The earth's axis is perpendicular to its orbit with the North pole tipping away form the sun. In other words, the season is changing to Fall.

Imagine the air cools, the sky darkens, the birds stop singing and the stars come out at noon. For a lucky few who have been in the path of a total solar eclipse their imagination becomes reality as they experience one of nature’s most spectacular events.

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.

Ontario Science Centre's Dr. Rachel Ward-Maxwell presents an interactive talk for Science Literacy Week! Witness the power of a hurricane on Jupiter, the devilish dust storms on Mars and the wicked winds of Neptune as you learn about the wildest weather in our Solar System.

Rachel Ward-Maxwell, Researcher-Programmer in Astronomy and Space Sciences from Ontario Science Centre, presents "Celestial Storms."

The moon is between us and the sun. Without the moon in the sky at night, deep sky objects are easier to observe.

It has been a little over 20 years that we know there are planets around other stars and 10 years that we know there are solid planets around other stars with the first super-Earth discovered: GJ876d. In the last few years, we have also learned that super-Earths and mini-Neptunes are the most common planet in the galaxy, improving our chances to find another habitable planet. To study these planets, we base our knowledge on what we have learned about the Earth and our planet neighbours, and test these ideas on these new and sometimes exotic planets. Dr.

Imagine viewing the leftover light from the Big Bang while stationed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Professor Keith Vanderlinde from the University of Toronto has done just that. Professor Vanderlinde will talk about his work with the 10m South Pole Telescope, and the science that convinced him to undertake an eleven-month "winterover" position working on-location with the telescope. Presented as part of Science Literacy Week.

Pluto has always been the favourite of many who have cast their thoughts out to the stars and planets. More than that though, it has played a key role in our understanding of how our solar system is formed and it may be the key to further exploration of our neighbourhood of space. In this richly illustrated presentation we explore its history, our recent discoveries and how it may lead us to one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the 21st century.

Fossils show us that millions of years ago giant reptiles roamed the Earth. Yet, where are they now?

Showtimes: 7:00pm, 8:00pm, and 9:00pm In 1977 two small probes, Voyager 1 and 2, were launched from Earth with a mission to study the outer solar system. Both spacecraft visited Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager 2 passed by Uranus and Neptune, returning images to Earth which allowed us to make surprising discoveries about these distant planets. Now these probes are entering interstellar space, making them the furthest man-made objects from the Earth!

Submit your articles for the SCOPE newsletter to the SCOPEeditor@rascto.ca.