Mississauga Centre RASC

75th Meeting

Speaker’s’ Night

 

 

Day:                December 8, 2006

 

Speaker:     Phil Mozel

                  

                              

Astronomy Writing for Fun and More Fun

 

Phil Mozel, councilor of the Mississauga Centre RASC has researched and written about many astronomical topics over the years.  With a complete set of RASC journals dating back 100 years and numerous notes from his researches in various archives, Phil has been able to track down the history of various institutions and telescope such as the Woodstock Observatory.  He has researched and written about the 4” refractor bought in 1882 by Alan Miller of the Toronto Centre currently in Victoria, about the Cassegrain telescope in the museum in Moosonee ON, and about a telescope in the Amherst Museum.  More information, however is needed before other questions can be answered such as the origin of the 4” Brashear refractor belonging to the Toronto Centre, or the current location of the 8” Fitz refractor from Woodstock.

 

 

In the J.RASC Vol 80, 1986, Phil wrote about the discovery the Uranian moons Ariel and Umbriel.   The Observers Handbook lists Laselle as the discoverer in 1845 although Herschel had actually seen them in the 1780’s. However, Because Herschel did not report them as moons he is credited only as having pre-discovery observations.

 

In a Sky and Telescope, Phil wrote about the story on Berenice’s hair, now the constellation Coma Berenices.  Another article about the eclipse of Niceas related the story of the Athenian siege of Syracuse.  A later eclipse of the moon had Phil’s photo published on the front cover of Season magazine.  Then in the  J.RASC in 1995 , Phil wrote a rather scathing review of a book about star-hopping.  Another J.RASC article gave the story of the constellation Pegasus and Phil’s theory that the Andromeda galaxy represents the fly that bit the winged horse. His first article on Pegasus was rejected but was published some years later in the Journal.  Another Journal article discussed the Sky disc of Nebra and the significance of the celestial symbols on it.  Phil’s interest in archeology led him to investigate the ancient image of Aphrodite buried upside down in Cyprus. This artifact has traditionally been felt to be a meteorite, but further investigation with the University of Cyprus reveals that it is only a volcanic rock.

 

In Sky News, he wrote about the Cassini mission to Saturn. He has also written about the Nozomi spacecraft containing a Canadian-built instrument. He has interviewed the principal investigator of the Maple Leaf instrument on a Mars mission.

 

To guarantee a constant source of articles, Phil has been writing “A Moment with …” wherein he publishes interviews with Canadian astronomers.  The first one was about Dr. Richard Crowe whom Phil knows personally.  The article about Wendy Freedman from Concordia University in California was topical, dealing with the age of the Universe. Phil is now working on his 20th column. He is often asked: “Why Canada” for astronomy. The answer is collegiality and teamwork.  Other articles is currently researching are about the telescope that used to be present at the Whitby Ladies College, and he history of Copernicus’ book “de Revolutionibus” at U of T.

 

 

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