Next Meeting Announcement from Steven Pellarin, President of Windsor Centre, RASC

Our next general meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time at Ojibway Nature Centre located at 5200 Matchette Road, Windsor.

Our main speaker that night will be Jack Brisbin, former president of the Detroit Astronomical Society and current observatory director and curator at Peach Mountain Observatory (owned by the University of Michigan). Jack will be speaking on the history of the Peach Mountain observatory and in particular the work that his astronomy club (University Lowbrow Astronomer's Club of Ann Arbor) has done in restoring and re-opening the McMath 24-inch telescope at the observatory for public outreach programmes. The meeting will also include our monthly Director of Observing report by Nancy Ng, who will let us know about what is happening this month in our night sky. If time permits, there will also be a short talk on facts you may not know about constellations by your club president.

The Dark Sky Night that our club is co-hosting at Point Pelee National Park on Saturday, May 23, starting at sunset. As usual, we will be setting up telescopes at the Visitor Centre parking lot, starting at about 8 pm. The sunset occurs later this month (~9 pm) so observing (if weather permits) probably won't start until at least 9:30 pm. Members are encouraged to bring their telescopes as we may have a large public audience to serve. Please note, due to the longest daylight hours of the year occurring next month and the park closing at midnight, we will not be a co-hosting an official dark sky night at the Park in June. So, we encourage you to come out, bring a telescope and share the night sky with us this month! For updates on the May dark sky night or to let us know that you are bringing a telescope to the event, contact me at 519-980-3140 or by email at pellarins[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Btw, I would like recognize and say thanks to those who have participated in recent astronomy outreach activities. Thanks to Susan Sawyer-Beaulieu, Nancy Ng, Jeff Peacock, Mahayarrahh Livingstone, Valentine Hompoth, Brian Simpson and Jeremy Hansen, who hosted a Windsor Centre astronomy booth and public solar observing event at the Ojibway Nature Centre on Saturday, May 2nd in association with the Paper Heroes Comic Book Giveaway Activity at the Nature Centre. Reports are that a number of visitors were able to glimpse features on the Sun even with mostly-cloudy skies. Information and brochures were shared with the visitors, who appeared to really enjoy interacting with our outreach team.

Also, in a separate event, I'd like to recognize Mahayarrahh Starr Livingstone, Tara Carmen-French, Sandy French, Sandy Van Galen, Donna Ronconi and Mike Mastronardi for their support and assistance in the Basics of Astronomy presentations that I gave at the Budimir and Tecumseh branch public libraries this month. Both talks were well attended and I suspect that we may have some new enthusiastic members that may join our group soon!

The Sky this Week

For a weekly guide to celestial events, visit the Observing page on the Astronomy by Night website and click on  This Week's Night Sky .

Point Pelee Dark Sky Nights

One night a month Point Pelee National Park remains open until midnight for visitors to experience the dark skies of this National Dark Sky Preserve. The coming one will be on Saturday May 23th.