Fred L. Troyer Library

The Fred L. Troyer library of the RASC, Toronto Centre is housed at the CAO. The library catalog is in an Excel file you find at the bottom of this page. The books are grouped by subject and year. The catalog also lists the magazines in the library and the Speakers Night DVDs available.

* For COVID-19 pandemic operations, see detailed information on the CAO COVID-19 Procedures tab.  The library will be accessible only to those who have booked and have access to the Basement. *

There are some interesting stats regarding the F.L. Troyer library:

  • Over 600 Astronomy books
  • Oldest book is from 1849
  • Dozens of topics (examples: Children's Astronomy, Guidebooks, Star Charts, The planets, Stars, Galaxies, Telescope Making)
  • Famous authors include: John Couch Adams, Wernher von Braun, Terence Dickinson, Albert Einstein, Camille Flammarion, Galileo Galilei, Sir John Herschel, Edwin Hubble, Gerard Kuiper, David Levy, Patrick Moore, Carl Sagan, Harlow Shapley and Otto Struve
  • Magazines dating as far back as 1827
  • Collection of newsletters from RASC centres across Canada going back decades

Take a look at the library catalogue below for more interesting facts.

If you'd like to borrow a book, DVD, and/or magazine, please follow these rules:

  • Sign out sheets will be in a binder on the table in the library. These sheets will have places for your name, book title, checkout date, return date, and your email address/phone number for contact purposes. To take out a book, members just fill out a line per item
  • The Library Catalog is an Excel file located in the RASC Toronto Centre Yahoo group, in the Files section in a folder named Library. Books are sorted by category and by year of publication.
  • Any item written before 1950 should not leave the library without asking the librarian first. This is due to the age and condition of the items.
  • Because a person may have weeks or months between visits to the CAO, there will be no fixed due dates. However, please be reasonable!
  • Because of the difficulty in reaching the CAO for some members, you can post requests for items to be signed out or returned to the CAO here on the Yahoo group. Someone will help you out, but be patient. the librarian personally only gets up to the CAO 3 or 4 times a year, but he will act as a book courier for those who needs him to. He can coordinate with regular users of the CAO.

If you wish to take out a magazine that is bound in a binder, you must take the whole binder.

Media Files: