Category: News

Hi Everyone! We have a feature-packed meeting this Tuesday, June 13th. Our very own Norm Hey along with Science North’s Olathe Mcintyre will be giving us an exciting update to the Solar System Path located along the boardwalk. This has been a project in the making for several years, and we’re exciting to see it come to fruition! Also featured is Matteo Statti  of Toronto RASC who will bring us the Mystery of the Marsh Telescope. We always love a good mystery, so this will prove to be exciting!

Agenda:

1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward

2. Sudbury Solar System Path – Norm Hey and Olathe Macintyre (40 min)

3. Break – (15min)

4.What’s Up, Doc? Planet Parade/Conjunctions/etc.

5. Mystery of the Marsh Telescope – Matteo Statti

6. Astro-Jeopardy with Trevor Chandler (Time-Permitting)

7. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge

 

When: Tuesday June 13th, 7pm

Where: Science North Planetarium and on Zoom

If attending in person:

PARKING

For those attending in person at Science North please be advised that you will be able to park in the front parking lot. Even though the gate might be down, Science North will validate everyone’s parking ticket (they have a machine at the front desk that validates tickets to not have to pay). People will just need to bring in the ticket they get at the parking’s entrance gate.

If attending on Zoom, please use this link (different every month!)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88920603114

RASC Sudbury AstroNorth, June 2023

Hi Everyone, a note that as of this month, our meetings will no longer be held on Fridays, but on the second Tuesday of the month. We hope that this will make it easier for everyone to attend.

Also, no newsletter this month.

Agenda:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When: Tuesday May 9th, 7pm

Where: Science North Planetarium and on Zoom

If attending in person:

PARKING

For those attending in person at Science North please be advised that you will be able to park in the front parking lot. Even though the gate might be down, Science North will validate everyone’s parking ticket (they have a machine at the front desk that validates tickets to not have to pay). People will just need to bring in the ticket they get at the parking’s entrance gate.

If attending on Zoom, please use this link (different every month!)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82525656316

Hi Everyone,

Just a reminder that we will not be having a meeting this evening.

Our meetings going forward will now be held on the second Tuesday of the month.  Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 9 at Science North.

I will be sending out the meeting invite and agenda on Sunday.

Alan [Sudbury RASC President]

Please Note: The meeting this month is postponed to April 14th as the original date would fall on Easter Weekend.  We have a fascinating talk lined up about Dark Matter by Dr Stephen Sekula from SNOLAB! If you’ve always wondered about the mysterious Dark Matter, you might want to join in!

Also please note: The meeting day will be changing to Tuesdays after this month. This in the hopes of making it easier for more to attend and to make Fridays free.

Meeting Agenda:

1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward

2. Astronomy Without Light:
Revealing the Unseen Universe – Dr Stephen Sekula

3. Break – (15min)

4. What’s Up, Doc? Planet Parade/Conjunctions/etc.

5. Astro-Jeopardy with Trevor Chandler

6. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge

 

Astronomy Without Light: Revealing the Unseen Universe by Dr Stephen Sekula:

As SNOLAB Research Group Manager and Professor of Physics at Queen’s University, Stephen Sekula is concerned with the nature of the universe. But those lights in the night sky may be a distraction. The things we cannot see might matter more. In fact, it may be that all the dark places in between the stars are more important than those beautiful islands of light. Let’s sample together the unseen universe, learning how to see without light and revealing the deeper structure of the cosmos.

Full Bio in the Newsletter

Note that this is a Hybrid meeting. You can attend via Zoom or in-person at the Science North Planetarium. Instructions below.

Meeting Link: Please use this link if attending via Zoom. The link will be different every month!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87522368033

Note about Parking at Science North if attending in person:
Stop at the booth, Press the Button, Take the Ticket. The gate lifts. Proceed, and you will not be charged to get out. Your ticket will be exchanged for one that is validated.

RASC Sudbury Astro-North April 2023

Hello everyone! Last month was our member-only yearly AGM meeting. This coming Friday we have a great meeting, which we hope you’ll attend via Zoom or in-person at the Science North Planetarium. This month features Tabetha Sheppard, a geoscientist and science communicator, who will give us a talk on Impact Craters. More below on this.  We also have our Outreach Coordinator giving a an Outreach report of all the great things we’ve accomplished.

