okay professor, steve zodiac, fireball xl-5

SCOPE 1 October/November 2014

Oct/Nov 2014

Vol. 53 No. 5 The Newsletter of

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre

“Okay Professor, I’ve taken my oxygen pills.” -Steve Zodiac, Fireball XL-5

President’s Message by Charles Darrow With the arrival of the fall equinox, we are reminded of the longer nights ahead and the approach of winter. The Carr Astronomical Observatory was well used this summer by our members, and I am reminded of all the hard work of our volunteers throughout the years that has made this facility one of the best anywhere. I am pleased to announce that a new roof has been installed on the house at the CAO. The old roof was in need of replacement, and the new roof will protect our club’s investment for years to come. Our Family and Speaker’s nights this summer at the David Dunlap Observatory continue to be a success with many sold out ses-sions. I am always amazed at how effectively our club has used the DDO in fulfilling our mandate to promote astronomy to the com-munity, a result of the countless hours our dedicated members have put into this facility. I would like to thank them all. With fall here, please be reminded that our Speaker’s nights program at the Ontario Science Centre is starting up. Keep an eye on our web site for announcements of our upcoming speakers. Don’t forget to tell you friends about our Speaker’s Nights as they are open to the public. On the National level of the society, the Executive Director, Deborah Thompson, has left the society to pursue other opportunities. I called her and thanked her on behalf of the centre for all of the hard work she has contributed to the society and wished her the best in her future endeavors. The National Office has since announced that the former President of the Toronto and Mississauga Centres, Randy Attwood, will be Deborah’s replacement. I have worked with Randy and am looking forward to hearing about his plans for making our society even better. I called Randy to congratulate him on his new position and offered any help that the Toronto Centre can provide to assist him. I know good things are coming to the society in the future with Randy in his new role. Clear fun Skies!

COVER: Star-B-Que Group

Photo

Inside this issue:

• Algonquin Radio Observatory—P.2

• Meeting Reports/Upcoming Meetings—P.3

• Dunlap Observatory Autumn Schedule—P.4

• Annual Meeting Agenda—P.5

• Webspotting—P.6

• Star-B-Que Reports—P.7&8

• Australia and RASC Board News—P.11

Next SCOPE Pub. Deadline

November 17th

Editor: Eric Briggs

Copy Editor: Sue Kralik

Think the Canadarm and Chris Hadfield are the entire Canadian space program? Think again! Join Bill Nye in Toronto on the evening of October 1st to explore Canada’s exciting contributions to the exploration of our solar system and beyond.

Bill will be in town for the 2014 International Astronautical Congress. On Wednesday the 1st, the Planetary Society CEO will visit the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall for a very special edition of Planetary Radio Live, the Society’s weekly public radio and podcast series. Be there for his on stage presentation, followed by a panel discussion led by Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan.

Also featuring: Jeremy Hansen,

Canadian astronaut

Elizabeth Howell, Canadian space

journalist

Gordon Osinski, Planetary

geologist, UWO

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/855843


Algonquin Radio Observatory Visit

by Katrina Ince-Lum

“Experience radio astronomy and nature combined at Canada's national radio observatory… The Observatory is operated by Thoth Technology, a company that provides specialist space-tracking and communications services with near-Earth and interplanetary spacecraft, using the 46m antenna.” (ARO website) The David Dunlap Observatory, which many of us are familiar with, and the Algonquin Radio Observatory would at first glance not seem to have much in common. One is urban, one rural. One has a 74” telescope for visual use, one a radio telescope. However, dig a little more and similarities emerge. Both telescopes have parts built by Grubb Parsons, both were divested of by their original users, both telescopes have been reincarnated by an en-thusiastic group and both telescopes are Canadian treasures, bought back to life. A group of friends from the RASC Toronto Centre visited the Algonquin Radio Observatory (ARO) over the Labour day long weekend from August 29-31, 2014. Located on the far side of Al-gonquin Park, it required a fairly long drive - About 7 hours. However, once we were there, everything was taken care of, in-cluding a mind blowing tour of the dish and enjoying very dark skies. Bring a telescope, but if you forget they have a couple onsite. The observatory house is set up as a kind of wilderness lodge; we stayed there, and they fed us all meals. Yummy ones too. We were not the only visitors either; some canoeists were also staying at the house. Speaking of canoeing, after our long drive, we went for a paddle (using the onsite canoes) and swam in Lake Travers, alongside the house. Don’t expect much connectivity either; there is some onsite wifi, but your cell phone won’t work. It’s in a quiet zone due to the proximity to the dish. The 46m dish and house are a couple of kilometers away from each other. Our hosts were Drs. Brendan Quine and Caroline Roberts, the co-founders of Thoth Technology Inc., who provide time on the dish at $600 per hour and are restoring and maintaining the dish. In addition, Thoth provides geodetic services and the site is

an active control point for the global positioning system. The ob-servatory is equipped with a hydrogen maser, using the hydrogen atom as a kind of timepiece. Very Long Baseline Interferometry was first successfully done here in 1965 in conjunction with the Dominion Astrophysical Radio Observatory in Penticton, B.C. Efforts are underway to connect this observatory with others worldwide to study pulsars. Dr. Quine gave us a tour of the dish, which included walking under a tunnel from the control building to the dish building and then climbing up through the innards of the dish to reach its surface. We spent some time walking around, lying down and just generally soaking in the atmosphere. It’s not every day you get to lie on Canada’s premiere Earth station facility.

