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The Big Sky Astronomical Society has two dozen members, but we have hundreds
of friends! By becoming a Friend of the Big Sky Astronomical Society you will
be showing us that you support our efforts to educate, inspire, and bring the wonders of astronomy to the next generation
of sky watchers.
Your $15 or $25 donation will help
us to continue to serve students and visitors such as yourself. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law. You
can make a secure online donation through CanadaHelps.org and they will send you an immediate email acknowledgement of your
gift, which you may use for income tax purposes.
If you would like to become a Friend of the Big Sky Astronomical Society all you have to do
is download the
Friend of the Society
Form
or click on the "donate now through CanadaHelps.org" graphic located below,
which will open up a new web browser and you
will be taken to a secure web site where you can make your donation. Please be sure to select "Friends of the Big Sky Astronomical
Society" from the Fund / Designation drop down menu.
Thank You!
- Please help
support the observatory
- by making a
donation today!
CanadaHelps.org
encrypts your data using Secure Socket
Layers (SSL)
 Charitable
Registration Number: 86997 9021 RR0001
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Friend of the Society
Form |
| The Big Sky Astronomical Society received
two Pentium 4 computers from
the
Electronic Recycling Association on
October 6, 2006. This donation has allowed us to
begin using newer versions of Windows,
FrontPage, and Starry Night. Thus,
allowing us to be more productive and do
things that we were not able to do in
the past. |
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| The Big Sky Astronomical Society received a Celestron C-11
telescope from Dr. Karl Ivarson on November 16, 2005. This telescope will be installed in a small observatory to be
built at our observing site, which is adjacent to the Twin Valley Dam.
Dr. Ivarson is a World War II veteran and worked for many years
as a research scientist for the Government of Canada. He is also a keen amateur astronomer and he spent many years
showing the kids of Vulcan County the splendors of the universe. If you would like to see Dr. Ivarson's telescope
back in action once again, please consider becoming a Friend of the Big Sky Astronomical Society. |
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| Celestron
C-11 |
| The Big Sky Astronomical Society received a grant from
the Lethbridge Community Foundation on
October 8, 2003. This grant allowed us to purchase four sunspotter solar telescopes. We use these solar telescopes during
our daytime sidewalk astronomy outreach program. |
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Observatory
Telescope
Meade 0.35m
(14-inch) LX200GPS SCT |
| This
picture was taken while we were
setting up the new telescope for the
first time. As you can see, one member
is working to align the finderscope
while another member is standing
nearby ready to assist. |
| The Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation
has supported our effort to build a public observatory
by awarding us a grant. The grant was used to
purchase a CCD imaging camera. |
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| Our CCD imaging camera... |
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| We thank the following organizations and individuals who have
created a hyperlink from their website to our website. Your support is very much appreciated. Thank you! |
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Adopt-A-Star
The colour of the traffic light
above indicates the status of our Adopt-A-Star program. A green light indicates that we are ready to process
Adopt-A-Star requests. A yellow light indicates that we expect to begin processing
Adopt-A-Star requests within a few days. Finally, a red light indicates that we are not able to process any
Adopt-A-Star requests at this time.
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Book of the Day
Businesses that are subject to an increased risk of fraud require a special type of merchant account called a high risk merchant account. 
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Space History
January 1
On this day, back in 1801, Italian
astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid. It was named Ceres, in
honour of the Roman goddess of agriculture. Ceres has a diameter of about 950
km, which makes it the largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt. In 2006, the
International Astronomical Union adopted the term "dwarf planet" and since then
Ceres has been classified as a dwarf planet.
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Big Sky News
The Nanton Legion recently
contributed $1000 to our 2010 Facility Enhancement Project.
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Did You Know?
A light-year is a unit of distance, not time. It is simply the distance that light travels in one year. The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second and therefore in one year (365¼ days) light can traverse 9,460,730,472,580,800 metres. In other words, a light-year is equal to about 9.46 trillion kilometres.
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