weekend of camping under the stars. There were a lot of people already set up by the time I got there, but I was lucky enough to find a nice spot to view the southern sky from. I was glad that I’d packed an extra long extension cord to the power supply, to keep the heater going for my telescope. Even though the event was free this year for campers, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada were still doing ticket draws for door prizes, before the evening lectures began. Friday night’s speaker was Doctor Kavelaars, a senior researcher from the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics. He gave a lecture about CASTOR, the Canadian led project to build a UV capable telescope to take over from Hubble. That night the conditions for observing were nearly perfect, although the wind picked up in the early morning hours. Even a week after the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, there were still enough to be seen in the dark site conditions to keep people looking up.

On Saturday, we had a series of workshops during the day led by some experienced members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. David Lee gave a lecture on spectroscopy (observing and recording the spectrum of stars), while Nelson Walker gave a talk on astronomy observing lists and awards. That evening, Doctor Cassandra Fallscheer (also from the Herzberg Institute) gave a lecture on space junk. The weather that evening was also junk. Clouds covered the sky, leaving only a few small, brief pockets of clear sky (sometimes called ‘sucker pockets’ by amateur astronomers). With the clouds and threat of rain showers, nobody had a telescope exposed for the nightly telescope walk. The weather reports from Environment Canada indicated that the sky would clear up after midnight, so a lot of people stuck it out. Some went to bed to get some sleep to prepare for a late night of star gazing. The clouds cleared up, right on schedule, but they were unfortunately accompanied by strong winds that made telescope use difficult.

The yearly Metchosin Star Party was well attended and well run. Not much could be done about the weather on Saturday, but Friday night’s weather was nearly perfect. It was unfortunate, given the clear skies we had been enjoying here in the Greater Victoria area for the week leading up the Star Party. The next big star party for amateur astronomers  in British Columbia will be the Merritt Star Party (September 8-15th).

The weather on Mayne Island last weekend couldn’t have been much better for astronomy: clear skies and no wind. I was over on the island to give a lecture for the Mayne Island Conservancy Society, on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Despite changing venues to the Mayne Island School field, to accommodate a wedding at Dinner Bay Park, the event was well attended. Helen, from the Conservancy, did a good job getting the word out. Going back to the place I grew up in to give a lecture on science was a good experience.

I chose as a subject for the lecture the possibility of intelligent life in our own galaxy, using the Drake Equation as a jumping off point. As far as cosmology goes, the Drake Equation is about as wild a guess as any equation is capable of being. As a jumping off point, the lecture was more about all of the things that make life as we know it possible that aren’t covered in the Drake Equation. The of chemical, geological, biological, and factors of the state of the solar system would require additional equations added to the Drake Equations, which in the end would still only make it a bigger wild guess. The best use of the Drake Equation is to promote conversation, in this case about everything from the distances stars would need to be from each other for a binary system to be stable enough for life to evolve to the possibility that the WOW signal already received by SETI is the genuine article.

After the lecture, it was time to align my telescope to the night sky and settle in for an evening of astronomy with the public. Having the Perseid Meteor Shower at its height that night was especially helpful to give people something to look at while waiting their turn to look through the telescope’s eyepiece. The Moon didn’t rise until after 1am, so the sky was ideal for deep space viewing. The only downside to the evening’s stargazing was that the school maintenance worker was off island and unavailable to turn off one particularly bright light. Still, there were some islanders who stayed around until well after midnight to take in the sights, either through the telescope or learning to find the Andromeda Galaxy through a pair of binoculars. Afterwards, I drove to the east coast of Mayne Island, to get a better view of the Pleiades and Jupiter rising above Georgeson Island, in Bennett Bay.

Picture above is the Moon and Jupiter (at 2 O’Clock from the Moon) rising over Georgeson Island.

On Sunday, August 5th a bunch of amateur astronomers from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada took their telescopes to the streets of Victoria, as part of our continuing public outreach. We had telescopes set up in four locations along the Inner Harbour of Victoria, on a day that the streets were swamped not just with summer tourists but a huge influx of residents of the region coming downtown for the yearly Symphony Splash concert.

I was set up next to the statue of Captain Cook, across from the Empress. It seemed appropriate to be introducing members of the public to solar astronomy, while next to the statue of the British captain tasked on his first historic voyage, to making crucial observations of the Transit of Venus. It was only a couple of months ago that I was out with my fellow amateur astronomers doing public outreach with our telescopes observing the rare Transit of Venus ourselves!