For more information, including planning a visit, see http://www.arocanada.com/

Ontario Science Centre

Halloween Star Party

Thursday October 30th, 7:30-10PM Join us for a family-friendly, fright-filled night of stargazing and other spooky science activities. This year is all about combining Hollywood and Halloween to highlight the love of the scary movie. Take part in the making of atmospheric special effects. Create your own scary movie scene. Choose your favourite speaker as

we continue our series of popular Science Slam competitions. Show off your outfit in a costume parade. This event will include stargazing, weather per-mitting, and RASC To-ronto Centre volunteers with telescopes are en-couraged to attend. Come rain or shine, be there if you dare.

Image courtesy Bill Longo

Image courtesy Phil Chow


Upcoming Meeting and Event Schedule

LECTURE NIGHT Wednesday, September 24th: 7:30 PM Speaker: Prof. Sara Seager, MIT For thousands of years, people have wondered, “Are we alone?” Astronomers have now ascertained, statistically speaking, that every star in our Milky Way Galaxy should have at least one planet and that small rocky planets are extremely common. Our own Galaxy has 100 billion stars, and our Universe has upwards of 100 billion galaxies—making the chance for life elsewhere seem inevitable based on sheer probability. We can say with certainty that, for the first time in human history, current technology puts us on the verge of being able to search for signs of life beyond our solar system on planets around the nearest hundreds of stars. Professor Seager will de-scribe the science and technol-ogy behind the search for Earth 2.0.

RECREATIONAL ASTRONOMY NIGHT Wednesday, October 8th: 7:30 PM Blake Nancarrow: The Sky This Month Ron MacNaughton: Is the Solar System Really That Big? Michael Watson: Astrophotography with a Portable Mount

LECTURE NIGHT Wednesday, October 29th: 7:30 PM Speaker: Dr. Michael Reid, University of Toronto

The Big Bang Theory is one of the crowning achievements of modern science. The basic premise--that the universe began ex-panding about 14 billion years ago from a very hot, dense state--has been independently verified many times over. And yet there is widespread confusion and uncertainty about what the theory actually says--and what it doesn't. Did the universe begin as some kind of atom? If it's expanding, what's it expanding into? Does it have an outside? Are there other universes? And why did it start? In this talk, I'll clarify what we do and don't know about the Big Bang. RECREATIONAL ASTRONOMY NIGHT Wednesday, November 12: 7:30 PM Chris Vaughan: The Sky This Month Charline Norgrove: Chilé’s Giant Telescopes Patrick McDonald: Supermoons One more presentation slot available LECTURE NIGHT and ANNUAL MEETING Wednesday, November 26: 7:30 PM Dr. John Percy, University of Toronto “A Half-Century of Astronomy Outreach: Stories, Reflec-tions, and Lessons Learned” After the conclusion of Dr. Percy's lecture, there will be a short recess followed by the RASC Toronto Centre's annual business meeting.

September 10th Recreational

Astronomy Night, by Maggie Fei On the rainy evening of September 10th, 2014, RASC members ran under umbrellas into the Science Centre for the monthly RAN. The first presenter was Chris Vaughan, with The Sky This Month. His presentation, featuring topics from Rosetta to the lu-nar eclipse, can be found on the RASC website. The next speaker was Paul Mortfield, who taught us all how to build a solar flare detector. He began his presentation by inquiring who in the audi-ence had a solar filter or telescope, and around half the members raised their hands. Appropriately, he then presented a picture of a cloudy sky — much like the one outside at the time. How many times, he asked, have we set up our solar ‘scopes only to find the sky covered in clouds? Too many times. As a teenager, Paul had been fascinated by solar astronomy, but was devastated by the number of cloudy days there were. So he did some research, and discovered a device called the Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (SID) detector, which can be built completely at home. In the early days, this required a huge circular contraption about 1.5 metres in diameter, which took a great amount of time to build. Now, how-

ever, a diamond-shaped device about the size of a notebook is all you need. During the night, long radio waves, which we use for radio broadcasting, bounce off the E layer of the ionosphere, while short radio waves bounce off the F layer. During the day however, short waves bounce off the D layer. This allows anyone with a SID to listen in to certain radio waves from transmitters, which are normally used by the US Navy for communications with subma-rines. There are four of these short wave transmitters across the United States, in Maine, California, Hawaii and North Dakota. Paul recommends you listen in to all four transmitters, since they each go down once a week for maintenance, on different days. The SID is tuned to the frequency of a certain transmitter, so the antenna can receive the signals, which are then connected to a pre-amplifier, which is connected to a computer, and enters the PC sound card, and finally goes through data logging and software ana-lyzing, to produce a chart. During a normal solar day, the chart goes up, then stays relatively flat throughout the day, and comes down again during sunset. When there is a solar flare, the chart will show a spike, allowing listeners to detect it. We have a way to detect solar flares even when the sun is covered in clouds!

Toronto Centre Meeting Nights are open to all and held in the Ontario

Science Centre’s Imperial Oil Auditorium. Park free after 6:00 PM.

As a member, you are invited to show your slides, drawings, or discuss your observing program. Please contact the chairman, Paul Markov, at 905-470-6642 or [email protected] well before the meeting date to discuss your presentation. Updated listings are at:

www.toronto.rasc.ca/content/upcomingmeetings.shtml.

