Oct 08, 2014


14-40 prince charles-1There is probably no better guide to lead a tour of the universe than celebrated Canadian astronomer, Terence Dickinson.

Dickinson, who resides in Yarker, was invited to Prince Charles PS in Verona by Laurie Swinton, former chair of the parent council, to give an evening talk about the universe on October 2 to listeners of all ages with curious minds.

Dickinson, who became fascinated by the stars at age five, has made an admirable career as a renowned astronomer and has authored 15 books on the subject including “Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe”, “The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide” and “Exploring the Night Sky”. For years he edited the magazine Astronomy and in 1995 he founded and is still editor of the Canadian astronomy magazine SkyNews.

Over his career he has held numerous posts as staff astronomer at such places as the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto and was assistant director at the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York. He has won numerous honors and awards including a honorary PhD from the University of Trenton. He was also awarded the Order of Canada and has had an asteroid named after him. However, it is his passion for his subject and his ability to deliver information in understandable terms for all ages that made his appearance at PCPS such a treat.

Dickinson used models to demonstrate the magnitude of the universe, inviting one youngster to hold a yellow golf ball representing our sun and inviting another to hold a second white ball representing the next nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. He informed the second youngster that he would have to take his white golf ball all the way to Winnipeg to give a true scale representation of its distance from our sun. Understanding the scope and size of the universe is a daunting task even for the most nimble minded. It is estimated that there are roughly 100 billion galaxies in the universe with each on average having 100 billion stars, which brings the estimated total numbers of stars in the universe to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars (or 10 to the power of 22).

While listeners were awed by what they heard, Dickinson also accompanied his talk with a slide show of equally awe-inspiring photos. One, a view of the earth as seen from the moon was particularly breathtaking.

Following his talk he invited guests to view the moon on what thankfully was a perfectly clear night. He explained that with the strength of present-day telescopes, viewers that night in Verona could actually see the moon as close up as the astronauts who orbited it in space had seen it.

He spoke of what a shame it is that in Toronto one cannot view the sky as he was able to as a boy in suburban Toronto so he is glad that in the more northern towns like Verona and those even further north, people are still able to enjoy dark skies and are doing their best to preserve and promote them.

Dickinson hopes that his passion might ignite a flame in the young minds of local students and he will be returning to Prince Charles later in October to speak to the students about the subject he loves and knows best.

By the way, those who have played the board game Trivial Pursuit have Terrence Dickinson to thank for most of the astronomy questions and answers found there.

Photos-

2038-famed Canadian astronomer Terence Dickinson awed listeners at his talk “A Tour of the Universe” at Prince Charles PS in Verona on October 2

2042-a slide in his presentation shows earth as seen from the moon  

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