RASC - Saskatoon Centre New Members Night

After a far-too long absence, mainly due to such horrible weather for most of the past few months, I finally have a new post. At a local meeting of our astronomy club (RASC - Saskatoon Centre), I had suggested we have a new members night as a way to get new people out and have some experienced astronomers share their knowledge. As a new(er) member myself, I thought this would be a good idea since there is much I need to learn about astronomy in general.

We met at the University of Saskatchewan Observatory on June 17th. It was organized mainly by Patricia G (thanks for that). Local members Richard Huziak and Mike Clancy spoke to us. Rick talked about choosing telescopes, eyepieces and binoculars, etc. while Mike spoke about the Explore the Universe certificate program offered by the RASC. There were about 10 people who were out to listen to the talks, which were both enjoyable, informative and entertaining. Thanks to Rick and Mike for speaking.

Below are some images of the talk itself and of the observatory. The observatory has been a fixture on the U of S campus for many years. It houses a 6-inch telescope. For more info on the observatory, visit this link.

Rick Huziak talking telescopes

Mike Clancy showing a star chart

U of S Observatory

6-inch telescope

Meteorite collection

Copies of the first star charts and such

Copy of Galileo's notes

Old telescope

U OF S Named In NASA's Strategic Plan

When I was reading the NASA 2006-2016 Strategic Plan (I'm still not sure why, because it's 48 pages long), I came across a photo that I found interesting and thought fellow residents from Saskatchewan might like it too. In the Plan, NASA makes mention about a team from the University of Saskatchewan. So, congratulations to the U of S team for this accomplishment. Here is the quote from the Strategic Plan document with the photo below -

"A team demonstrates their concept for a robotic climber that could scale a 200-foot cable powered only by the beam from an industrial searchlight during the 2005 Beam Power Challenge. The challenge was part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges. Although none of the 11 teams won the challenge, the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team had the farthest beam-powered climb, approximately 40 feet."

(Photo: NASA/K. Davidian)