Mississauga
Astronomical Society
Ninth Meeting
Speakers’ Night
Day: 8 p.m. Friday, October 24,
2003
Speaker:
Rajiv Gupta - Guest
Speaker
Introduction
and welcome
Randy
Attwood welcomed
current and new
members. He introduced Dr. John Percy, professional astronomer and
professor, past
president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, active member of
the
Toronto Centre, and current chair of the education committee of the
CASCA. He
thanked Dr. Percy for allowing the society to use the facilities at the
University of Toronto at Mississauga at no charge. Dr. Percy
spoke about the astronomy education program of the Canadian
Astronomical Society
and his recent book for educators “Skyways”.
The Observer’s Handbook: 96 Years and
going Strong
Rajiv Gupta was the speaker for this
second “Speaker’s Night” of the M.A.S.
Rajiv is the
Editor
of the Observer’s Handbook and Astronomical Calendar of the RASC. He is
a
mathematics professor at U of B.C. and a well known astrophotographer.
He has
previously served the RASC as National Treasurer, 2nd VP, 1st
VP and is now the National President.
Rajiv began by talking about the R.A.S.C. and
its
strength in its 27 centres. He described his involvement with astronomy
when he
taught himself about the subject, and then when he looked through his
first
telescope in 1985 “by accident”. Soon he had acquired a 5” Astrophysics
and has
taken it all over the world for astrophotography. His
interest naturally led him to the
R.A.S.C. Vancouver Centre and then to the National Society. He
encouraged us
explore the RASC website at http://www.rasc.ca/
and the
Handbook site at http://www.rasc.ca/handbook/home.html.
Rajiv spoke about the esteemed history
and
evolution
of the handbook from its first edition in 1907 as the “Canadian
Astronomical
Handbook for 1907” when it was essentially a solo production by C.A.
Chant, and
had 3 contributors. In 1913, a price of 25c was first assigned to the
Handbook. In 1939, Frank Hogg became
assistant editor and
Peter Millman contributed to the meteors section. When Prof. Chant died
in 1956
he had been editor for an amazing 50 years. Ruth
Northcott took over as editor in 1957 but
no editor was named for the 1958 edition out of respect for the late
Professor
Chant. When John Percy took over in1971
he doubled the number of contributors. Roy Bishop became editor in 1982
followed
in 200 by the current editor Rajiv Gupta. The 2004 edition has a total
of 45
contributors, all experts in their fields and this is largely
responsible for
the success of this publication. As
mentioned in its forward, the observer’s handbook is a truly
significant
contribution to Canadian Astronomy, indispensable to anyone interested
in
astronomy, and one of Canada’s oldest publications.
Rajiv compared the current 2004 edition
(96th
year of publication) with its 304 pages to the 1907 edition. The symbols and abbreviations page in 1907
time was virtually unchanged from the one in the 2004 edition, and “The
Sky
Month by Month” has always been present. This is also the most
difficult
section to produce. A new feature in 2003 was the moon diagrams which
Rajiv has
produced using computer programs. The moons not only show the correct
libration
and size of the moon, but also the surface features on the moon in the
correct
orientation. Rajiv described how the moon symbols evolved over a few
years on
his Astronomical Calendars and the information was then carried over to
the
stated section in the handbook. As
recently as 1993, Roy Bishop produced moon rise and set tables
meticulously by
hand whereas now Rajiv does this by computer. The 1st
edition lists
25 satellites of planets compared to 129 in 2004. Rajiv described
numerous
other pages and their features, too numerous to mention here, although
he noted
that his favourite is Roy Bishop’s section about the tides.
Some other fascinating tidbits he
mentioned
are the
following: The commonest astronomical
words in the handbook are “star” with 594
mentions, “sun” with 566, and
“moon” with 567. “Telescope” is
mentioned 292 times. The handbook generates over $100,000 in revenue
for the
RASC and thus subsidizes member fees to about $20 per person. The longest contributor is Terrence Dickinson
with 36 editions on the planets; Roy Bishop in the largest contributor
at
present with 30 pages. There were no
“handbooks for the years 1909 or 1910 because the information was
published in
installments in the Journal of the Society; due to popular demand,
however, the
Handbook returned as a separate publication in 1911. One section has
been
dropped in the latest edition. Although Rajiv didn’t mention which one
it is, I
suspect it is “Variable Galaxies”. It was interesting details such as
these
that captivated the audience.
Rajiv also described other publications
of
the RASC
especially the Astronomical Calendar which began as a 1992 calendar of
his
astrophotos and which was produced in that year for the Vancouver
Centre with a
total of 300 copies. One of it’s main purposes was to show the moon
phases and
rise and setting times for the moon as an aid for observers and
astrophotographers.
The 1993 calendar showed different sizes of the moon depending on its
true
appearance in the sky. Rajiv had to write a special computer program to
show
the moon this way. He now uses fortran language for the data and
postscript
(PS) language for graphics. 1996 was the first colour edition with
images from
R.A.S.C. members all over the country. Rajiv described how the calendar
is
currently produced by computer, with the files electronically
transferred to
the U of T press where it is published. This year, the calendar shows
lunar
features, not just moon symbols, as does the Handbook.
After his very informative talk Rajiv
entertained
questions and the M.A.S. meeting was adjourned after closing remarks by
Randy
Attwood.
Submitted by Chris Malicki,
Secretary
Chris
Malicki, Secretary
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Mississauga
Astronomical Society