Royal Astronomical Society of Canada - Vancouver

04/07/2026

A new Supernova (2026 fvx) has been discoivered in a galaxy (NGC 4205) between the constellations Ursa Major and Draco. The discovery magnitude was 12.3 so visible in most backyard telescopes. It crosses the meridian line at 12:26am. It's always a great idea to create a custom AAVSO chart to magnitude 13 to ensure you're looking at the supernova and not another faint star :) The coordinates of the Supernova are RA=12:14:58.13 and DEC=63:47:16.41. I generated the AAVSO chart for you.

03/24/2026

You'll want to keep your eye on Comet C/2025 R3 (Panstarrs) over the next few weeks as it has brightened to magnitude 8 and could get as bright as 7 into April. It's in the constellation Pegasus and is visible in the morning when it's still dark. It may be challenging as the weeks progress since it will get lower in the sky. Here is a recent image of the comet:

https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=231742

03/16/2026

Our 2026 Paul Sykes Lecture is this Thursday, March 19th up at SFU Burnaby! Come join us for "Exploring Our Horizons: Working with NASA Data" hosted by NASA Solar System Ambassador Jennie "Starstuff" King and James Tauber!

This lecture, as with all of our lectures, is free and open to the public! Make sure you grab a free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-paul-sykes-memorial-lecture-jennie-king-james-tauber-tickets-1984299829205

Hope to see you all there ✨🔭

03/15/2026

Here's the Stellarium fix for BC's new all year round -7 UT time :) One thing the instrcutions don't mention is that once you make this change you have to click the wrench icon (configuration settings) on the left hand menu and click Save settings in the Default options section so it retains the change.

Since British Columbia (including Pemberton) switched to permanent Pacific Time at UTC-7 year-round after the final spring-forward on March 8, 2026, with no more fall-back and thus no DST changes, you need to configure Stellarium to use a fixed offset without applying any automatic seasonal adjustments.
The checkbox you're seeing in the Location Settings window (opened via F6 or the toolbar icon) is typically labeled something like "Use custom time zone" (or "Enable daylight saving time" / "Use DST" in some versions/interfaces). When you select a pre-defined city like Vancouver or Whistler (or search for Pemberton if available), Stellarium pulls the standard IANA time zone rule for America/Vancouver, which includes historical and future DST transitions (spring forward to -7, fall back to -8).
To prevent Stellarium from automatically applying the old November "fall back" (or any future assumed changes):
Open the Location window (F6 or click the location button on the bottom bar).
Search for and select your location (e.g., Pemberton, BC, or the closest city like Whistler or Vancouver if Pemberton isn't listed exactly).
Check the box for "Use custom time zone" (this is key—it overrides the location's built-in rules and lets you set a manual offset).
In the custom time zone settings:
Set the offset from UTC to -7.00 hours (or UTC-7:00).
If there's a separate "Enable daylight saving time" or DST checkbox/rule section in that custom panel, uncheck/disable it or set DST offset/rule to 0 (no change).
Some versions show a simple fixed offset field when custom is enabled—use that for -7:00 with no DST.
Make sure any "Enable daylight saving time" box tied to the location (if visible outside custom mode) is unchecked when not using custom.
Check "Use as default" at the bottom if you want this saved permanently.
Close the window.
This forces a fixed -7 hour offset from UTC with no automatic +1 hour DST shift ever applied. Stellarium will now treat local time as permanently UTC-7 (equivalent to year-round PDT/Pacific Time as BC now uses).

03/10/2026

Be sure to view comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) March 14th since it will be in the same field of view as the asteroid (130) Elektra. It's not very often you have a comet and an asteroid in the same field of view. The best time to view is around 8:30pm when it's completely dark and still 27 degrees above the SW horizon. This comet is currently the brightest comet in the Northern hemisphere at magnitude 8.6. THe duo can be found in the constellation Ta**us. The asteroid is magntiude 13. I've included a link to a recent image of the comet:

https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=231441

03/07/2026

The gorgeous Cat's Eye Nebula (Caldwell 6/NGC 6543) taken by Hubble recently. This is also a beautiful planetary nebula that can be seen in any backyard telescope. It's in the constellation Draco and is a short starhop (about 5 degrees) from the star Zeta Draco. Currently the best time to view is around 5:00am when it's still dark and close to the meridian (Remember that Draco is a circumpolar constellation for us so it crosses the meridian line twice, once at a low point and another at a high point, twelve hours apart).

02/24/2026

Depending on your location, the International Space Station might pass over the open cluster Messier 29 in the constellation Cygnus around 5:23:53am tomorrow morning. It's always fun to make predications on when the ISS will pass various noteworthy deep sky objects. Use Stellarium's occular plugin to do this. Let me know if you have any questions or need a tutorial 🙂

02/23/2026

Starting this Thursday, February 26th for three days the 11th magnitude asteroid Papagena will be in the same telescope eyepiece field of view as the 5.8 magnitude planet Uranus - don't miss this conjuction as it's rare that asteroids appear in the same FOV as planets ;)

02/23/2026

Be sure to have a look at the moon in binoculars or your telescope eyepiece tonight since the 45% illuminated moon in be right next to the famous open star cluster known as the Pleiades 🙂

02/13/2026

On the next clear night, be sure to view the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in the same telescope eyepiece field of view. Best time is around 7pm when it's dark and before the duo sets below the horizon. They can be found between the constellations Cetus and Pisces.

02/12/2026

My next astronomy workshop is on February 21 at the Whistler Library - a few spots still left :)

Please note: our January 24 session is full, and we are now taking names for the waitlist. Email [email protected] to join the waitlist for January 24 OR to sign up for our next…

02/02/2026

Yesteday I was doing some asteroid/deep sky object conjunction forecasting and noticed that tonight and the next few nights, the 12.4 magntiude asteroid Thetis will be in the famous Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2175) in Orion's club. Best time to view is when they transit the meridian at 9:30pm PST :) Because the asteroid isn't very bright and it's a rich starfield, I created a custom AAVSO chart which you'll want to create for subsequent nights if you plan on observing.