On the weekend of April 28-30, 2017, developers, makers, engineers and entrepreneurs will take on NASA-designed challenges, creating solutions that range from silly to serious, fantastical to feasible. Build a team, pick a challenge, and leverage your access to an extraordinary roster of mentors featuring past and present astronauts, aerospace engineers, and designers.

Join us as we celebrate International Astronomy Day with a fun-filled day – and night – of exciting programs and experiences for visitors of all ages.

Observe the stars via telescope with members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Witness the crescent Moon and Jupiter along with lively activities and demonstrations in this universally enlightening – and free – evening. In the event of inclement weather, Evening Star Party activities will proceed indoors in the Telus Conference Room.

Hover above the moon like an astronaut and get eye-to-eye with the planets. Find colourful stars, star clusters, bright nebulae and even another galaxy. Our monthly City Star Party is the place to catch universe from within the city limits at Bayview Village Park. If you don't have a telescope then you will find many astronomers who would love to share a view. If you are thinking of buying a telescope, viewing with other people's equipment is the best way to make a good choice. If you have a telescope or binoculars, please bring it!

More than a billion years ago, two black holes collided. In the final second of their long life together, the black holes banged out a rhythm like mallets on a drum, creating gravitational waves – ripples in the shape of spacetime. One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of such waves, though it seemed improbable – if not outright impossible – that we’d ever be able to actually detect them. They were long considered too faint for any earthbound experiment to measure.

The Department of Physics invites faculty, students and the public to its 42nd annual celebration of physics. The Welsh Lectures in Physics have been held annually since 1975 in honour of H.L. Welsh, a distinguished former faculty member in the Physics Department. They are the major public event in the life of the Department of Physics and are intended to celebrate discoveries in physics and their wider impact. They are intended to be broadly accessible to an audience drawn from across the university, other academic institutions and the interested public.

Speaker: Dr. Parshati Patel, Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration, Western University Massive stars, young or old, are interesting celestial objects with fascinating mysteries. In this talk, we will explore some of the mysteries of the disks around massive stars and how their formation, dissipation and structure affect our understanding of not only the planet formation but also the star formation process.

We have evidence that billions of years ago the universe we live in was much smaller in size. This evidence comes in the form of light that has been travelling for about 13 billion years. In this talk Darsh Kodwani will describe how we have come to understand this light and why we believe this would imply that the universe started in a big bang. Even though the evidence for the big bang is very strong we do not believe it can be the full story of the universe.

It is commonly believed that Mars is a cold, dry place. Due in large part to orbital imagery and robotic exploration of the Martian surface we can say without a doubt that Mars is indeed dry. The temperature on Mars is a bit more complex. As is the case with Earth, Mars experiences seasons and one would likely prefer to vacation near the tropics during winter. Temperature swings are much larger on Mars than on Earth. So while it may reach 20°C at noon near the equator during the Martian summer, by midnight it might plummet to -60°C.

This spring, SkyShed is launching POD MAX, a “mid sized” observatory at 12.5' in diameter, and the POD MAX funding program – The Starships Project. Wayne will be focusing on these endeavors and how they will further aid the astro community, and STEM education. Wayne Parker When not performing as the bassist in Glass Tiger, Wayne spends his time pursuing his other passion – Astronomy.