I set up with my Celestron NexStar 8SE for solar viewing. Without a solar sight it can be a bit tricky getting your telescope on target for an object you can’t look directly at. To find the Sun with my telescope I observed the shadow of the gap, where the mount grabs onto the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, to find the sharpest shadow on the sidewalk. That would tell me when the telescope was in line with the Sun. Then I move the telescope vertically, slowly sweeping down, observing through my eyepiece for the Sun. Sometimes I get it on the first try and sometimes it takes a few times to find the Sun this way, but it works. The nice thing about the NexStar 8SE is that after I enter in my time, date, and place, once I align my telescope with the Sun it will track it all day. To avoid unnecessary lawsuits the telescope’s manufacturers make several warnings about looking at the Sun through your telescope and even require you go into the Utilities Menu on your telescope’s handset to allow the Sun as an observing target. You can also go into your Utilities Menu to change your tracking to Solar, since it varies in its movement across the sky from the Moon or the regular night sky you use your telescope to observe. Since using  a 203.2mm (8″) telescope is a bit of overkill for solar astronomy, I used a Celestron Reducer/Corrector f/6.3 and an Omni 40mm plossl eyepiece (very low power) to ensure I could see the entire sphere of the Sun in the eyepiece view. Otherwise I’d be limited to one half or only three quarters of the Sun, when viewing it through a telescope this large. The most important thing for solar viewing is the filter and for public 0utreach you need to make extra certain it is secured against any incidental bumping of your telescope. I left my camera behind for the day, a rare occurrence, to limit the amount of gear I would have to carry back to my car at the end of the day.

It was a hot day on the sidewalk, with over two hundred people looking through my telescope alone and there were very few clouds in the sky.  This close to the Solar Maximum, there were six sunspots visible on the surface of the Sun. Being able to easily change the angle of the diagonal allowed younger science enthusiasts to easily look through the eyepiece and people were generally good about not banging into the telescope.   For most people, this was their first opportunity to observe the Sun through a telescope. We had our telescopes operating from noon until after 4pm, when it was time to pack up. The Symphony Splash already had a live band on stage, filling their harbour with their music. With the streets closed off for the event, I was very thankful for the help of both the Victoria Chapter President of the Royal Astronomical Society and our Society’s National Vice President, to carry my disassembled telescope and accessories several blocks to where my car was waiting patiently.

Last weekend, Quarky Science participated in the first ever Vancouver Island Maker Faire. The event was held at the Panorama Recreation Centre’s Arena in North Saanich, just outside of Victoria. I try to sum up the Maker Faire idea as a cross between cyber punk and a renaissance fair, but that hardly does it justice. The event was filled with the kind of creativity and eclectic style that we were happy to be a part of.

The three tables to the right of the Quarky Science booth were dominated by a battery of 3D Printers, turning plastic into ready to use objects. The 3D Printer Club were making whistles for the children as well as using data capture cameras to make new patterns for their machines, out of volunteers from the public. Across from our booth was a group promoting storytelling tradition. A few times, when things slowed down, the couple at the storytelling booth would pull out their fiddles and put on an impromptu performance. Behind us, the Victoria Robotics Club were carrying out demonstrations with their home made creations. Nancy the Blacksmith was outside, making crafts with natural gas, while the hand loom society were inside spinning the days away. I also talked at length with a hydrology hobbyist showing off his creations of self-sustainability window gardening and a water powered turbine.

It was a busy but exciting weekend for the staff at Quarky Science, manning our booth and doing demonstrations with both a Celestron deluxe hand-held digital microscope and a Skywatcher BK 1025 AZ3 refractor telescope. We held a draw for the microscope and it was won by Amy Aikman of Victoria! We all had a lot of fun at the Maker Faire and hope to be back again next year.

It’s only a couple of weeks until the Vancouver Island Maker Faire! The Maker Faire is an eclectic event, representing everything from engineering and science to arts and crafts. It’s a great opportunity for artists, tinkerers, and hobbyists to show what they do best. At the recently held “Meet your Makers!” at the Maritime Museum, I had the chance to meet the organizers and some of the presenters.

I helped carry in a functional trebuchet from the Engineering Students Society of the University of Victoria. This trebuchet saw active service during the recently held Siege Week charity event, allowing the public to fire their array of weapons at targets, with proceeds going towards Engineers Without Borders. By the sounds of it they’ll be doing some more target practice during the upcoming Maker Faire.

There was also a representative from the Victoria Robotics Club in attendance at the meet and greet. The club exists to promote science and robotics for children, and they’ll have their robots performing for the public. While their home built robots won’t be dueling to the death on the floor of the Panorama Recreational Centre, there will be robots; actual robots!

This is an event where the organizers are as interesting as the other presenters. One of the organizers, Vanessa, was operating a homemade 3-D printer!

This is a unique event for Vancouver Island, which Quarky Science is happy to be a part of. The Maker Faire is one part market, one part science fair, one part art show, and all the creativity you could ask for. You can find us and the other presenters at the Maker Faire at the Panorama Recreational Centre on July 28-29^th.

For residents on the West Coast, viewing the Transit of Venus was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Twice every 105.5 or 120.5 years, Venus passes in front of the Sun for us to see. The last time this happened was 2004, but it wasn’t visible from the West Coast. June 5^th was our last chance to witness this rare occurrence until 2117, so there was no second chance for observers.

Members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) were set up in three locations in the Greater Victoria region, as part of their public outreach program. University of Victoria’s Astronomy Department were behind their telescopes on the roof of the Bob Wright Centre and astronomers were on hand at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. Amateur astronomers used solar filters, for telescopes normally used to observe the night sky, to safely allow members of the public to view the Transit of Venus.

Early in the day, the clouds controlled the skies, leaving many to wonder if we would see the Transit of Venus at all. Late in the morning, the wind picked up and blew the clouds away from the western skies in the Greater Victoria region, much to the collective relief of amateur astronomers.  The winds gusted high during the event, posing challenges for those trying to photograph the Transit of Venus.  Without the winds though, we would have been socked in with clouds, so it was easy to forgive the winds for their bluster on this day.

My Celestron NexStar 8SE Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and I were at Cattle Point, with a number of other members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. When you consider that the Sun is the largest object we see in the sky, it many sound strange that it’s difficult to get your telescope on target, but you have to consider that I can’t look directly at the Sun to get on target. I normally rely on shadows to get as close to the Sun as possible before using a speculative sweep of the telescope, while looking through the eyepiece. The texture of the ground my telescope was set up on made it hard to get a clean shadow, so it was a bit more challenging than usual. It’s the kind of situation where you wish you had a specialized solar sight for your telescope. A fellow RASC member helped out by holding some welding glass over my finderscope, but without being able to see the laser dot against the light of the Sun, it was still a bit of guess work getting on target. I was both happy and relieved to be able to the get the telescope on target to begin tracking the Sun for afternoon.  Sometimes it only takes a minute to align to the Sun and sometimes it takes ten, but today there was a lot of wind. I was able to view the first moments of the Transit of Venus, as it formed a teardrop at the edge of the Sun and watched it make its way across the Sun over the next few hours.

A lot of people came out to view the Transit of Venus over the course of the afternoon. A number of them attempted to brave the the high winds to try to take a picture through my telescope eyepiece and some of them got great results. I even found some time to do some photography of my own, using a T-Ring and adapter to attach my DLSR to the back of my telescope. I met several people who had taken the day off from work to witness this celestial event. People were definitely enthusiastic about the opportunity to look through solar filters at the Sun.  The clear skies in the West during the Transit of Venus made up for the cloudy skies that accompanied the solar eclipse only a couple weeks earlier. We’ll have other opportunities to view solar eclipses in the years to come, but the Transit of Venus was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

 Astronomy Day celebrations at the University of Victoria were at the Bob Wright Centre, home of the biggest university telescope in Canada. On hand were volunteers from RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada), the UVic Astronomy Department, and the HIA (Herzburg Institute of Astrophysics). Despite the cloudy conditions, there were over 700 visitors to the event. The solar telescopes were set up for public use, but viewing conditions were very overcast for most of the day. There was a lot of interest in the other activities, with the Ask an Astronomer booth and numerous displays.  There were also astronomy lectures every hour on the hour, making use of the lecture hall that RASC uses for its monthly meetings in the Bob Wright Centre. 

As a member of RASC, I was there showing the public different types of telescopes that we use as amateur astronomers. I had my Celestron NexStar 8SE 203.2mm (8”) Schmidt Cassegrain telescope on a computerized alt-azimuth mount.  There was also reflector telescope on a dobsonian mount and a Celestron refractor on an equatorial mount.  In the display next to me, there was a pair of amateur astronomers showing techniques for grinding your own telescope lenses. One of them was making his first hand ground lens. There was a raffle draw for a 10” reflector telescope on a dobsonian mount that I sadly did not win, but the person who did got themselves a very nice telescope for a bargain! The proceeds from the raffle ticket sales will be used to buy a solar telescope that will be used for RASC’s public outreach programs. There were a lot of families at Astronomy Day and it was a rewarding experience to spend the day talking to people who shared an interest in viewing the night sky.

The clouds spoiled what would have been a night of viewing the night sky through our telescopes, but we had a special guest speaker to more than make up for the bad weather. Bob MacDonald, from CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, gave a presentation to a packed auditorium. His talk, titled “Vacations in Space:  the Hottest Holiday Spots in our Solar System”, was well received.

Weather aside, it was a very successful public outreach event to bring an awareness of astronomy to the public. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and other groups will be building on the successes of Astronomy Day, getting ready for upcoming public viewing events for the Solar Eclipse (May 20^th) and the Transit of Venus (June 5^th).