Stars are distant suns. Like our sun, they are born in interstellar clouds of gas and dust, and live long and relatively uneventful lives. In death, sun-like stars swell up into “red giants,” and cast off their outer layers into space, revealing a “white dwarf” core, a million times denser than water. Rare, massive stars die even more spectacularly, exploding as super-novas, and leaving “neutron stars” or “black holes behind. We owe our existence to star life and star death!

The Stargazers' Group of Mississauga will be observing Earth Hour on Saturday, March 19, 2016 at J.C. Saddington Park at the bottom of Mississauga Road, in the South Parking Lot from around 8:30pm.

We’ll take a tour, from our own backyard out to the edge of the observable Universe using real photographs and images from amateur and professional astronomers, as well as space-borne telescopes. With Chris Vaughan (aka @astrogeoguy), we’ll take time to appreciate the beauty of the images and learn some fascinating science behind each of them. The Aurorae, the Sun, mighty Jupiter and beautiful Saturn, the most beautiful parts of our own galaxy, and our distant neighbours will be delights for the eyes.

Prof. Roberto Abraham, Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto

Join the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers between 7:00 and 11:00pm on Saturday, October 21, 2017 at the Niagara Gateway Tourism Centre located just off Casablanca in Grimsby. Enjoy views of the crescent moon and perhaps the planets Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Andromeda Galaxy? Maybe. Come out and view through a telescope and see for yourself!!

Tafelmusik's Tafelscene and TSO's TSOUNDCHECK join forces for the third annual 35 & Under movie night, presenting 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Speaker: Prof. Cliff Burgess, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University

Long ago Vincent van Gogh said, “The lamps are burning and the starry sky is over it all.” How times have changed with the emergence of light pollution. Today, bright city lights are burning all over the evening sky outshining the greatest night show on earth to the detriment of future generations. If the starlight storytellers are to disclose the tale of the universe, then the night needs to stay alive. This lecture presentation will examine light pollution from its onset; discuss its consequences, and then outline the proactive measures one can take to curb its effects.

A popular hit in the Doc Soup series, The Last Man on the Moon tells the story of Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan. One of only three men who travelled to the moon twice, Cernan’s second trip in 1972 was NASA’s final lunar mission. Now, more than 40 years later, he is ready to share his epic and deeply personal story. It is a tale of fame and burning ambition set against the spectacular environment of space.

Speaker: Prof. John E. Moores, York University