Feb Meeting & Presentation: "A Billion $ Observatory In the Chilean Andes.

Regular Meeting

Everyone is welcome at the free regular meeting of the Nanaimo Astronomy Society. Come out and meet others like yourself who are curious to learn about the night sky.

Presentation

A Billion Dollar Radio Observatory in the Chilean Andes - Dr. Andy Woodsworth

Canada is a participant in the development of this international radio observatory, which will represent a bigger advance in the field of radio astronomy than Hubble did in optical astronomy. This enormous observatory, which includes 66 large movable antennas in a 15 km area, is being built at the 5,000 meter level in the Atacama desert region of northern Chile. This talk compares optical and radio astronomy, and explains some of the excitement behind the scientific potential and the very challenging technology development required to realize this potential. The talk will also show a few of the touristic aspects of the Atacama region.

Bio: Andy Woodsworth holds a PhD in radio astronomy from Queen's University. He spent many years with NRC's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Ottawa and in Victoria, and he later led NRC's Institute for Information Technology and served as an interim Vice-President of NRC. While in Ottawa, he was Secretary of the RASC Ottawa Centre and its representative to National Council.

Show & Tell

At each of our meeting, one of our members will bring a different piece of telescope equipment and explain its workings to us.

Shop & Swap

Have extra equipment to sell or swap? Our members are welcome to bring their equipment to our Shop & Swap table where members and visitors can view and buy telescopes, eyepieces, binoculars and other equipment. Nanaimo Astronomy Society is not responsible for your purchases and offers no warranties.

Cost

This session is free, but donations for our outreach program gratefully accepted. Coffee, tea and cookies available for a modest donation.