In this profusely-illustrated, non-technical presentation, you will discover how Toronto became a "centre of the universe" for astronomical research, education, and outreach, in parallel with the growth of our city and country, from 1840 to the present.

Join us this week if skies are clear!

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.

Solar System Social is a space-themed speaker series that brings exciting ideas and research from the field of planetary science to the general public in the form of short, informative, and interesting talks that last about 20 minutes each.

See the website for more details

For millennia, people (including our First Nations) have used the sky as a clock, calendar, and compass. Astronomy thus became deeply rooted in their spirituality, mythology, and culture.

How were the ancient Egyptian day and night divided? What do we know about keeping time during the span of pharaonic history? Have many objects used for timekeeping survived? Do we know who made and used them and why? This talk discusses ‘formal’ methods for measurement of hours in ancient Egypt, giving an overview of the surviving evidence including sundials and water clocks. We will compare different instruments and trace the extent to which we understand the time-keeping function of each.

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!

Watch the recorded video: https://youtu.be/axQJ3WSckwM

Showtimes: 7:00pm, 8:10pm, 9:15pm

Join the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers this April 7 for their Spring telescope clinic.

The combined power of infrared observatories both in space and from the ground has allowed us to observe extraordinarily distant galaxies. Some of the most distant are observed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was merely 2% of its current age. Dr. Muzzin will talk about what what observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope have shown us about these exotic young galaxies. He will also introduce the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's $9 billion dollar IR-optimized successor to Hubble.