Speaker Night – Michael Daly

Zoom

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission recently grabbed a sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

Potpourri Night

Host: Randy Attwood Swapna Shrivastava                         Reflections on achieving the Explore the Universe certificate Ron Macnaughton                            The Sky This Month Tom Otvos                      […]

Potpourri Night

Host: Randy Attwood Kirby Aguire: Photos of the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction Chris Malicki: The Sky for January and February. Shakeel Anwar: Conjunction Photos / Comet Neowise Retrospective Fred Benedikt: Hunting for meteorites: anyone can own one with patience NOTE: This Meeting starts at 7:30 pm. Zoom information Topic: RASC Mississauga Centre Potpourri Meeting Time: Jan 15, 2021 07:30 PM […]

Speaker Night

Title: The Mission of Apollo 14 Speaker: Randy Attwood  January 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the third successful lunar landing in the Apollo program. There was extra pressure on the crew of Apollo 14 to pull off a successful mission, following on the aborted Apollo 13 mission nine months earlier. Changes were made to […]

Potpourri Night

Host: Randy Attwood Presentations Simon Claughton: "Apollo 14: A Postal History" John Burgener: "A Consideration that the Fireballs Associated with the Perseid Meteor Shower are an Indication of a Previous Low Angle Skip Impact by Comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle" Swapna Shrivastava: "A trip to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope" Betty Robinson: "A Helicopter Lands on Mars" Dennis Gasparotto: "A Visit […]

Potpourri Meeting

Host: Allan Connery YouTube video of the meeting Presentations Paul Taylor: "Paul and Gale’s NASA Adventure" Gary Crawford: "Rosette Nebula Astrophotography Project" Leslie Strike: "The Sky by our Photographers” - Astrophotography contest results! Krishna Vedala: "Astronomy Logbook Software" Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85274743460?pwd=Nno5N01hbWZuVk9kMzRHa1dIYWMyUT09

Speaker Night

Host: Randy Attwood

Speaker:  Mary Beth Laychak, Director of Strategic Communications, CFHT

Talk Title: The Canada France Hawaii Telescope
Talk Abstract:  The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope is a forty year old facility on the summit of Maunakea and consistently ranks among the world’s most astronomically productive.  Mary Beth Laychak, director of strategic communications at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope shares the science, instrument suite and staff of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.  She will discuss how those pieces work together to create the magic that is CFHT.

Potpourri NIght

Host: Randy Attwood

Presentations

Allan Connery - Telescope Loan Program Update

Simon Berlet - Maintaining the CFHT

Keith Jarvie - Life on Venus?

Ron Macnaughton - Microbial Mats on Earth -  and perhaps on Mars.

What was called "the "oldest uncontested biogenic structure" found on Earth is a microbial mat from West Australia.   These structures form when microbes glue a layer of sediment together leaving characteristic patterns. If life existed on Mars,  it is possible that similar structures might be detected by the Perseverance rover which has instruments to identify large carbon containing molecules.

David Maynard - My Astrophotography Learning Experience

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87464539803

Speaker Night

Speaker: Emily Carney

Title:  Skylab: An Overview
Talk Abstract:  Skylab, which was crewed from 1973 to 1974, enjoyed only a brief moment in the cultural zeitgeist (and, of course, infamously reentered over parts of Western Australia). While the United States’ first space station is often overlooked in the canon of space history, this talk will discuss its origins from its “wet workshop” days to its legacy, and direct descendant – the International Space Station (ISS), which still orbits above us.

Information about our speaker:

Emily Carney is a spaceflight enthusiast and author hailing from Saint Petersburg, Florida. Her first vivid space memory was seeing Columbia launch in late 1981 (STS-2). Even though she was very young (three years old) and the launch was 140 miles away from where she stood, she’ll never forget it. From then on, she was obsessed with the space shuttle, and spaceflight in general.

In 1997, Carney enlisted in the United States Navy, and at one point worked as a nuclear propulsion mechanical operator aboard the USS George Washington (CVN 73). When she was honorably discharged in 2003, she went back to college and earned a degree in education. She only taught for a brief time, but after she left the education field, her passion for spaceflight was reignited.

Carney worked as a freelance writer from 2008 to 2011, and during that time she started a spaceflight blog, This Space Available (accessible via https://space.nss.org/category/this-space-available/). She also co-hosts a weekly podcast, Space and Things, with Dave Giles (https://spaceandthingspodcast.com/).
In 2011, Carney wanted to start a Facebook group for space enthusiasts, but was struggling to find a good name. Her husband, Steve, suggested “Space Hipsters” as sort of a sarcastic placeholder, but the name stuck. The group grew more quickly than she could imagine, and at present time it totals over 20,000 members. Space Hipsters boasts members from all around the world, and includes space enthusiasts, writers, artists, scientists, engineers, aspiring astronauts, and even a few actual astronauts.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84379657584

Potpourri Night

Host: Randy Attwood

Presentations:

Randy Attwood    The June 10 Solar Eclipse - what to expect and how to observe it safely

Simon Claughton   Skylab - The beginning.  A philatelic history Part 1

Randy Attwood, Kirby Alguire, Allan Connery  The centre's email groups.   The Astrophotography Groups IO email group has been around for a while but it is not very active. We will discuss the plan to make it and some new discussion groups active places for members to learn things and discuss various areas of interest.  An Observiing email list and a Beginner email list have been set up and will soon be rolled out.

The May 10 1994 Annular Eclipse - 27 years ago , an Annular Eclipse passed right through Toronto. Many RASC members were busy with a live Astronomy Toronto in front of the McLaughlin Planetarium.  Much Music was camped next to us and they had their own interesting take on the eclipse, including an interview with a pet astrologer/psychic!

Zoom link: Click here to join the meeting

Speaker Night

 Speaker Night

 Host: Randy Attwood

 Speaker: Dr Kim Tait, Royal Ontario Museum

Kimberly Tait is a Curator of Mineralogy and oversees mineralogical, gemmological and meteoritic research at the ROM. She is also a cross-appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto.

Title: ROM Martian Meteorites and Mars Sample Return
Description: Although the ROM does have an exceptional martian meteorite collection, there is still much to be learned about Mars. Dr. Kim Tait will discuss the goals of the Mars Sample Return Program, and her role in the mission.