For more information, visit Public Astro Night.
Image from AstroMcGill
A date with the stars
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Tag Archives: Astronomy
The Montreal Planetarium
The Montreal Planetarium, part of a larger consortium called Space for Life Montreal (Biodome, Insectarium, Botanical Gardens), is doing some great outreach on their website with simple and easy ways to get your astronomy fix. They have a feature called “Monthly Sky” – read it to discover what you can see in the sky this month. There’s also “Questions about astronomy” with some common FAQs. Don’t miss the section on “Astronomical events” with a list of major events in astronomy, past or future. And finally “Ephemerides” which has information on the phases of the moon, solstices or equinoxes. There’s also a seasonal bulletin called “The Pocket Planetarium”.
And if you want to get offline, maybe you’ll have visitors this summer to Montreal, and if that’s the case, Space for Life sounds like a great place to start the tour.
Image is a logo from the Space for Life website
A night with the stars
There is a free lecture being given tonight about the telescope ALMA and the early universe. After the lecture, audience members will be able to look at the night sky from the observatory on the roof of the Rutherford Physics Building. No reservation is needed. For more information, visit Public Astro Night.
Image from AstroMcGill
Stargazing in the winter
I’m fortunate enough to be part of a friendly walking group. We take evening walks in the winter to look at the stars. We usually take our walks in one of Montreal’s beautiful nature parks, such as Parc-Nature de l’Île-de-la-Visitation, which is located on the north side of the island. We are able to enjoy the night sky, while being surrounded by trees, water, and white snow all around. The scene is spectacular. The next time you are out on a winter night, look up and see if you can recognize Orion, The Hunter.
The BBC has some brief video clips on how to identify some interesting features of the winter night sky. For more details, take a look at Patrick Moore’s book, The sky at night.
Image of Orion from H. Raab