Recreational Astronomy Night (ONLINE)

Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - 7:30pm to 9:30pm

You're invited to a Toronto Centre (https://rascto.ca/) event. Join us for our monthly recreational astronomy night meeting. This is where our members get to show their latest projects or give tutorials and tips on just about everything to do with astronomy.

UPDATED.

• Chris Vaughan - The Sky This Month
• Bryon Czarnik - Football & Astronomy: The Making of the Giant Magellan Telescope Mirrors
• Tom Otvos - Update on making a thin meniscus mirror telescope

https://rascto.ca/content/recreational-astronomy-night-online

ho can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Registration: Not required

Organized by: RASC, Toronto Centre

We webast our events live on YouTube. Link: https://www.youtube.com/rasctoronto/live

See the Toronto Centre's YouTube channel for past events. https://www.youtube.com/rasctoronto

Monthly Virtual Meeting

RASC Calgary

Folks, Happy New Year!

The upcoming virtual meeting is on Friday, January 8th at 7:30 PM EST.

The agenda for this meeting is as follows:

- Ottawa Skies - Dave Chisholm

- Astrophotography using your cellphone

- Loïc Bellemare-Alford

- M&M Challenge (over the 5-minute break)

- Meteors - Pierre Martin - Observations

- Observing Challenges

If you are NOT presenting a talk or observation you will need to register in advance for this Zoom webinar HERE! 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The Sun is Awakening: How Can We View It?

Presented by Michael Bradley

RASC Sunshine Coast Centre

At 7:00 PM (PST), 2021 January 8, online on Zoom, the Sunshine Coast Centre of the RASC presents Michael Bradley of the RASC Sunshine Coast Centre, whose topic is “The Sun is Awakening: How Can We View It?”

Michael Bradley is Vice President of the RASC Sunshine Coast Centre and a long-time solar observer.

Join the Zoom event HERE!

Women of Aerospace

Speaker: Natalie Panek, MDA, Senior Engineer (Systems Design)

University of Toronto's Aerospace Team (UTAT)

The University of Toronto Aerospace Team invites you to attend our Women of Aerospace Speaker Series! Our next event will be held on January 15th, 2021 at 7pm EST with Natalie Panek, Senior Engineer in Systems Design at MDA.

Join us via Zoom to hear her talk! Sign up to receive zoom links and information regarding upcoming talks, including Panek's HERE!

The Science Behind Astrology

Planetary alignments, ascending and descending nodes, retrograde and prograde motion, where do all those astrology terms come from? Many astronomers will walk away when they hear someone start talking about it, but astrology's origins are deeply rooted in astronomy itself. We'll be talking about the astronomical origins of astrology, and discussing what is actually happening when people talk about Mercury being in retrograde.

Register here, or watch live on our YouTube channel!

Date: Tuesday, January 19th 2021

Time: 3:30-5:00pm EST

Date: Jan 20, 2021

Speaker name: Prof. Bozorgnia

Title: Searching for the mysterious dark matter 

The dark matter problem is one of the most exciting puzzles in our understanding of the Universe. The atoms in our bodies, planets, and stars make up only about 15% of the total matter content of the Universe. The mysterious dark matter makes up the other 85%. All evidence for dark matter comes from its gravitational interaction with ordinary matter. However, the nature and distribution of dark matter in the Universe still remain unknown. A variety of experiments are currently operating around the globe and searching for the dark matter particle. To interpret the results of these experiments, we need to know how dark matter is distributed in our Galaxy. I will describe how we can use astronomical data and cosmological simulations of galaxy formation to map the dark matter content in our Galaxy, and utilize this map to unravel the particle nature of dark matter.

Bozorgnia is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at York University.

https://rascto.ca/content/speakers-night-online

Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Registration: Not required
Organized by: RASC, Toronto Centre

Link: https://www.youtube.com/rasctoronto/live

Tracing the Lives, Deaths, and Explosions of Massive Stars

Presented by Sarafina Nance

RASC Calgary

Synopsis: 

Supernovae are cosmic events of gigantic power. Their explosions can shine as bright as a galaxy, a pinprick of extraordinarily bright light in the night sky. What is less well-understood, however, is which stars reach the point of explosion and how they evolve to their deaths. Interestingly, their explosions provide astronomers with key tools to uncover fundamental aspects of our Universe. While we know that the Universe is expanding at an accelerated rate due to dark energy, the rate of the expansion of the Universe is not well-constrained. Supernovae provide us with independent ways to measure this expansion and works to resolve one of the most pivotal questions in astronomy: How fast is the Universe really expanding?

Safrina's Biography:

Sarafina received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. Her honours thesis was titled: "A Theoretical Investigation of Supernovae Progenitors". There she used astroseismology to understand stars that were about to undergo a supernova. Sarafina now works as a PhD student in the Department of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. She investigates supernovae and uses them as a means to study both the make-up and ultimate fate of the universe. She works with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Centre for Computational Cosmology to use supercomputers to build models of the explosions of supernovae in the final stages.

The Zoom event will take place on January 21, 2021, @ 7:30 pm MST (9:30 pm EST)!

Join the Zoom Event Here! (No Registration Required)

Passcode: 106513

Note: if you have a Calgary Public Library Card you can also register HERE!

