This Meeting Night features contributions from various RASC members who provide short presentations regarding their projects and activities.

• Chris Vaughan: The Sky This Month
• Jim Chung: Making a Folded Open Truss 8.5-inch f/12 Refractor
• Frank Dempsey: Summer and Autumn Weather Forecasting Tips for Amateur Astronomers

Blake Nancarrow delivered a presentation during the 10 April 2013 Recreational Astronomy Night meeting encouraging RASC Toronto Centre members to visit this CAO this summer. The slide deck and flyer are available for downloading.

A Night Watchman's Journey:  My Adventures as a Comet Discoverer and Sky Watcher.

David H. Levy, internationally renowned Canadian astronomer and science writer is famous for his co-discovery in 1993 of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which collided with the planet Jupiter in 1994. Levy has discovered 22 comets, and written over 34 books. The asteroid (3673) Levy was named in his honour.

Ontario Science Centre, Wednesday June 5 at 7:30 pm
doors open at 6:30 pm
Imperial Oil Auditorium
Refreshments, astrophoto display of comets, RASC booth, and astronomy demos in the Great Hall
RASC Recreational Astronomy Meetings are held in the Imperial Oil Auditorium at the Ontario Science Centre. Free admission & parking after 6:00 PM.

Rachel Ward-Maxwell, PhD candidate, McMaster University

Breaking the Law: Re-interpreting the Structure and Dynamics of Molecular Clouds

Talk by Rachel Ward-Maxwell, PhD candidate, McMaster University

Giant molecular clouds are the birthplace of stars; however, the true nature of these clouds remains a great mystery.  The first step towards achieving a greater understanding of star formation is exploring the structure and evolution of the clouds in which they form.  Using simulations of molecular clouds, we are able to reproduce the results of recent observations and demonstrate that the scaling relations commonly used to describe the structure of all molecular clouds hold only for special cases.  We show that turbulent, transient, globally unbound structures are capable of forming stars, despite common assumptions to the contrary, thus having implications for several major unanswered questions in star formation.  Talk by Rachel Ward-Maxwell, PhD candidate, McMaster University

RASC Speaker's Nights are held in the Imperial Oil Auditorium at the Ontario Science Centre. Free admission & parking after 6:00 PM.

You and your family are cordially invited to attend the 16th Annual E.C. Carr Astronomical Observatory (CAO) Open House and RASC Toronto Centre Awards Picnic on Saturday, June 1, 2013. With ample shelter available in our house and observatory on Blue Mountain, this is a rain or shine event so plan to be a part of it. Read on for all the details planned for this year's special event!

(Apologies for the incorrect appearance of this article on our page. It was originally posted on April 30/13.)