Category Archives: Event

Astro Café Apr 17, 2019

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Finding your (Sky-Watching) Passion
in a
Universe of Possibilities

by Krista Stefan

Wednesday, Apr 17, 2019
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Windsor Park Community League Hall*
11840 87 Ave

Members Only event.

For a person just starting to dip their toes in the hobby of Astronomy, the vast amount of information and range of activities available can seem overwhelming. How do you get started? What do you need? How do you know what’s even possible? This talk will try to help those who have a general interest take those first steps towards anything from perusing a casual interest to jumping into a life-changing passion for Astronomy.

* Note: Outside shoes are not permitted inside the hall.

RASC Regular Meeting April 8, 2019

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RASC Regular Meeting
TELUS World of Science – Zeidler Dome
FREE and open to the public.

7:00 PM Pre-meeting mix and mingle.
7:30 PM Guest Speaker

Globular Clusters and their Weird Binary Stars

Dr. Craig Heinke                       

Globular clusters are old, dense conglomerations of stars, which are also unique physical laboratories.  The denser globular clusters have stars packed so tightly together that stars occasionally collide with each other.  More often, binary stars (pairs of stars orbiting around each other) have their orbits disrupted by other stars, leading to the replacement of one star in the binary with the intruder star and the formation of unusual binaries.   Binaries including extremely dense dead stars, like neutron stars or black holes, can produce X-ray binaries, where the dense star steals mass from its companion. As the matter spirals down from the companion to the dead star, it heats up to millions of degrees and emits X-rays, permitting us to study these exotic systems.  I will discuss what we learn from studying these unusual objects in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays and gamma-rays to optical, infrared, and radio waves.

Astro Café
Mar 20, 2019
AstroImaging Community Café

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AstroImaging Community Café

Wednesday, Mar 20, 2019
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Windsor Park Community League Hall*
11840 87 Ave

Members Only event.

* Note: Outside shoes are not permitted inside the hall.

AstroImaging Community Café is a potluck of shorter and longer presentations by astroimagers for astroimagers! Do you enjoy taking and/or viewing pictures of the sky? Are you looking for some pointers to up your skill set or turn that “nice” shot into “calendar image!”? Maybe in the last couple of months you have 5 images, or made 4 time-lapses that are too much for the AstroImaging Corner at our Regular Meetings. Whether you take 4 minutes or want to share a 20 minute backstory for a specially composed a shot, or demo a technique others can benefit from, bring it to our community!

Visit SignUp.com to add your contribution to the self-guided potluck that is AstroImaging Community!
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RASC Regular Meeting March 11, 2019

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RASC Regular Meeting
TELUS World of Science – Zeidler Dome
FREE and open to the public.

7:00 PM Pre-meeting mix and mingle.
7:30 PM Guest Speaker

Shedding Light on the Dark Matter of the Universe

Dr. Marie-Cécile Piro                         

Astronomical and cosmological observations strongly suggest that most of the matter in the Universe is non-luminous and made of an unknown substance called dark matter (DM). Even if its direct detection escaped to the scientific community in our time, DM is a fundamental concept that could explain how our Universe formed and helps to restore the mismatch between what we observed and what we predicted.  Over the last decade, dark matter detection techniques have been improving a lot pushing the sensitivity to unprecedented levels. After giving an introduction of the evidences of dark matter, the diverse experimental techniques to detect dark matter will be presented. The current and future stage of the international collaborations in the context of the global dark matter search will also be discussed.

Astro Café
Feb 20, 2019
Astronomy Swap & Shop

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Astronomy Swap & Shop

Bring anything astronomical you’d like to sell or swap, or just come as you are and meet your fellow RASC Edmonton Centre members. Star gazers, observers, skyscape shooters, deep sky imagers, solar afficionados – all members are welcome. No matter what your skill level, there is always something you need (OK, maybe want) or something you don’t need anymore or perhaps you just want to see what’s what.

Wednesday, Feb 20, 2019
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Windsor Park Community League Hall*
11840 87 Ave

Members Only event.

* Note: Outside shoes are not permitted inside the hall.

RASC Edmonton Centre Casino
Feb 16-17, 2019

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Our next casino is on Saturday-Sunday, February 16-17, 2019 at Casino Edmonton, 7055 Argyll Rd NW. Note the location is Casino Edmonton (free parking, large volunteer room).

This is our Centre’s largest source of revenue which maintains a large part of our operational and outreach budgets, lets us purchase astronomical equipment (fine examples are in weekly use at the RASC Observatory at TWOSE) and undertake innovative projects (like the Black Nugget Lake Observatory) that bring astronomy to the general public, and helps bring fabulous speakers to Edmonton. Please help out by volunteering for a shift – it’s fairly easy work and you get fed quite nicely!
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Jan 20, 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse

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On Sunday evening, January 20 our closest celestial neighbour—the Moon—takes centre stage in the skies above Edmonton. Join us we observe a total lunar eclipse—the first visible to us in its entirety since 2015!

The RASC Observatory will be open, weather permitting, 5:30 p.m. until 12 midnight.

  • Access to the observatory is FREE (events inside TWOSE require admission).
  • The observatory is outdoors, so please dress accordingly for the weather.
  • Follow @EdmontonRASC on Twitter for weather and other updates.

Lunar Eclipse Times for the Edmonton Area

8:33 p.m. – Partial eclipse begins
9:41 p.m. – Total Eclipse begins
10:12 p.m. – Mid-Eclipse
10:43 p.m. – Total Eclipse ends
11:50 p.m. – Partial Eclipse ends