Schedule is subject to change. All events are held virtually via Zoom.

Saturday, April 26 2025

Welcome, Awards and Orientation
12:00pm EDT / 9:00am PDT

All attendees are invited to join RASC President Michael Watson and Executive Director Jenna Hinds for an introduction to the General Assembly. We will announce this year’s award winners and outline the schedule and activities planned for the weekend.

Following this introduction, there will be two streams available. Stream A is aimed at our seasoned volunteers and members who know their way around the basics of astronomy and are looking for more in-depth topics. Stream B is aimed at newer members and astronomers, looking to learn about the night sky and ways they can get involved in astronomy.

Keynote Speaker
7:00pm EDT / 4:00pm PDT

The CASTOR Mission
Nick Kuzmin

Given the immensity of our universe, the only way to study the overwhelming majority of it is through observation. Space telescopes allow us to see into corners of space where our understanding of how the laws of physics work can be put to the test, across wavelengths of light invisible to human eyes. CASTOR is the acronym for the Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and UV Research, a planned mission led by the Canadian Space Agency to observe the universe in ultraviolet (UV), blue, and green optical light, helping us understand key mysteries in physics such as the nature of dark matter and dark energy. This telescope will replace the Hubble Space Telescope as the world’s premiere UV observatory, by offering similar resolution but a field of view 100 times as large, allowing astronomers across the globe to gather and process data much more rapidly. In this talk, Nick Kuzmin will discuss the science that the first Canadian led space telescope will carry out, and UCalgary’s contribution in testing CASTOR’s UV sensor in laboratory conditions that replicate near-Earth space.

About the Speaker

Nick completed a B.Sc. in Honours Physics with a specialization in Astrophysics at the University of Waterloo. He went on to do research at TU Munich in the field of nuclear astrophysics, and spent several years working at UCalgary’s Quantum Cloud Lab, before returning to graduate studies. His research project involves helping to carry out the vacuum testing of CASTOR’s ultraviolet imaging electronics. In addition, he assists with running the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory’s educational outreach programs, and on occasion enjoys using its Clark Milone Telescope to take pictures of deep sky objects.

Sunday, April 27 2025