The next meeting of the RASC Ottawa Centre will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday the 14th of October, 2016 at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.  This will be the final meeting chaired by Roman Dzioba prior to his upcoming move to Nunavut, so maximum attendance is encouraged to offer him a warm sendoff.  It is still subject to confirmation, but the following is a tentative meeting agenda:

• Members in the News, by Roman Dzioba
• Ottawa Skies for October, by Dave Chisholm
• 10 Minute Astronomy News, by Al Scott
• The Pluto System as Revealed by New Horizons, by Dr. Kelsi Singer (via Skype)
• SmartScope update, by Paul Klauninger
• Observations by members
• Door prize draw (available to both members and non-members attending this meeting)

In July of 2015 the New Horizons spacecraft flew through the Pluto system, completing humanity’s reconnaissance of the classical planets. Pluto turned out to be a world of remarkable geologic diversity, and its terrains display a range of ages, suggesting geologic activity of various forms has persisted for much of Pluto’s history. Images looking back at the sun through Pluto’s atmosphere led to the discovery of numerous haze layers. We are in the beginning stages of understanding this complex world, but I will highlight what we have learned so far and present the latest images.

Dr. Kelsi Singer is a postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO working on NASA’s New Horizons mission. Her graduate work at Washington University in St. Louis focused on geology and geophysics of icy satellites, but she also works on impact cratering across the solar system.

Just as Nicolaus Copernicus turned the Earth-centred universe idea on its head, the Ottawa Centre website sits still for no one.  Okay, perhaps one isn't as significant as the other - but don't blame poor Nicolaus for that!  Welcome to our constantly (r)evolving website and please bear with us as we convert from old to new.  More to follow!