University Observatory Public Tours U of T holds public lectures and tours on the first Thursday of each month, including planetarium shows and views through the 200mm Goto refractor and 40cm Boller & Chivens reflector. http://www.uoft.me/astrotours York University holds online public viewing on Monday nights be-tween 9 and 11 PM on their website, http://www.yorkobservatory.com. Also on Monday evenings between 9 and 10, they broadcast an online radio show from http://www.astronomy.fm. The York observatory and its 40cm LX200

are open to the public on Wednesday evenings. Take a Tour!


The next speaker was Guy Nason who made an announcement about the preservation of dark skies in North Frontenac. About a year ago, an observing pad was built and declared a dark sky pre-serve, next to a helipad. The township built it with the hopes that it would bring in some revenue from astro-tourism. Recently, however, Ornge, who runs the helipad, installed 8 bright green lights around it. Besides making astronomy impossible, these lights are also dangerous to wildlife. So Guy has started a petition against Ornge, hoping that they will listen to the voices of hundreds of Ontarians. He will make the petition available on change.org, so please sign for the preservation of dark skies. Our last presenter was Steve McKinney, who spoke to us about his visit to the Algonquin Radio Observatory, on Lake Travers, Algonquin Park. 46 metres across, the Algonquin Radio telescope is far larger than the DDO, which shrinks in comparison. The ra-dio telescope is indeed a telescope like its optical counterparts, but it operates in the radio, microwave and sub-mm spectra, where it can detect everything from pulsars and quasars to Cosmic microwave background radiation to the sun. Information from these radio waves can be extracted using interferometry or very long baseline interferometry. The Algonquin observatory was de-signed by the same people as the Parkes 64m dish which was used to receive images of the Apollo 11’s landing on the moon. Com-missioned in 1966, the Algonquin Radio Observatory is now oper-ated by Thoth Technologies, a private company that took it over in 2008. The site offers decent, hotel-esque rooms appropriate for astronomers, including meals and a tour. Interestingly, all the meals were prepared and served by the CEO of Thoth, Caroline Rob-erts, who was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. Four RASC Toronto Centre members, Katrina Ince-Lum, Phil Chow, Blake Nancarrow, and Steve McKinney set out on the 7-hour journey to the observa-tory. On the way, they visited the Brent Crater, which was created by a meteor about 450 million years ago. The skies were incredibly dark the first night, but unfortunately it was overcast for the rest of their stay. Instead, they went canoeing and hiking, but most fas-cinating of all was their tour of the telescope itself — they were invited to climb up onto the parabola of the telescope! It is report-edly very smooth and slightly slippery, and there are amazing views from up there. Another great night of astronomy concluded with members lining up to sign Guy’s petition, and others admiring Paul’s SID, which he had brought in for us to look at.

Autumn Public Schedule

David Dunlap Observatory

www.theddo.ca

Friday September 26, Family Night, 7:30pm

Saturday, September 27, Star Talk with Dr. Roberto Abraham, University of Toronto, “Finding Your Place in Space and Time”, 7:30 &

8:30pm In this talk you will get a sense of your place in the grand scheme of things: a cosmic perspective on life, the universe and everything.

Saturday, October 4, Star Talk with Randy Attwood,

RASC Executive Director, “A Closer Look at Apollo 11”, 8:00 PM

2014 marks the 45th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon. In this talk, we will describe the landing, the landing site and the first moonwalk.

If the skies are clear this evening, visitors will have the opportunity to see this corner section of the Sea of Tranquility through our telescopes. Note: no ground based telescopes can see the landing

craft or footprints on the moon.

Friday, October 10, Family Night, 7:30 PM (Sold Out)

Saturday, October 18, Star Talk with Dr. Michael Reid,

University of Toronto, “Life in the Cosmos”, 8:00 PM For thousands of years, people have wondered whether, in the vastness of the cosmos, life exists any-where other than on Earth. With the recent discoveries of hun-dreds of potentially habitable planets orbiting stars other than our Sun, we are tantalizingly close to answering this question.

Friday, October 24, Family Night, 8:00 PM

Saturday, October 25, Star Talk with Kerry-Ann

Lecky Hepburn, Senior Meteorologist, The Weather Network “Capturing the Stars”, 8:00 PM

Kerry-Ann will talk about her journey of photo-graphing the universe and share stories about some of the amazing objects that her camera has captured. Her award winning photos have ap-peared in books, calendars and NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" website.

Saturday, November 1, Family Night, 8:00 PM

This is the end of our regular season. Thank you for making it such a success. Scouts, Guides and school group bookings continue throughout the entire year. Contact us for more info.

On September 4th, we posted a link to our e-mail list to a Town of Richmond Hill web survey concerning plans for future uses of

the David Dunlap Observatory property. Members are encouraged to take this survey at your convenience, but we’re not sure how

much longer it will be running. http://t.co/zY1AEDVyuy


Annual General Meeting,

November 26th After the conclusion of Dr. Percy's lecture, there will be a short recess followed by the RASC Toronto Centre's annual business meeting. Draft Agenda 1. Adoption of the Minutes of the 2013 Annual Meeting. (The Minutes were published on p.5 of the January 2014 issue of SCOPE) 2. Business Arising from the Minutes 3. Reports of Officers i. President’s Report ii. Treasurer’s Report iii. Secretary’s Report 4. Elections of 2014-2015 Toronto Centre Council 5. Appointment of the Auditor 6. Other Business 7. Adjournment

Nominations Slate for

RASC Toronto Centre Council 2014-15 Toronto Centre members in good standing are invited to submit nominations for the 2014-2015 Council. All nominations must be signed by two members in good standing and include the written agreement of the nominee to stand for office. All nomi-nations must be received in writing by Eric Briggs, Secretary or Dr. B. Ralph Chou, Chair of the Nominations Committee, on or before 12 November 2014. The Nominations Committee (Ralph Chou, Tony Horvatin and Charles Darrow) is pleased to propose the following slate of candidates for the RASC Toronto Centre Council for the fiscal year 2014-2015: Executive Honorary President (1-year term) Dr. Roberto Abraham President (1st of 2-year term) Paul Mortfield 1st Vice-President (1st of 2 year term) Steve McKinney 2nd Vice-President (2nd of 2 year term) Paul Delaney Treasurer (2nd of 3-year term) Scott Masterton Secretary (3rd of 3-year term) Eric Briggs* Recorder (1st of 3-year term) Rajesh Shukla* 1st Past President (1st of 2-year term) Dr. B. Ralph Chou 2nd Past President (1st of 2-year term) Tony Horvatin

Councillors Retiring 2015 Dietmar Kupke, Stuart McNair, Mike Crabtree Retiring 2016 Michelle Johns, Ian Wheelband, Blake Nancarrow Retiring 2017 Gilles Gaudet, Laila Zichmanis*, Cathy Carr *-National Advisory Council Representative

Express your support for the Thirty

Meter Telescope (TMT) http://www.rasc.ca/thirty-meter-telescope-tmt

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is an outstanding next-generation engine of astronomical discovery currently in devel-opment. Construction has just begun. From the start, TMT has had Canadian involvement in its conception, planning, and design. In 2010, the Canadian Astronomical Society, the RASC’s university counterpart, designated TMT as the “number one priority for large projects in ground-based optical-infrared as-tronomy”. For Canada to assume full partnership in TMT it is vital that the Canadian Government agree to Canada’s share of the cost, otherwise we will lose our place in the project.

The professional astronomical community in Canada greatly val-ues the backing of the RASC, the voice of amateur astronomy in Canada, and through our Board of Directors the Society has officially expressed our institutional support for TMT. There is also an important role individual members can play in furthering Canada’s access to the most productive instruments for the most innovative science. Letters of support for TMT from indi-vidual Canadian citizens count – and we encourage you to con-sider writing to the Minister of State (Science and Technology).

A model letter can be downloaded from the above link. Before printing the letter, add the date (in the field marked date), and add your name (in the field marked name). Remember to sign the letter before mailing it to:

The Honourable Ed Holder Minister of State (Science and Technology) House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6

Note, this letter may be sent postage-free from within Canada to the address provided.

We recommend maintaining a positive and supportive tone in writing to the government, as the aim is to focus on obtaining approval for the TMT.

We ask that you send us an email after you've posted your letter to Ottawa, to help us keep track of the effort.

We encourage all RASC mem-bers to get involved and express their support for this significant project!

-Randall Rosenfeld et al

Courtesy TMT Observatory Corp.


Webspotting: The Panoramic Milky Way

by Blake Nancarrow I've noticed the Milky Way galaxy arcing overhead at some point in the evening during my last few observing sessions. This time of year it is usually high in the sky around midnight. If you're fortu-nate to escape city limits, it is a wondrous site. Our home. Our galaxy.

In the late spring and early summer, I enjoy looking toward the centre of the Milky Way, in Sagittarius and Scorpius, taking in the myriad of objects huddled around the bright galactic hub. During the long, dark nights in winter, we are turned the other way. As we take in Orion and Gemini, Taurus and Auriga, we are looking into the outer spiral arms of our island universe.

You have perhaps photographed the Milky Way. Or caught the light star-filled regions or dark dusty spots in images. It is a popular target for amateur astronomers in time-lapse photography. Axel Mellinger has been photographing the skies for many years. He started imaging when he was 14 years old.

In 1996, Axel undertook a project that required three years of imaging at different sites. He ended up with 51 wide-angle all-sky images captured with a film SLR camera using a 28mm f/4 lens which rode on a Super Polaris equatorial mount. He then began digital image processing, correcting for lens effects, and ultimately stitching together 16 of the separate photos for a single high-resolution mosaic. That took another 3 years.

This impressive image file can be viewed in different ways including the Aitoff projection or equidistant azimuthal or polar projection. But it's 300 megabytes. Axel's composite is the only amateur con-tribution to the NASA Multiwavelength poster.

With the advent of quality digital cameras, Mr Mellinger decided to redo the panorama. For 2 years he gathered images from 3000 CCD frames using an SBIG camera. He used complex techniques for gathering the data and developed a specific processing pipeline for processing. The end result, completed in late 2009, was a panorama with 3 times the resolution of his first effort. At full resolution, it is a 7.7 gigabyte FITS cube.

You can view his result at his web site, Milky Way Panorama 2.0. It is best viewed with a "full" computer as he uses the Flash plug-in. This supports smooth zooming and panning. Messier and NGC objects are identified. Large-scale star and dust clouds are well defined. When you start panning about, looking around, there is a strong feeling of floating in space, in your little spaceship, touring the massive spiral structure.

Turn the lights off. View on a large monitor at high resolution. Dive into the Milky Way!

http://home.arcor-online.de/axel.mellinger/

He also offers a JavaScript version.

