Chris Vaughan delivered the following The Sky This Month presentation at the 6 August 2014 Recreational Astronomy Night Meeting at the Ontario Science Centre. The notes have been reproduced here.

A 10-week course for space exploration fans who want to learn maker skills and technologies. No experience required – get up to speed with maker tech with this fun and exciting theme!

Risa Horowitz captured this image Friday July 25 at the Carr Astronomical Observatory.  From the observing pad facing south Ian Wheelband's dobsonian telescope was in fine form.  Risa and Ian were joined by Blake Nancarrow.

Thank you Doug Isherwood for sharing this image of the happy members who spent the day at the Carr Astronomical Observatory on Saturday after a very successful Star-B-Q. Stay tuned for the full report coming to our SCOPE newsletter soon.

Ever seen Pluto?

Here's an animation of Pluto taken in July by Paul Mortfield, from Sierra Remote Observatories, CA, USA.  Click on the image to see this dwarf planet move.

The North star, Polaris, shines brightly in the left frame of this image, swimming in a murky pool of dust.  In the right side of the frame is globular cluster NGC 188.  Click on the image and enlarge.

An elephant, a bat and a squid walked into a bar... Here we have the newly discovered ( by an amateur astronomer) "squid", now known as OU4, a fragile blue OIII image enbedded in the red "bat" (Sh2-129) at the lower right.

A number of planets are visible this month including Mercury and Venus in the morning and Saturn after sunset. Asteroids Ceres and Vesta are moving apart but still fit in a binocular field.

On Saturday, July 5th Manuel Guerrero took this image of the Moon near Mars. Click on the image and enlarge.

On Monday, July 7th, the Moon visited Saturn, as seen in this image by Bill Longo.  Click on the image and enlarge to see more detail.

The annual CAO spring work party held on the weekend of the 23rd-25th of May 2014 was an amazing success.

Some telescopes need electricity to work properly and that electricity is often supplied by batteries. To prevent having to end your observing prematurely because you ran out of juice, RASC member Peter D.

In the next few weeks, the moon can be seen close to all the bright planets. No telescope needed and visible in Toronto's night sky.  See the attached presentation below for many more upcoming celestial events. 

(Image courtesy Bill Longo)

It’s not very often that we get to experience a new meteor shower, but very early this coming Saturday morning we get that chance.

Essential information for the upcoming eclipse. Dr. Ralph Chou shows how to use solar eclipse viewers or glasses safely.