FREE Spooky Star Party - OSC - Friday, October 30th

Peter McMahon of Discovery Channel will host a Halloween flavoured star party coming up at the OSC. Costumes, scary stories, and telescopes. Oh My! Click on the image for more information.

h/t to Ray Khan

Star Symposium @ York University - Saturday October 3, 2009

STAR Symposium is a combined effort between the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the York University Astronomical Observatory and the York University Astronomy Club to celebrate York’s 50th anniversary and the International Year of Astronomy.  Click on the poster for more information!

Interesting speakers and events are planned for the day.  A tour of the York University Observatories will be given. 

Ivan Semeniuk, a journalist from the University of Toronto, and Bob McDonald, the host of CBC Radio’s “Quirks and Quarks” available to speak for us during the evening.

h/t to Ray Khan

Pirates on the Grand!

A quick report on our recent Pirate Venturer canoe trip.  See here for more info.

Carnival of Space Hat Trick #119-121

Three Carnivals:

• The Labour Day Edition #119 at The Planetary Society
• #120 at Music of the Spheres
• #121 at Next Big Future
  

3 Star Parties!

Three star parties around in Ontario

• Huronia Star Party - South Simcoe Amateur Astronomers - September 16-19
• 12th Annual Algonquin Adventure - Toronto RASC - September 18-20 2009
• Fall - N Stars Star Party, Belleville RASC - September 25-27

h/t to Ray Khan

433rd 2009-2010 registration and information updates

Please checkout our main web site for registration and event updates for the 2009-2010 season!

More updates will be coming throughout the season.

Carnival of Space #118 @ Cumbrian Sky

This week's Carnival of Space issue #118 has moved back across the pond to Kendal UK.  Hosted at Cumbrian Sky, this week's carnival is full of great articles.  Stu has contributed articles to past carnivals but I was surprised to discover that this is his first time as host.  Go Stu!

What's up @ Gordon's Park Manitoulin

Bookmark this article if you want to know what's up at Gordon's Park.



Check out the following:

• Clear Sky Chart for your astronomy and observing weather forecast and a link to the Camp website - for more see Weather forecasts for Stargazers
• Heavens Above for observing forecasts and charts covering the International Space Station, Satellites, Planets, Comets, and Iridium flares as seen from the camp
• Google Maps for a look at the camp

Petition: designate David Dunlap Observatory lands a National Historic Site

Image from Wikipedia

Byron Wilfert, the Member of Parliament representing Richmond Hill, is sponsoring a petition "Protect the David Dunlap Observatory Lands" to get the David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) lands designated as a National Historic Site. This is the beginning of a process that will hopefully lead to designation of the lands. The lands contain more than the Observatory and are also of historical and environmental interest.

There are no particular restrictions on who can sign the petition such as age or location; however, the more people from Richmond Hill and Canada sign the better.

Click here for the petition itself

• Summary of DDO petition at the MP's site
  
• The MP's site welcome page

The petition is hosted by petitiononline.com.

Privacy note: All of the information you provide will be public except for your email address which can be set as (1) private - the default, (2) available to the Petition Author, and (3) public. I'd recommend either option (2) or (1). At a minimum you must provide your name and email to sign the petition. All other information is optional.

While I didn't provide comments or a phone number, I did give my address as my city and I made my email address available to the petition author.

A confirmation notification will be sent to the email address you provide.

For more information on the DDO and conservation efforts:

• Wikipedia
• Mang's Bat Page articles on the DDO
• Richmond Hill Naturalists
• Save the DDO FaceBook Group
• Save the DDO!
• Observatory Park
  

Carnival of Space 117 @ Simostronomy

A new Carnival of Space #117 is up over at Simostronomy. Lot's of great articles including remembering the X-15 the first reusable space ship, texting aliens, Analemmas and the Equation of Time, and just what alien life might be like are some of the topics covered.

Antipodean Astronomical Weather Forecasts and more

Astronomers in North America have been fortunate to have Clear Sky Charts for weather forecasts available.  While astronomers elsewhere may have felt they've been left out there are a couple of services for them too.

Check out Ian Musgrave's at Astroblog's report about two clear sky like services called Skippy Sky and 7 timer (pronounced tri-timer) that provide weather forecasts for astronomers down under and beyond.

• Skippy Sky provides visual representations of forecasts based on large regions including Austrailia, New Zealand, Europe, North America, the Canary Islands, and Cerro Tololo (Chile). 
• 7timer provides parameterized Astroweather Panels or Apanels for many locations around the globe by name or by latitude and longitude.  Unlike Clear Sky Charts these are generated on the fly.

Both are based on a global numerical weather model known as GFS or Global Forescast System run by the  NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration) NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) program.  Incidentally, GFS data drives a number of weather forecasting services like Accuweather and The Weather Channel among others.

Clear Sky Charts use the more granular data available from Environment Canada and can provide data for more specific locations in the geography where they overlap.

Carnival of Space #116 @ Habitation Intention

The Carnival is back with a new issue and a new host.  Habitation Intention is all about envisioning humans living in space.  Welcome HI and checkout the latest issue of the Carnival.

What's up @ the Ontario Science Center

Bookmark this article if you want to know what's up at the Ontario Science Centre.




Check out the OSC Calendar and some Astronomy Events at the OSC:

• International Year of Astronomy Events including free star parties
• Solar Observing (monthly event)

Check out the following:

• Clear Sky Chart for your astronomy and observing weather forecast and a link to the Camp website - for more see Weather forecasts for Stargazers
• Heavens Above for observing forecasts and charts covering the International Space Station, Satellites, Planets, Comets, and Iridium flares as seen from the camp
• Google Maps for a look at the camp