1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward

2. Impactful Rocks – Tabatha Sheppard (40min)

3. Break – (15min)

4. What’s Up, Doc? Planet Parade/Conjunctions/etc.

5. Outreach Report – Colin Durocher (20min)

6. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge

 

Tabetha Sheppard is geoscientist and science communicator passionate about sharing her love for space, mining and impact craters through the development of educational and outreach programs. Tabetha earned her master’s degree in science communication from Laurentian University, and spent time studying impact cratering processes at the Institute of Earth and Space Exploring at Western University. She hopes to one day inspire the next generation to pursue careers in earth and space science fields. 

Impact cratering is a ubiquitous and complex geological process that has occurred all throughout the history of our solar system. Impact craters like Gale and Jezero Crater have been the landing locations of choice when exploring lunar and martian geology but even Earth has its own set of impact craters. Canada is home to some notable craters, including the 1.85 billion year old, and second largest terrestrial crater: the Sudbury Impact Structure. 

 

This talk will explore how craters are formed as well as their historical and scientific importance in Planetary Science and Economic Geology.

Note that this is a Hybrid meeting. You can attend via Zoom or in-person at the Science North Planetarium. Instructions below.

Meeting Link: Please use this link if attending via Zoom. The link will be different every month!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83083947471

Note about Parking at Science North if attending in person:
Stop at the booth, Press the Button, Take the Ticket. The gate lifts. Proceed, and you will not be charged to get out. The ticket makes a handy bookmark!

 

— Alan Ward—

Happy New Year Everyone!

Our first Hybrid-Zoom meeting this year (2023) will happen at Science North’s Digital Planetarium today Friday, Jan 6 at 7:00pm.  I really encourage those who can physically attend.  The Planetarium experience is something we as a club can be proud of using thanks to Science North.  We are unique in Canada as a RASC Centre to have such a unique resource for conducting our meetings.  Although we can share the planetarium’s view through Zoom for remote attendees it does not have the same impact of seeing it live in person.  So I really encourage all of you who can, please come out to witness this extraordinary experience.

I am currently attempting to learn the functionality of the planetarium myself under the guidance of Olathe & Lucie so put me to the test tomorrow in requesting what you would like to see.  I’ll do my best.

— Alan Ward —

Note that this is a Hybrid meeting. You can attend via Zoom or in-person at the Science North Planetarium. Instructions below.

Meeting Link: Please use this link if attending via Zoom. The link will be different every month!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84907172843

Note about Parking at Science North if attending in person:
Stop at the booth, Press the Button, Take the Ticket. The gate lifts. Proceed, and you will not be charged to get out. The ticket makes a handy bookmark!

Sorry, no Newsletter this month!

 

We have a great line-up of presentations and Digital Planetarium simulations that we will be presenting at this month’s meeting. I really encourage our local participants to come out to the Digital Planetarium to witness these meetings in a new spectacular way! – Alan Ward

Agenda:

1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward

2. Michael Wright – A Martian Odyssey

3. Show & Tell (10min) – Trevor Chandler

4. Break – (10min)

5. Astro Jeopardy

6. Mars Dec 7 occultation simulation via Digital Planetarium

7. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge

 

Featured Presentation: Michael Wright of KW-RASC – A Martian Odyssey

Michael will give us an amazing talk about Mars, full of highlights and facts that you’ve probably never heard of before. Let us take this Odyssey with him.

Friday Dec 2nd @ 7PM

A Hybrid Meeting on Zoom and at the Science North Planetarium

Meeting Link: Please use this link if attending via Zoom. The link will be different every month!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84881567546

A note about parking if attending in person at Science North:

New Parking Lot Instructions @ Science North (please disregard Newsletter instructions)

For everyone attending the meeting in person at Science North, there will be several events occurring that evening so we expect a full parking lot. Please park in the staff parking lot instead and enter through the door behind the IMAX theatre as shown in the image below? We’re hoping we can continue doing this  going forward. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hope to see you all there, in person or online!

RASC Sudbury AstroNorth Dec 2022

We have quite a special meeting for you this month.  International speaker Bart Fried, founder of the Antique Telescope Society will give us a fascinating presentation about a mysterious lens with a large hole in it. If you love a great mystery, this is one meeting you’ll want to attend! We also have a door prize. Anyone attending in-person will receive a ticket to win a copy of The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield.

