This weekend tour introduces families to the wonders of astronomy through an indoor planetarium experience, craft activities for younger visitors and stargazing. Visitors will spend time in both the main building and observatory visiting the 1.88m (74") telescope, learning its history and getting to see celestial objects firsthand (weather permitting).

To the Moon and back! Show the Earth’s only natural satellite a little love by taking its picture with your smartphone or digital camera. As the second-brightest, regularly visible celestial object in our sky, photographing the Moon is a snap. (See what we did there?) Participate in an astrophotography workshop, take a tour of the night sky using a telescope, engage in hands-on, Moon-themed activities, find out about the latest in lunar science and learn about mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations helped put the first humans on the Moon.

Everyone is invited to join us and Durham Skies on June 23 for stargazing at the edge of Lake Ontario. Take a free look through different kinds of telescopes (including solar-filtered scopes) to get close-up looks at sunspots, craters on the Moon, brilliant Venus, giant Jupiter and Saturn with its rings. Peer deep into space and try your hand at spotting faint star clusters and nebulae. You can even bring your own telescope along and we'll give you expert advice on how to use it better.

Join us at the Ontario Science Centre for our monthly Solar Observing on the TELUSCAPE observing pad. This is the area in front of the Science Centre's entrance. We use specialized telescopes that are safe to aim at the Sun. Check our home page on the Friday prior for go/no-go calls as this event is weather dependent.

What is the sound of a twinkling star? Can planets keep a beat? How loud was the big bang?

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!

Watch the recorded video: https://youtu.be/h3kGSv45ChI

Explore the universe with members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Telescopes will be set up to give you amazing views of the Moon, the planets and more! Meet at the Chappell House Lawn. In case skies are not suitable for star-gazing on the scheduled date, the event will take place on Wednesday, June 20 at the same time.

Showtimes: 7:00pm, 8:10pm, 9:15pm The stars in the night sky seem unchanging and eternal, and have remained the same for the history of human civilization. However, over millions and billions of years, new stars are born, live out their long lives, and eventually die in a blaze of glory. In this show, we will be exploring the lives of stars by visiting stellar nurseries, supernova remnants and much more!

See the milky way and galaxies with the unaided eye. Point your telescope to find the many dim deep space objects that sprinkle the sky. Away from Toronto's light polution, there is so much to see. We observe from the Long Sault Conservation area, an hour outside of Toronto. We meet around dusk once a month in the parking lot for views only seen in dark sky conditions. We hold this event on the first clear night of our week-long window, so the date and time are determined closer to.

Visit the website for event schedule, tour registration and details.

PixInsight has become a popular image processing software package in recent years, especially for deep-sky astrophotography. Ron Brecher has used PixInsight for all of his deep sky processing since 2009. In this demonstration, Ron will show you how you can reveal the hidden treasures in your deep-sky images with just a few processing steps: crop bad edges, correct gradients, balance the colour, supress the noise, “stretch” the histogram and adjust colour, brightness and contrast.