If you can't get to a dark sky site, if clouds thwart your attempts, enjoy Axel's faithful depiction of galactic dust and glow of millions of distant stars in our home galaxy the Milky Way.

Rent a Carr Observatory Locker Late July, a small crew gathered at the Carr Astronomical Obser-vatory to finish construction of five lockers on the west wall inside the garage.

Members may rent these lockers for storing their telescopes and accessories. This eliminates the need to transport equipment each visit to and from the CAO. Immediately, three lockers were rented out!

Each locker is made of wood and is over 30" wide and deep and 7' tall. Each door has an individually keyed lock. The professional grade doors were free-cycled from a building project. The lockers are totally enclosed making them secure and animal resistant. The raised floor offers moisture protection. Each locker is equipped with two removeable shelves and a caged wall-mounted lamp (red, of course) to prevent dew.

The lockers were named after Jupiter’s moons: Amalthea, Io, Eu-ropa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Lockers can be rented for a 6 month seasonal period or annually. Rates start at $15 per month. At the time of writing, two lockers are available to rent.

Please contact Tony Horvatin ([email protected]) or Blake Nancarrow ([email protected]) if you are inter-ested in renting a locker or have any questions.

We wish to thank all the volunteers for their time and effort: Ralph Chou, Lora and Phil Chow, Ian Donaldson, Elaine and Tony dos Santos, Wayne Gilbank, Grace and Tony Horvatin, Dietmar Kupke, Katrina Ince-Lum, Blake Nancarrow, Millie Rayakovich, and Ian Wheelband. Lora Chow On behalf of the CAO Committee


Carr Observatory Star-B-Que Report

by Grace Horvatin, Risa Horowitz and

Katrina Ince-Lum On Saturday, July 26th, we held a Star-B-Que for members, their families, and their friends at the Carr Astronomical Observatory located on the top of Blue Mountain in the Collingwood area.

This was a fantastic opportunity for members who had yet to visit the CAO, as it is known, to discover the facility and for others to return once again. It was well attended with approximately 40 peo-ple out for a great day of activities. While most members drive to the CAO, one family chose to make the most of the weekend, scenic environment, and school holidays by hiking the last few kilo-metres carrying all of their camping equipment and observing gear!

The weather cooperated on Friday night and we did some star gazing under the helpful guidance of Katrina Ince-Lum, the supervi-sor for the weekend. Katrina did an excellent job of showing us the wonders of our dark skies that night, while others shared their views of celestial objects from their own telescopes or binoculars. Observing highlights from the C14 telescope in the Geoff Brown Observatory (GBO) included Saturn at dusk, Mars, Neptune, and Uranus, along with globular clusters M13 and M5, the planetary nebula M57, and galaxies M51 and M101. Out on the observing pad, Ian Wheelband set up his 20" custom-made Dobsonian and showed off some wonderful objects including Saturn, some double stars, and M13, which in Ian's words "fully resolved into thousands of little jewels of light."

On Saturday, despite the day-long threat of rain (which held off until well after sundown), sunspots and solar flares were visible in the C14 in the midst of all the planned and improvised activities of the day (including some heated games of Scrabble).

The committee was on site the night before and thanks to great organization and an excellent team, they were able to relax ahead of the first arrivals around 1:30 p.m. Members who were inter-ested in hiking the Margret Paull trail, a side trail of the Bruce Trail that surrounds the CAO, headed out with Tony Horvatin as their guide. He was seen to be brushing up on his knowledge of the local flora and fauna earlier in the day!). We are happy to report that the same number of bodies who went out returned safely to take part in some great kite flying, courtesy of Doug Isherwood. Doug brought a won-derful collection of his kites for our mem-bers to try their hands at. Even the youngest members were able to navigate the winds and fly the kites. He was kind enough to donate some kites to the CAO for future use. Thanks Doug!

With the kite flying instructions over, the crowd was entertained with a rocket show run by Tony, Blake Nancarrow, and Charles Darrow. The gentlemen had a challenge keeping up with the kids who re-trieved the rockets from the fields to the south of the viewing area. Our rocket launch announcer, Meghana M. did an excellent

job of counting us down for each thrilling launch. This event was definitely a highlight of the day for kids and adults alike! We then held a raffle and just about everyone got to take home prizes, which included an eye piece kit, club hoodies, books, cosmic goop, and more!

A group photo was taken on the north side of the house to com-memorate the BBQ and then everyone went to work cooking their protein of choice on the huge charcoal bbq. We enjoyed a potluck table of salads and desserts to round off the communal meal.

With dinner over, the group enjoyed each other's company until the skies darkened. A campfire was lit, since the skies didn't clear, and marshmallows were roasted at the fire while sparklers were lit and waved around in the dark. We even sang some songs around the glow of the fire while listening to the chirping of crickets and the howling of the coyotes!

Despite the cloudy skies on Saturday night, it is safe to say that everyone in attendance that day had a great time enjoying the range of activities and getting to know one another! Many a com-ment could be heard from happy visitors retelling some of the day's activities. I think some of the best comments were made by the children of the four families present that day!

Thanks to the CAO committee for planning such a well rounded, family-friendly event for the members to enjoy, to Katrina Ince-Lum for her site supervision, and to Sunward Hobbies for do-nating two rocket kits. You may want to consider a visit to the CAO to see for yourself what you are missing if you haven't al-ready found out what a fabulous facility our Centre has on top of Blue Mountain!

