A TALK
by
Al Seaman
"AMATEUR ASTRONOMY"
Presented by The Friends of CRC
CRC Auditorium. Thursday, March 25, 2004.
1:00 p.m.
"Al's talk will describe assorted facets of amateur astronomy including a basic introduction to the cosmos, the evolution of amateur astronomy equipment, visual observation and astro-imaging, light pollution, activities from plain fun observing to research oriented work, and organizations helping the amateur. The talk will be illustrated with numerous images of the more photogenic astronomical objects. A brief update on the SMARTscope project will be included. A summary of resources available to anyone interested in the hobby will also be provided."
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Al Seaman joined the Defence Research Telecommunications Establishment in Ottawa in 1954 initially working on aircraft detection systems. He spent 1955 at the DRB lab in Churchill, Manitoba on instrumentation for their research programs. In 1956 he returned to the Electronic Warfare group at DRTE. From 1959 to 1963 he provided assorted support from Shirley Bay for the Prince Albert Radar Laboratory, and from 1963 to 1967 he was resident in Prince Albert as Officer-in-Charge of PARL. In 1967 he returned to DRTE and was director of the computing centre until 1972. Then Al moved to the computing centre at Carleton University, and in 1974 moved on to Digital Equipment of Canada where he had several senior management positions until retirement in 1991. Since then part of his time has gone to AstroCom Associates Inc., and to various other interests, hobbies and family activities. Included in that was the opportunity to convert a long standing interest in astronomy into an active hobby.
FRIENDS OF CRC NEWSLETTER
Friends,
Our year is coming to a close as we only have a few more events before we take off for the summer. The annual Noon Luncheon is on April 22, 2004 at the Britannia Yacht Club and the menu and price are the same as last year ($12 per person, including tax). We require at least 25 persons to break even, as there are some fixed costs involved. More information including the menu and invitation will be sent out in early April as we require payment in advance of the luncheon.
Another important event is our Annual General Meeting which is on April 29, 2004. We are looking for volunteers or nominations of persons willing to sit on the Friends of CRC Executive Board. If you are interested or wish to nominate someone contact Don Ross and give him the details. His phone number is 592-2539 or e-mail him at donross@magma.ca
Future Events:
March 25th (Thursday), 2004 at 1:00 p.m. in the CRC Auditorium, Building 2: "Amateur Astronomy" by Al Seaman
April 22nd (Thursday), 2004: "Friends Annual Luncheon" at the Britannia Yacht Club, 2777 Cassels Street,Ottawa
April 29th (Thursday), 2004 at 1:00 p.m. in the CRC Auditorium, Building 2: "Friends Annual General Meeting"
The IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Ottawa Chapter are hosting, in conjunction with other organizations, a technical Workshop on the O-Train on Saturday 1st May at Carleton University, Minto-CASE Building, adjacent to the O-Train station, 8.30 am - noon. Planned speakers and topics include: -Tom Lenthall, Specialist consultant, Cambridge, MA. "The economics of innovative light-rail rapid transit systems". -David Jeanes, Ottawa, "The Ottawa O-train system - some comments from a user's perspective". David is President of Transport 2000.
-Philip Marsh and Kevin Sawley, NRC Centre for Surface Transportation Technolgy, "Wheel/Rail Forces and Force Measurement".
The OC-Transpo team have also been approached for a presentation. Further details are at: http://members.attcanada.ca/~max-com/ottawa.vts.html It is expected that the final details (speakers, timing) will be completed by mid-April. Admission free; light refreshments. Why not travel by the O-train to the workshop? Details also from Hugh Reekie, 728-5343 h.reekie@ieee.org.Hugh
E-mails:
The following are e-mails from John Gilbert which I forgot to include in previous newsletters.
Received May 27, 2003.
Jim: I enjoyed our chat this morning and I would like to be on the Friends of the CRC list. I was based at DOC headquarters but reported to Bert Blevis at CRC from 1972-74 on the CTS Experiments program. Later, as Director, Spectrum Policy, and then with the International Relations Branch of DOC, I had many contacts with CRC. We do not yet have a web site for the Radio Regs activity, but hope to have one in June once we have had our second planning meeting on the Radio Regs History project. Here is the web site for our Joint Arctic Weather Station project (for which I am one of the Canadian managers). You might wish to have a link to the site because of the many connections between DRTE and the stations over the years. I was at Resolute in 1956 and then at Eureka from 1956-58. http://groups.msn.com/MouldBayEurekaIsachsenAlert/_whatsnew.msnw
Several of our American members on the JAWS project are also alumni of the Antarctic and have their own site for that experience at: http://www.southpolestation.com
Best regards John Gilbert
The following email was received on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 9:08 AM
Subject: JAWS and Friends of the CRC
We had a telephone conversation last year and I mentioned that we have a group working on a web site for the Radio Regulations Branch (now Industry Canada's Telecommunications Regulations Branch). You might find the site, which is still under construction, of interest:
http://www.spectralumni.ca/
Since we were all in the same department for 20 years there are no doubt some interesting articles in the employee newsletters which have been digitized and placed on the site. Tom Racine has done a fantastic job of putting this resource at our disposal.
Could you bring this to the attention of your committee. Is there some way we could work together on areas of common interest?
John Gilbert