Stargazers 101

RASC Kitchener-Waterloo

The Kitchener-Waterloo Centre will hold its Stargazers 101 meeting this Friday, January 22nd, 2021. There will be a talk from a member on his visit to Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. We will have updates on the Moon, Comets and Astronews. The meeting is open to anyone with an interest in looking up.

The event will take place at 7 pm EST!

The link to the event will be posted on K-W RASC's Facebook & Website.

DDO: Up In the Sky

ONLINE.

Learn what’s up in the sky tonight. You can view the night sky with the help of our astronomers with their telescopes. We will also offer a virtual tour of the David Dunlap Observatory!  

Saturday, January 23, 2021 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Who can attend: Ages 6 and up
Fee for 6 up to 14 years old: $14.50
Fee for 15 or more years old: $16.39
Tickets: ActiveRH (Registration opens for Richmond Hill residents on December 9, 2020 at 7:00am; for non-residents on December 16, 2020 at 7:00am)

https://ca.apm.activecommunities.com/richmondhill/Activity_Search/observ...

Organized by: RASC, Toronto Centre https://rascto.ca/
Location: Oak Ridges Community Centre

Stellarium introductory course

Monday, January 25, 2021 - 7:00 to 9:00 PM EST

Stellarium is a powerful planetarium application available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. 

Class participants will learn how to load additional catalogues, customise the application including setting up specific locations, tuning the Great Red Spot, loading new comets, and modifying the toolbar, choose landscape textures, use stepping zooming, copy object information, configure eyepiece views, and slew a telescope mount to a target. This will provide an amateur astronomer a deeper understanding of the Stellarium program.

Class sizes are limited to 10 individuals. A waiting list will be kept if additional participants wish to sign up.

This training is not for the paid Stellarium app on smartphones or the Stellarium web app.

https://rascto.ca/content/stellarium-software-intermediate-course

Part of the Stellarium Training Series.

https://rascto.ca/content/stellarium-training-series

Who can attend: RASC members in good standing
Fee: Free
Registration: Required
Organized by: RASC, Toronto Centre

An Evening of Exoplanets

RASC Montreal

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Montreal Centre invites you to join us on Tuesday, Jan 26th at 7:00 pm EST for a discussion on Exoplanet Research. In conjunction with our friends from Guelph Physics and the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREX), we’ll be joined by some of Canada’s top researchers probing the depths of space focusing on planets external to our solar system, or as they’re known to scientists, exoplanets. Planned topics include:

• The James Webb Space Telescope – an orbiting infrared observatory designed to complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope to be launched later this year.
• The Ariel Mission – scheduled to launch in 2029, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey Mission is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets.
• The Gaia Mission – currently in space, the Gaia mission seeks to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in the process revealing its composition, formation and evolution.

We will have a live Q&A where your questions about space exploration, space science, and the cosmos, in general, will be answered! Email montrealrasc@gmail.com with any questions in advance and we'll try to include them. Please join us on Facebook Live or the Guelph Physics YouTube page for this unique opportunity to join in with some of Canada’s top space scientists!

The event will take place Tuesday, January 26 @ 7 pm EST

Check out the event on Facebook HERE!

Watch the event on Youtube HERE!

Keep an eye out for these upcoming Public Events:

• Wed, Feb 10th 8pm - RASC Montreal Centre Zoom Event - Women in Astronomy, to celebrate the International Day of Women & Girls in Science
• Sat, Feb 27th 8pm - RASC Montreal Centre Zoom Event - Mars Science Missions by Dr. Richard Léveillé

Should J.S. Plaskett be a Canadian Icon?

By Peter Broughton

John Stanley Plaskett (1865-1941) was one of our country’s first professional scientists, and our first astrophysicist. After getting his start in 1905 with modest equipment at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa, he soon persuaded the federal government to establish an observatory (the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory) on the west coast. In spite of World War I, the project was completed in 1918 and it housed the world’s largest operating telescope at the time. With it, he discovered a record-breaking massive star, established the wide-spread presence of interstellar gas, and accurately pinned down the rotation rate of our home galaxy—the Milky Way. Though he was showered with recognition and awards by his colleagues, few Canadians know anything about him. Do you wonder why?

Date: Thursday, January 28th, 2021

Time: 7:30pm EST

Register here! The webinar will also be live-streamed to the RASC YouTube Channel.

Two Eyed Seeing: Navajo (Dine) Astronomy & NASA Moon to Mars

Native Skywatchers

Join the Native Skywatchers for an exciting session on Navajo (Dine) little known ancient astronomy! Learn how the Coyote created chaos as the Holy Beings were naming the stars. See how Navajo star knowledge is still used today, and what is the Navajo protocol for telling stories of the sky. They will focus on the skies of the Navajo winter months. Learn from Navajo traditional knowledge holders, and visit actual classrooms in the American Southwest.

Presented by: David Begay-Ph.D., Nancy Maryboy-Ph.D., Wilphina Becenti, Albert Brent Chase, Sarah Margoles, Ashley Teren M.Ed., Tom Tomas, and Annette S. Lee-Ph.D. Our lead schools are Little Singer Community School in Winslow, Arizona and Miller Middle School in Durango, Colorado. Supporting organizations are Native Skywatchers, Indigenous Education Institute, and NASA. Funded by NASA – Next Gen STEM.

This Live Virtual Show takes place Friday, January, 29th 2021 9 am PST, 10 am MST, and 11 am CST, 12 pm EST, 1 pm AST

Visit the EVENT PAGE to register for the event!