The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada - Toronto Centre, invites new members and their family who are also members, to join an orientation get together – First Light 2019.

Watch the recorded video: https://youtu.be/eGyIx6FEQyI

Want to know more about the state of the art of space exploration technology? Bursting with questions on how rovers and satellites work? Not sure what to ask, but just want to learn more? Then come on down to ASX's graduate student panel! This 13th of March, we're featuring three U of T M.A.Sc candidates, each one with applied experience in space exploration technology. Feel free to come with your own questions, or lend an ear to our guided discussion. As usual, everyone with any amount of background knowledge is welcome!

Rocket away from the Earth on a tour through our solar system and beyond. Starting with highlights from the Toronto night sky, this show will take you on an epic cosmic journey. We’ll follow human spacecraft on their visits to the planets and moons of the solar system, then warp far beyond the furthest reaches of human exploration to visit other stars, galaxies, and the very edge of the observable universe. This show is aimed at children as part of our March break programing, intended for audiences aged 4–12 and families.

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!

Have you ever looked through a telescope? Take a tour of the night sky through a telescope and snap a photo or two of your favourite celestial body. Learn about the phases of the Moon, get an up-close look at the planets, and gaze at the brightest stars (weather permitting).

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.

Amateur astronomy is a hobby of great diversity. From observing faint galaxies millions of light years away, to CCD astrophotography, to reading the latest magazine at the coffee shop, to comet chasing, tinkering with the latest equatorial mount, radio astronomy, enjoying a planetarium show and everything else in between. But for those who take a keen liking to the hobby – the time and money spent perfecting our craft can be astronomical, and we often lose sight of what it is that makes stargazing so appealing and so important.

This evening’s event has been cancelled due to icy conditions.

Astronomers discovered the first planets outside of our solar system almost thirty years ago, opening up an exciting new field of research in astronomy. In 2002, astronomers discovered an exoplanet for the first time using the transit method. By monitoring the brightness of many stars in the sky at the same time, astronomers could detect the signature of a planet as it passed in front of the star, blocking a small fraction of the star’s light and causing it to dim.

Our most recent generation of cosmology experiments, such as the Planck satellite and observations of distant supernovae, has reduced all of cosmology to the very precise measurement of eight parameters. This relatively simple model seems complete with no hints of additional elements required to explain the entire evolution of the universe from the Big Bang to some far distant future. These recent results include such things as the precise measurement of the contributors to the overall mass–energy density of the universe.

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.