The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

Sunshine Coast Centre

Welcome to the Sunshine Coast Centre

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• October 4 [1957]: Russia launches Sputnik 1.
• October 21 [1611]: Galileo's first recorded observations of sun spots.

Tea and Coffee, Chat about Astronomy. Bring any astro toys or magazines ....

Astro-Cafés are held on the third Friday of the month at 8:30 pm. Bring your telescope, binoculars, or just yourself. When weather permits, scopes will be set-up at the washroom end of the Davis Bay Seawall following our tea/coffee and chat. But you need no equipment to attend. Members are reminded to dress warmly and to please purchase tea, coffee, or a snack from Pier 17. NOTE: There will be no Astro-Café on November 18, it has been postponed to November 25.

October 14 — With a record 75 people in attendance, Dr. David Morrissey of TRIUMF gave an entertaining talk on Our Universe and its Dark Side. See the presentation here. See photos here.

August 20 — Pictures from our Astronomy in the Park event at Porpoise Bay can be found here.

July 1 — Pictures from our activities at Hackett Park on Canada Day can be found here.

June 25 — Our first observing night at the proposed site of our future observatory near the Sechelt airport. Photos here.

May 13 — Garth Jones spoke on All About Orbits to a packed house of about 50 at our regular monthly meeting.

April 8 — Mike Bradley spoke on Errors, Misconceptions, Hoaxes & Myths at our regular monthly meeting. This was our first meeting at the Sunshine Coast Art Centre. You can download his presentation here.

February 11 — Adrian Payne, assisted by daughters Kayla and Erin, gave a great presentation on space missions, spacecraft, and ground systems designs at our regular monthly meeting.

January 20 — club members Bette Chadwick and Gary Little gave an introductory presentation on astronomy to the Cubs and Beavers of a Roberts Creek troop at Camp Byng.

Club members Maureen Drake and Bette Chadwick visited l'Ecole du Pacifique in Sechelt on Tuesday October 26th to talk to Grade 3 French immersion students. We were invited to participate in teacher Marie Luc Claveau's astronomy unit, as a follow up to Marie Luc's visit to Astronomy in the Park last August. There were 16 enthusastic young ones asking lots of questions and demonstrating a real interest in astronomy! "How to Find Four Major constellations" (ones that can be easily found in the next few months), was the theme, and Maureen Drake, a former French teacher, was able to explain, in French, what constellations are, some of the mythology behind them and how to find them.  Bette (who doesn't speak French) gave a visual presentation with images of Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cassiopiea, and Orion, and some of the associated stars, such as Betelgeuse which in Arabic, means "armpit of the mighty one"!! It was lots of fun and some of the kids expressed interest in coming out to look through club telescopes sometime soon!

September 18 — we had a display area at the Harvest Festival organized by the Sunshine Coast Botanical Society. The weather was mixed but the sun came out for about an hour and we were able to take a close look with two solar scopes. See all the pictures here.

August 14, 2010 — another highly successful Astronomy in the Park. The club info booth was busy all day and we never had a chance to look up from the club's Solar Scope as there was always someone there wanting to have a look. When things slowed down late in the afternoon we ordered up some Pizzas to refuel ourselves for the second part of the day. Bill Burnyet, from Vancouver, came up and gave our annual talk at the park amphitheatre. We don't know if we have ever seen such good attendance at the amphitheatre as this year. The place was packed with standing room only. After the talk club members had their scopes set up down by the beach for dark sky viewing. There were long lineups at the scopes and the sky was crystal clear and the air warm. The crowd thinned out at around midnight and we were packed up and out of the park by about 1 am. While we were a little short staffed in some areas the event was certainly well received by the public. Hopefully next year more members will be available to help out and join in on the fun. You can view the photos at here.

Click here to go to the Sechelt Clear Sky Clock at the bottom of this page.