Announcements

Alan Dyer, a long-time member of the Calgary Centre and noted astronomy author has been selected as the recipient of the Simon Newcomb Award in 2007. This award will be presented at the General Assembly in Calgary later in June.

Canada's time-signal station, CHU, is now making the following brief announcement during even-numbered minutes: "CHU has been licensed to continue broadcasting on 7.335 MHz." (The same message is heard in French during odd-numbered minutes.) To those who made known your concerns to the National Research Council regarding the possible loss of this valuable transmission—on a frequency best heard at night, when astronomers dabble in their "occult phenomena"—the effort appears to have succeeded.

A new year has brought much success to The Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search. With over 10 Canadians on the team there has been a steady flow over the last few years of announcements involving those members in discoveries. Last year the international team discovered 29 supernovae, this was considered to be a slow year!

RASC member and Principal Investigator of the MOST telescope project Jaymie Matthews announced at the 2007 RASC General Assembly that proposals are now being accepted from the amateur astronomy community for time on Canada's own space telescope - the MOST microsatellite.

For the first time in 10 years, the inside of National Office has been painted. Where once were marked, peach-coloured walls, there is now mocha with white trim! The ceiling and some of the walls in the library and shipping area were included in the face lift.

Jaymie Matthews, member of the Vancouver Centre and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of British Columbia was appointed to the Order of Canada by Governor General Michaëlle Jean on February 20th. The Society congratulates Mr. Matthews, OC on this honour which was effective October 5, 2006.

The RASC National Library and Archives are winnowing out materials that are deemed surplus. These items are being offered on a priority basis to Centres and members.

A new newsletter is now available from the Coalition for Canadian Astronomy highlighting progress with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the Thirty-Metre Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). Download a copy from www.casca.ca/media/Astronomy News NOV 2006.pdf.

Top 10 Canadian Astronomy Stories of 2011!

Toronto, Canada (January 9, 2012) – The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) and its more than 4,000 members from coast to coast looked back on 2011 and voted on which stories, that were not just newsworthy, but ones which were fundamentally important to Canadian astronomers. Here are the Top Ten Astronomy Stories of 2011 as voted by the RASC members:

Remember IYA2009 and the Mi'kmaq sky story about Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters? Well, Muin is rising again! On 30 December 2011, new members of the Order of Canada were announced. Cheryl Bartlett, who worked closely with Mi’kmaq Elders to bring a significant component of Aboriginal astronomical knowledge into IYA2009 in Canada, was made a member of the Order of Canada.  The full list is at the link below, from which is copied Cheryl’s citation: