26
February
Action Potential Lab: Galileo’s Telescope; Shakespeare’s Pen
Dan Falk
In the autumn of 1609, a new optical device found its way into the hands of an ambitious Italian mathematician, Galileo Galilei. Before long, Galileo aimed this new invention, the telescope, at the night sky – and what he saw would change the world forever. As it happens, Shakespeare and Galileo were born in the same year – but is there anything tangible to connect Galileo’s discoveries to Shakespeare’s plays? In this illustrated talk, journalist Dan Falk will explore the Shakespeare-Galileo connection.
7
February
Spectrum Music Concert: Starry Night
In 1889 Van Gogh, contemplating the night sky, created one of the most famous images conveying humanity’s captivation with the cosmos. Over a century later, as quantum theories brush alluringly close to unravelling the secrets of the Universe, are we any further in understanding our existence?
Join Spectrum as they use music to explore awe-inspiring questions with a hand-picked ensemble including celebrated Trumpeters Lina Allemano and Jim Lewis, enveloped by projections and immersive staging.
5
February
UofT AstroTour: An Astronomer’s Guide to the Galaxy
Speaker: Miranda Jarvis
From a dark enough place, the Milky Way can be seen as a bright swath of stars across the sky. It is a galaxy composed of billions of stars, amongst which our sun is just one. What shape is the Milky Way? What is it made of? How does it behave? And how did we learn all of this? Miranda Jarvis will provide answers to all of these questions and more as we tour our galaxy and some of the exciting things in it.
13
May
Don Mills Library: Life Cycle of Stars
Using the latest images from space telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer and Herschel, Dr. Michael Reid tells the story of how stars are born, live and die.
13
February
Hamilton Amateur Astronomers: Astronomical Observations for the Unaided Eye
In a world of ever larger and more expensive telescopes, amateur astronomers often pass over the wonder above them that can only be seen with the most complex yet readily available optical instrument of them all – the unaided eye. From comets to crepuscular rays and from the northern lights to noctilucent clouds, there is an entire universe waiting, both literally and figuratively before your eyes.
12
March
UofT Planetarium: The Search for Life in the Universe
Showtimes: 7:00pm and 8:00pm
In recent years with the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope and improvement in planet detection techniques there has been an explosion in the number of planets discovered outside our solar system. For the first time ever we are able to explore questions such as “are there any habitable planets out there?”, and “where should we look for life?”. This planetarium show will explain where the best chances currently lie for finding life elsewhere in the universe and highlight some of the noteworthy exoplanets discovered to date.
4
February
Perimeter Institute: Cosmology in the 21st Century (WEBCAST)
Kendrick Smith, Cosmologist, Perimeter Institute
Revolutionary progress has been achieved in the science of cosmology over the past 30 years. Powerful experiments, made possible by new technologies, have transformed our understanding of the universe. We have unveiled the laws of physics that govern time and space on the grandest scales, from the big bang to present day.
27
February
RASC Mississauga: Astrophotography with Portable Mounts
Speaker: Michael Watson, RASC (Unattached)
23
January
RASC Mississauga: Chandrasekhar’s Limit
Speaker: Keith Jarvie, Ph.D., Mississauga Centre RASC
22
February
Royal Canadian Institute: Roving the Solar System: Exploring from Afar
Ralf Gellert, PhD, Department of Physics, University of Guelph
Thanks to NASA’s Mars Rovers, we know much more about our planetary neighbour than we did a decade ago. Controlled from Earth, experiments conducted by the Rover instruments reveal that Mars was once a more habitable place. A key instrument on all 4 Mars Rovers and also on the Rosetta mission lander, Philae, is the Canadian APXS experiment, a soda-can sized device that measures the composition of rocks and soils.
Co-Sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Toronto Centre.