History

The Earlier Years of the Edmonton Centre

The Earlier Years of the Edmonton Centre

“The Edmonton Centre came into existence in 1932, mainly because of the interest and enthusiasm of Dr. J.W. Campbell, Professor of Mathematics at [the University of Alberta]. His special field was Mechanics and Astronomy and for many years he gave a course on general descriptive astronomy. At that time the R.A.S.C. was about 30 years old, and was expanding vigorously under the leadership of Dr. Chant, the grand old man of Canadian astronomy. Starting in Toronto, new centres were formed in Ottawa, Peterborough, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Regina, Guelph, Victoria, Montreal, London and Vancouver, all before Edmonton, although some of these subsequently died out.

A preliminary meeting was held in the Arts Building of the University in January 1932, at which Dr. Campbell explained that we would need 50 members to start a new Centre. In February a petition, with the necessary number of signatures, was forwarded to head office in Toronto, and in March the authorization was granted. That same month officers were elected and a constitution and by-laws were drawn up. The first president was naturally Dr. Campbell. … The membership fee at that time was $2.00 per year, for which one obtained the Handbook and ten issues of the Journal.”

Thus begins an article on the early history of the RASC Edmonton Centre written by one of the founding members, Prof. E.S. Keeping. The article, published as a five-part series in the November 1979 to March 1980 issues of Stardust, describes the time from the founding of the Centre in 1932 to the very successful General Assembly in 1962. The entire article can be read by opening the document above or in the original 5 issues of Stardust below.

Part 1 Stardust Nov 1979

Part 2 Stardust Dec 1979

Part 3 Stardust Jan 1980

Part 4 Stardust Feb 1980

Part 5 Stardust Mar 1980

History of the RASC Edmonton Centre

Franklin Loehde started writing this history of Edmonton Centre in 2006. Photographs from Franklin’s collection are included.

History 1932 – 1949
History 1950 – 1959
History 1960 – 1969

To be continued…