Visit our Yahoo Group to see our 2014 Star-B-Que photo album: ht tp s : / /g ro ups .y a hoo .com /neo /groups /ra sc toron to /pho to s /albums/1290879679

Photo: Ian Wheelband posing with his 20" Dobsonian with Risa Horowitz, and Blake Nancarrow with his laser pointer. Photo by Risa Horowitz


My First Double-Double at CAO

by Artash Nath It was Friday the 25th of July 2014, and we were eating our dinner at the Carr Astronomical Observatory (CAO). Suddenly Katrina, the Observatory Supervisor for the weekend, came in and told us that Saturn was visible on the telescope. Yeah! We could start our long night of observation – which meant we could stay up way past our bed time, all in the name of Science.

We first looked at Saturn and its beautiful rings. I learned that the rings are named alphabetically – A, B, and C rings in the order that they were discovered. In the past five years of knowing my ABC, I did not think that the alphabet was used for naming Saturn’s rings! The C rings are the black rings in between Saturn and the outer rings A and B. And the Cassini Division separates rings A and B. I also learned that the the rings of Saturn are tilting more and more each year. Soon we won’t be able to see the South Pole of Saturn.

Next we moved the telescope to Mars. It was red in colour and lay in a straight line in the middle of Saturn and Spica. Then we pointed the telescope to Arc-turus in the constellation Herdsman. Arcturus is the fourth bright-est star.

Then we moved the telescope to the M-13 Globular Cluster. A Globular Cluster has a high density of stars. In M-13 I could make out some stars individually, but all the other stars were visible as a bright, luminous mass. If we lived near it, it would always be morning!

Next we saw Vega. Vega is the fifth brightest star in the constella-tion Lyra. We also saw Dubhe and Mirak in the constellation Ursa Major.

Now it was time that I learned how to use the telescope. No more Katrina moving the telescope! I became the king of the observatory! I moved the telescope to more things that I wanted to see. Where are you hiding, outlaws? Oh, I mean the outer planets.

I moved the telescope to Neptune. It was the first time I saw Nep-tune. It was blue in color. Now I tried Uranus, but the computer said it was below the horizon. So we waited. Finally at around 12:45 am, Uranus had risen to 7° above the horizon. We were able to see Uranus. It was also bluish in color.

Now it was time for my double double. I pointed the telescope at Epsilon Lyrae in the constellation Lyra. A double star looks like a single star when viewed by the naked eye. But when we look through a telescope, we can see that they are actually two stars close to each other. Why ‘double double’? Because Epsilon Lyrae is made up of two double stars.

Now it was time to close the observatory and go to our tent. The telescope slept and so did we!

The end!

Artash Nath is a Grade 2 student in Toronto. He is interested in Astronomy and Robotics. Arushi Nath is in Kindergarten and loves drawing.

2015 RASC Observer’s

Handbook The Observer's Handbook is a 352-page guide published annually since 1907 by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Through its long tradition and the exper-tise of more than 60 contributors, the Ob-server's Handbook has come to be regarded as the standard North American reference for data on the sky. The material in the Handbook is of interest to professional and amateur astronomers, scientists, teachers at all levels, students, science writers, campers, Scout and Guide leaders, as well as interested general readers. The Observer's Hand-book is an integral part of many astronomy courses at the secon-dary and university levels, and it should be on the reference shelf of every library. This year, the OH will feature a guest editorial from Prof. Sara Seager. Several other Toronto Centre members have annual en-tries in the OH as well. Your copy of the OH is a benefit of membership, and should be in the mail to you some time during the month of October. Extra copies can be purchased from the RASC online shop.


RASC Publications Note The Journal of the RASC October issue featured contributions from several Toronto Centre members. Lynn Hilborn photographed the nebulosity around Polaris for the front cover, and a landscape featuring Cassiopeia. (Lynn also continued presenting photographic excellence in the pages of Sep-tember SkyNews.) Joel Parkes provided the inside front cover illustration, a mono-chrome photo of the Horsehead Nebula. Peter Hiscocks contributed ‘Avoiding Battery Brownout: Tips for Astronomers’. Dr. John Percy’s JRASC column this month is ‘John Percy’s Uni-verse: Adventures in School Astronomy’.

For the Journal current issues, just login to the National site using your personal username and password, then click the link in the right sidebar at www.rasc.ca/jrasc/recent to get the issue of your choice.

If you haven't yet logged in to our site and are unsure of the pro-cedure, or if you are having difficulty with your login, please go to the Login Assistance page at www.rasc.ca/login-assistance or drop by the RASC office at 4920 Dundas St. W. at Burnamthorpe for support.

Jim Chung took a break from his JRASC column ‘Cosmic Con-templations’ to be interviewed in the October Sky & Telescope magazine ‘Telescope Workshop’ feature by Gary Seronik about his Turret Eyepiece Holder.

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Observing Certificates Corner SCOPE tracks the progress of Toronto Centre members to-wards the Observing Certificates.

• Andy Beaton, Herschel, 196/400 • Eric Briggs, Messier, 65/110

• Denis Grey, Finest NGC, 56/110 • Kersti Meema, Messier, 7/110

• Paul Mortfield, Explore the Universe, 110/110 • Chris Vaughan, Explore the Universe, 101/110 To register for Certificate Corner, e-mail to: [email protected]. More about working towards an RASC Observing Certificate:

• Send an e-mail with your inquiry to [email protected] • See the National web site Certificate Page at http://www.rasc.ca/observing/certificate-programs To apply for a certificate and pin, send your observation infor-mation by e-mail to: [email protected] RASC Toronto Centre Observational Activities Committee

c/o Ontario Science Centre, 770 Don Mills Road

Toronto, ON M3C 1T3


OZsky by Katrina Ince-Lum

OZsky is a week long annual star party held under the dark skies of Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia. It will next be held April 17-24, 2015.

“The "OzSky Star Safari" is an exclusive event hosted by 3RF Australia on the outskirts of Coonabarabran, New South Wales - The Astronomy Capital of Australia.

OzSky's primary aim is to provide astronomers from the North-ern Hemisphere with not only a unique Australian cultural ex-perience, but more importantly a unique opportunity to experi-ence the grandeur of the southern night skies through a number of large, high quality astronomical instruments without the need to transport large telescopes from one side of the world to the other. “

(from http://www.ozsky.org/)

I’ve been wanting to attend this star party for years, and am now taking the plunge. I’ve booked my plane ticket and plan to at-tend next year – it would be great if some Toronto RASCals were there also. Apart from airfare, one would need to pay for the cost of the motel for the week, local transportation (train/car rental) and perhaps a couple of nights hotel in Sydney after arriving in Australia, but overall the costs are very reasonable for this kind of astro adventure, compared to many organized tours.

I’d also heard that the Parkes Radio Telescope, AKA “The Dish” might be closing soon, so I plan to see that again (I saw it first as a 14 year old), along with some local observatories like Siding Springs and take some time to relax under the eucalyptus trees. Of course, I’ve started my observing list, and look for-ward to seeing Omega Centuri and 47 Tucanae (among other objects) through the 25” Obsession Telescope.

The website mentioned above has further information, including how to book.

RASC Board News - Fall 2014

by Denis Grey

A new National RASC Board of Directors was installed at the Society's recent General Assembly in Victoria. The Board wel-comed newcomers Dr. Randy Boddam (Belleville) and Dr. Karen Finstad (Ottawa) while bidding adieu to Past President Glenn Hawley (Calgary) and Paul Gray (Halifax). Continuing on the Board were local members Denis Grey (Toronto) and Colin Haig (Hamilton). The face of the Society has changed as James Edgar (Regina), our long-standing National Secretary, has stepped up to the role of President.

The summer has been spent on some orientation activities for our new Board and a lot of housekeeping matters. The Board's next major activity is a scheduled three-day planning meeting in Toronto from October 2nd to 4th which will review our strate-gic plan and set our short and medium term objectives for the 2014-16 planning period.

The biggest news of the summer has been the mid-July resigna-tion of the Society's Executive Director, Deborah Thompson, who has taken on a similar position with the Ontario Land Trust Alliance. At its meeting of August 29th, the Board ap-proved the appointment of Randy Attwood as the Society's new Executive Director. Randy is no stranger to the Society as he is a Past President of both the Toronto and Mississauga Cen-tres as well as a Past President of the Society as a whole. Randy has recently been involved with spearheading the development of a planetarium in the GTA and is frequently called upon for media interviews and commentary on all matters related to space exploration which is a hobby of his. As an "insider", Randy is expected to bring his experience in publishing and amateur astronomy to bear on the Society's challenges while learning a great deal about association management. The Board looks for-ward to working with him and wishes him every success in his new role.

I'm pleased to announce that one of my own initiatives as a Board member is now bearing fruit. Through an exciting part-nership with SkyNews magazine, the Society and SkyNews are now offering a made in Canada "Getting Started in Astronomy" guide. This free publication will be distributed through our Cen-tres and offers the newbie observer practical tips on how to get started in astronomy. This will be available for free distribution starting September 5th. Look for copies to be distributed at our next Toronto Centre Member's Night on September 24th.

Our annual publications, the Observer's Calendar and Observer's Handbook, are in the late stages of printing and preparation re-spectively and we expect to see them available for sale and dis-tribution to members beginning in October.

The Society's IT Committee is also in the process of rejuvenat-ing our Society's national website at www.rasc.ca. The Society will be moving to the Drupal 7 content management platform and rethemeing and reorganizing the content for better access. This process is expected to take a number of months but will hopefully result in a more dynamic and responsive web presence for the Society.

Clear skies


2013-2014 Toronto Centre Council EXECUTIVE Honorary President Dr. Roberto Abraham President Charles Darrow 905 629 1438 [email protected] 1st Vice President Peter Hiscocks (Finance) [email protected] 2nd Vice President Paul Delaney (Program) [email protected] Secretary Eric Briggs * [email protected] Treasurer Scott Masterton [email protected] Recorder Rajesh Shukla * [email protected] TORONTO CENTRE COUNCILLORS Honorary Councillor Robert May

Retiring 2014 Leslie Harvey, Gilles Gaudet, Laila Zichmanis* Retiring 2015 Paul Mortfield, Dietmar Kupke, Stuart McNair

Retiring 2016 Michelle Johns, Steve McKinney

Past Presidents Dr. B. Ralph Chou, Tony Horvatin * National Council Representatives COMMITTEE CHAIRS Membership & Address Changes Phil Chow, [email protected]

Volunteer Co-ordinator Sharmin Chowdhury, [email protected]

Members' Nights Paul Markov, [email protected]

Observational Activities Stuart McNair, [email protected]

