Mississauga Centre RASC

            108th Meeting

                                                                  Members’ Night 

Day:                Friday June 20, 2008

Chair:                John Marchese

Speakers:          Terry Hardman

                           Randy Attwood 

                          Bob Anderson 

                          Roy Swanson 

Orion Telescope

Terry Hardman spoke about the two new 8” Orion computerized telescopes that the centre has purchased at a discount.   These telescopes were selected because they have a good aperture, are easy to set up and use and the computerized database allows many objects to be easily found.  He showed how to set up the telescope, adjust the finder, align it, and how to use the computer functions to identify or find targets. 

2008 General Assembly,  STS-7

Randy Attwood spoke about the upcoming 2008 GA.  The last organizing meeting has taken place.  With a theme of Astronomy Night in Canada, there will be a hockey game on Saturday afternoon.  The other theme is the International Year of Astronomy 2009.  Phil Plait and Terry Dickinson will be giving talks.  Toronto, Mississauga and Hamilton Centres are running the GA with Saturday June 28 being Mississauga Day.

Randy then described the space shuttle mission STS-7 with Sally Ride in June 1983.  On June 10, 1983, the shuttle Enterprise did a flyover Toronto.  A few days later Randy and his wife Betty were in Florida for the launch of Challenger.  Randy showed a video of the crew walkout, the launch and a recent interview of sally Ride.  

Astrophotography

A video by Bob Anderson on astrophotography was shown, specifically about what the astrophotographer is doing today.  A video of astroimages set to music was shown. 

The sky next Month

Roy Swanson discussed the summer sky, Milky Way, Summer Triangle, Ophiuchus, Serpens, Scorpius, Libra including the two “claw” stars of Libra which used to be part of Scorpius.  He showed the position of planets and discussed the Aquariid meteor shower.  

 Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to Miss Centre. meeting reports page
Mississauga Centre RASC