1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward

2. Bart Fried – Who Put the Hole in That Telescope?

3. Break – (10min)

4. Show & Tell (10min)

5. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge

About the Speaker, Bart Fried:

Founder and past President, Antique Telescope Society, and moderator of the ATS Forum. He is the recipient of the ATS Isaac Newton Medal for meritorious service to the Society. As a recognized authority on the history of the telescope, he has lectured for several decades around the U.S., the U.K., Ireland and Canada. His field of concentrated research is the life and work of Dr. John Alfred Brashear. Over 30 published articles can be found in Sky & Telescope magazine; the Journal of the Antique Telescope Society; Eyepiece newsletter of the Amateur Astronomers Association and other journals and publications. Bart is also the Executive Vice-President of Amateur Astronomers Association, Inc, the largest individual astronomical association in the U.S. with ~600 members.

Join us as he tells us a tale about a mystery involving precision timekeeping, a large center hole in a Brashear lens, and Variations in Latitude.

Meeting Link: Please use this link if attending via Zoom. The link will be different every month!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88289679460

Note about Parking at Science North if attending in person:
Stop at the booth, Press the Button, Take the Ticket. The gate lifts. Proceed, and you will not be charged to get out. The ticket makes a handy bookmark!

RASC Sudbury AstroNorth November 2022

 

Hi Everyone! Boy, do we have an exciting meeting this month. Not only is it a return to an in-person meeting,  we are doing a Hybrid meeting, to take advantage of what Zoom has to offer by bringing in a non-local speaker.  The meeting will take place at the Planetarium at Science North, for those who want to attend in person.

This month, our speaker is Matt Considine, member of both the Springfield Telescope Makers (Stellafane), and the Antique Telescope Society, and he will tell us how he and a dedicated team of individuals worked to restore a 1930’s era Spectrohelioscope to image the sun.

1. Sudbury RASC President Address – Alan Ward

2. Matt Considine – Imaging with a Spectrohelioscope

3. Break – (10min)

4. Show & Tell (10min)

5. Closing Comments/News/Open Forum/Starlight Lounge

Location: Online on Zoom, and in-person at the Science North Planetarium

When: 7:00PM.

RASC Sudbury AstroNorth October 2022

Note: You must be on the mailing list to receive the Zoom meeting invitation. The meeting links will not be posted in the newsletter, or the website. This is for security purposes. To request being on the mailing list, please contact us using the contact form via our website, or contact Patrick on Facebook. For those subscribed, look for the invitation link to be followed later after the newsletter. If not found, please check your spam folder. Thank you.

A Note from Our President, Alan Ward, about our October Meeting.

 

Hi Everyone,

Just a heads up that our normally scheduled meeting for Friday Oct 7, will be postponed till Friday, Oct 14 @ 7:00pm due to the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. I will send the zoom link to everyone next Sunday, Oct 9 in advance to our Oct 14 meeting.

Thanks to Science North and Olathe & her staff,  I’m excited to report to you all that our Oct 14 meeting will be our first Hybrid-Zoom meeting.  This will take place at Science North in the Digital Planetarium Theatre. (not the Doran Planetarium @ Laurentian University).  It will be an  awesome  experience for many of you who have never experienced Science North’s Planetarium.  You must come out to see this!!

I encourage you all to attend in person if possible.  For those of you out of town who can’t attend in person, you will still be able to log into Zoom and witness and contribute to the meeting. I will be working with Olathe this week in preparing for the meeting.  I am hoping that it will be the most unique Hybrid Zoom meeting experience in Canada amongst RASC Centres.

Please be patient with us as we will be embarking on a new way of conducting hybrid meetings going forward.  There will be growing pains but my ambitions are that we will be enticing others into joining our meetings.  I realize that we are all tired of zoom meetings and we want to meet again in person.  So do I.

We have lined up a couple international speakers that we will be advertising across other RASC Centres across Canada in the next couple of months so I would advise that our RASC Sudbury zoom members log in earlier at 6:30pm. This will be a first come first serve meeting limited to 100 attendees.

I will follow up next Sunday on more details about the Oct 14th meeting.  So stay tuned.

Also, a special edition of our club’s newsletter will be sent to you on Sunday, Oct 9. This newsletter will contain some very special and memorable moments as well as an update on a special local community astronomical project along with some other cool things.  Patrick, has been preparing this issue over the summer so stay tuned!   

 

Alan