Public Education Leslie Harvey, [email protected]

SCOPE Eric Briggs, [email protected]

Information Technology, Listservs Blake Nancarrow, [email protected]

Website, Social Media Allard Schipper & Katrina Ince-Lum, [email protected]

Carr Astronomical Observatory (CAO) Management Blake Nancarrow and Tony Horvatin

Carr Astronomical Observatory (CAO) Bookings Lora Chow, [email protected]

Light Pollution Abatement Peter Hiscocks, [email protected]

Property Management Tom Luton, [email protected]

Public Affairs Coordinator Karen Mortfield, [email protected]

David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) Paul Mortfield and Ralph Chou, [email protected]

Invitations for RASC Members to

Attend non-RASC Observing Parties This may be a timely reminder to you if you plan to set up a tele-scope on Halloween to “treat” your trick-or-treaters to views of the First Quarter Moon on your front lawn.

People with our interests often find time to meet in public places, during the day or at night, to set up telescopes and observe the sky. The back page of this newsletter includes a set monthly list of observing events sponsored by the RASC Toronto Centre. It’s common for us to observe in public outside of these events, but on those occasions we are acting more privately.

One of the benefits of membership in the Royal Astronomical So-ciety of Canada is access to a General Liability Insurance policy that is held by the Society.

http://www.rasc.ca/public-liability-insurance-information

The policy covers events described as “normal RASC activities”. These include “astronomy activities including meetings, observing sessions, astronomy day activities and other similar astronomy public outreach events”.

The purpose of the policy is to protect RASC Centres and mem-bers from accident and/or injury claims made against them by members of the public (i.e.: non-RASC members who attend public RASC events).

All RASC Centres, members, employees and volunteers while act-ing within the scope of their duties on behalf of RASC are insured under this policy.

The Toronto Centre holds separate insurance for our property, but the RASC policy described above provides some indemnity in case of accident. When Toronto Centre activities are planned for someone else’s private property, such as a mall or one of our part-ners such as the Ontario Science Centre, the event host is entitled to ask us to show proof of insurance, as above.

Please continue to observe by yourself or with a group of friends, as well as at our events. Also, you may want to announce your observing event at a meeting or on our social media or Yahoo!Groups. However, please keep the above policy in mind; observing events that you plan informally are not RASC events, even if RASC members attend them.

If you plan to conduct your own pri-vate observing/outreach activities, maybe you should check with your home insurer that such activities are covered against accidental injuries if someone (a trick-or-treater or par-ent) hurts themselves while looking through your telescope on your prop-erty or in a public place.

Speaking of home insurance, the com-pany linked to at the bottom of the above insurance link, the provider of the RASC policy described above, also offers group home and auto in-surance rates to RASC members at a considerate rate.


Join your friends from the Toronto Centre for Observing Sessions and Public Star Nights.

Observing takes place on the first clear night listed. Go on-line at www.rascto.ca or check the e-mail list, or our experimental FaceBook group and Twitter feeds,www.twitter.com/RASCTC www.twitter.com/TCObs or www.twitter.com/ddostars for confirmation after 6:30 PM if conditions are questionable.

Observing Nights

Dark Sky Observing Long Sault Conservation Area October 20, 21, 22 or 23 (First clear night) November 17, 18, 19 or 20 Contact: Stuart McNair 416-725-6840 C

The Toronto Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is one of the 29 Centres of the Society across Canada formed to promote the advancement of astronomy and allied sciences. Membership Fees are: Regular $ 82.00 per year Family $ 77.00 primary + $10 per person Youth (under 21) $ 43.00 per year Affiliate(from other RASC centres) $ 33.00 per year Carr Observatory Annual Pass: $85pp/$140fam

Benefits of Membership: -SCOPE Newsletter -SkyNews Magazine -The Journal and Bulletin -Observer’s Handbook − Telescope loan program − First Light Program for new astronomers -Optional use of the Carr Astronomical Observatory -Use of the David Dunlap Observatory -RASC Insurance

Address Correspondence to: The Secretary RASC Toronto Centre c/o Ontario Science Centre Education Department 770 Don Mills Road Toronto, ON M3C 1T3

Websites www.rascto.ca www.theddo.ca

E-mail List & eSCOPE On-line

Join our electronic community! The Toronto Centre hosts an active Yahoo Groups! site for members. E-mail [email protected] with your complete name and you will be subscribed.

This newsletter is also available by e-mail in PDF format. Contact our membership secretary at [email protected] for details.

City Observing Bayview Village Park High Park October 6, 7, or 9 (First clear night) November 3, 4, 5 or 6 December 1, 2, 3 or 4 High Park Note: Due to low at-tendance, when we announce a GO for City Observing Sessions to the membership, the High Park session will be conditional on one or more members indicat-ing by 6 p.m. that they will at-tend.

Solar Observing

Ontario Science Centre Teluscape 10:00 AM - Noon, October 4, November 1 December 6 Rain Dates: October 18, Novem-ber 8, Contact: Shawn Lee 416-759-0650

David Dunlap Observatory Members Observing Nights Members nights feature pizza and refreshments before observ-ing. The exciting DDO public sched-ule is in place (see P.4). Our focus on volunteering at these events includes observing on the lawn. Separate members-only observ-ing will be scheduled on an ad hoc basis. Please stay tuned to our Yahoo!Groups and other elec-tronic media for updates.

okay professor, steve zodiac, fireball xl-5

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