Messier Marathon

As we peer up at the night sky, drinking in photons from celestial objects far, far, away, one easily takes on the relaxed position with no schedule. As the months goes by, we greet our favourite Messier object as they emerge from the dawn sky into the blackness of the night. This game is repeated throughout the year until we have recovered all 110 Messier objects. There is however a very tight window of opportunity where all Messiers can be found on a single night.

Paul Delaney, long-time RASC member (Toronto Centre), has won the 2015 Qilak Award bestowed by CASCA, the Canadian society of professional astronomers. Paul has been a tireless and effective promoter of astronomy in Canada over three decades. He is presently Director of the York University Observatory (1986-), and Director of the Division of Natural Science at York (2002-).

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is one of the most significant and longest-lived of the currently active space probes. Beyond its rich sceince harvest, its images have captured the international public's imagination like no other space telescope. In its influence on public perception it is arguably the Apollo of our age.

The RASC Board of Directors has approved in principle (subject to budget approval) the engagement of a Co-op student for the summer of 2015. The Society is seeking a Website Architect and Developer who will spearhead an initaitive to update and improve all of the Society's web properties (www.rasc.ca, events.rasc.ca and secure.rasc.ca). A key responsibility will be to ensure that the Society's existing website is successfully migrated to the Drupal 7 platform.