One of the Hubble Space Telescope's feats was to refine the distance of the Pleiades Cluster to about 440 light-years from Earth. See our Hubble recap for more on the telescope. (NASA, ESA and AURA/Caltech)

Speaker Series events

Learn more about important issues and hot topics in the skies through The RASC and SkyNews’ Speaker Series.

Interested in hearing about space science and astronomy from experts? The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and SkyNews have teamed up to co-host the Speaker Series online, bringing those in the know to your screen.

Hosted by RASC executive director Phil Groff and SkyNews managing editor Allendria Brunjes, the Speaker Series focuses on important issues and hot topics in the skies. A public Q&A follows each talk.

New speakers, talk abstracts and links will be posted here as they become available. You can also sign up here to receive notifications and the link when a new session is about to start.

Heather Laird RASC national member

Canadian Women in Astronomy

Friday, May 8, 2020
7 p.m. EDT

A brief history of some of the important women actively involved in the advancement of amateur and professional astronomy and astrophysics in Canada over the last century.

Heather Laird is a RASC national member and volunteer, formerly a director on the national board. She also volunteers her time as one of the directors of the ambassador program for the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Still relatively new to observing and astronomy, however, her passion for the science, history, theory and physics motivates her to continue learning as much a possible. Joining Laird is RASC archivist Randall Rosenfeld.

Étienne Trouvelot’s images of Jupiter in 1877 and 1880. RASC archivist Randall Rosenfeld will be speaking about the images during his talk.

Truth at the Eyepiece

Thursday, May 21, 2020
7:00 p.m. EDT

Join RASC archivist Randall Rosenfeld as he explores why hand-drawn astronomical pictures look odd to us, and the implications for what “truth at the eyepiece” may really mean. More details here.

Past events

Apollo 13: The Flight That Failed

April 13, 2020

30 Years of the Hubble Space Telescope

April 24, 2020