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Canadian Astronomy Data Centre
The NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre (NRC Herzberg, HAA) is the leading Canadian centre for astronomy and astrophysics. It is based in Victoria, British Columbia. The current Director-General, as of 2021, is Luc Simard. History Named for the Nobel laureate Gerhard Herzberg, it was formed in 1975 as part of the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. The NRC-HIA headquarters were moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1995 to the site of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. In 2012, the organization was restructured and renamed NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics. Facilities NRC-HAA also operates the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory outside of Penticton, British Columbia and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as well as managing Canadian involvement in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Gemini Observatory, Atacama Large Millimeter Array, the Square Kilometre Array, and the Thirty Meter Telescope, as well as Canada's ...
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Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, located on Observatory Hill, in Saanich, British Columbia, was completed in 1918 by the Canadian government. The Dominion architect responsible for the building was Edgar Lewis Horwood. The main instrument is the Plaskett telescope, proposed and designed by John S. Plaskett in 1910 with the support of the International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research. The observatory has been designated a national historic site of Canada, as it is a world-renowned facility where many discoveries about the nature of the Milky Way were made, and it was one of the world’s main astrophysical research centres until the 1960s. Public programs The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Victoria Centre, which has a long association with the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and public outreach dating back to 1914, holds free public "star parties" at the DAO on select summer Saturday evenings. These events include solar and nighttime viewing with RA ...
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Atacama Large Millimeter Array
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The array has been constructed on the elevation Chajnantor plateau - near the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. This location was chosen for its high elevation and low humidity, factors which are crucial to reduce noise and decrease signal attenuation due to Earth's atmosphere. ALMA provides insight on star birth during the early Stelliferous era and detailed imaging of local star and planet formation. ALMA is an international partnership amongst Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile. Costing about US$1.4 billion, it is the most expensive ground-based telescope in operation. ALMA began scientific observations in the second half of 2011 and the first images we ...
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Astronomy Institutes And Departments
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Chinese, Maya, and many ancient indigenous peoples of the Americas. In the past, astronomy included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars. Nowadays, profession ...
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Research Institutes In Canada
Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to controlling sources of bias and error. These activities are characterized by accounting and controlling for biases. A research project may be an expansion on past work in the field. To test the validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate elements of prior projects or the project as a whole. The primary purposes of basic research (as opposed to applied research) are documentation, discovery, interpretation, and the research and development (R&D) of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge. Approaches to research depend on epistemologies, which vary considerably both within and between humanities and sciences. There are several forms of research: scientific, humanities, artistic, economi ...
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National Research Council (Canada)
The National Research Council Canada (NRC; french: Conseil national de recherches Canada) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research & development. It is the largest federal research & development organization in Canada. The Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (currently, François-Philippe Champagne) is responsible for the NRC. Mandate NRC is an agency of the Government of Canada, and its mandate is set out in the '' National Research Council Act''. Under the Act, the NRC is responsible for: * Undertaking, assisting or promoting scientific and industrial research in fields of importance to Canada; * Providing vital scientific and technological services to the research and industrial communities; * Investigating standards and methods of measurement; * Working on the standardization and certification of scientific and technical apparatus, instruments and materials used or usable by Canadian in ...
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James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This will enable investigations across many fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars, the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led JWST's design and development and partnered with two main agencies: the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed telescope development, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University operates JWST, and the prime contractor was Northrop Grumman. The telescope is named after James E. W ...
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James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is a submillimetre-wavelength radio telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, US. The telescope is near the summit of Mauna Kea at . Its primary mirror is 15 metres (16.4 yards) across: it is the largest single-dish telescope that operates in submillimetre wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum ( far-infrared to microwave).W.S. Holland et al., SCUBA: a common-user submillimetre camera operating on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Volume 303 Issue 4, Pages 659–672, 2002 Scientists use it to study the Solar System, interstellar dust and gas, and distant galaxies. The JCMT started operations in 1987, and was funded until February 2015 by a partnership between the United Kingdom and Canada, and the Netherlands. It was operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre and was named in honour of mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell. In March 2015 the operation of the JCMT w ...
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Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope
The Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is located near the summit of Mauna Kea mountain on Hawaii's Big Island at an altitude of 4,204 meters (13,793 feet), part of the Mauna Kea Observatory. Operational since 1979, the telescope is a Prime Focus/ Cassegrain configuration with a usable aperture diameter of . CFHT currently planning a refurbishment to the facility in the 2020s. The facility will be reconstructed with a new 11-m telescope to produce the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer, retaining the same base building and infrastructure. First light is expected in 2029. Funding The corporation is bound by a tripartite agreement between the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in the United States, the National Research Council (NRC) in Canada and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France. CFHT also has partnerships with the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC), the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in Taiwan, ...
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Arthur Covington
Arthur Edwin Covington (21 September 1913 – 17 March 2001) was a Canadian physicist who made the first radio astronomy measurements in Canada. Through these he made the valuable discovery that sunspots generate large amounts of microwaves at the 10.7 cm wavelength, offering a simple all-weather method to measure and predict sunspot activity, and their associated effects on communications. The sunspot detection program has run continuously to this day. Early life and education Covington was born in Regina and grew up in Vancouver. He showed an early interest in astronomy, and had built a refractor telescope after meeting members of the local chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He was also interested in amateur radio and operated station VE3CC for a time. He started his career as a radio operator on ships operated by the Canadian National Railways. He put himself through school and eventually earned a bachelor's degree from the University of British Co ...
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Eileen Friel
Eileen Dolores Friel is an American astronomer specializing in the metallicity of star clusters. She is a former director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and Lowell Observatory, and a professor emeritus of astronomy at Indiana University. Education and career Friel was a physics major at the College of William & Mary. After going to the University of Cambridge for Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, she returned to the US for doctoral study in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation, ''A study of the stellar populations in two high galactic latitude fields with comparison to galaxy models'', was completed in 1986 under the supervision of Robert Kraft. After postdoctoral research positions at the Paris Observatory, NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, and University of Hawaii, she served as director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory for five years. She moved to the National Science Foundation The N ...
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John Stanley Plaskett
John Stanley Plaskett (November 17, 1865 – October 17, 1941) was a Canadian astronomer. Career He worked as a machinist, and was offered a job as a mechanician at the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, constructing apparatus and assisting with demonstrations during lectures. He found this so interesting that at the age of 30 he enrolled as an undergraduate in mathematics and physics. He stayed at the university until 1903, doing research on color photography. His formal astronomical career did not start until 1903, when he was appointed to the staff at Dominion Observatory in Ottawa, Ontario. He measured radial velocities and studied spectroscopic binaries, and performed the first detailed analysis of galactic structure. His mechanical background was very useful for constructing various instruments. He became first director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, British Columbia in 1917 (not to be confused with the old Dominion Observato ...
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Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey
Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS) is a large-scale astronomical survey using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The survey is exploring the structure and content of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and its neighbour, the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). Clues to the formation of these galaxies may lie within the vast space being studied. PAndAS is searching for this history, hence the term "galactic archaeology". The project is headed by Dr. Alan McConnachie at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (NRC-HIA), and involves over twenty five investigators from that institute, as well as from universities in Canada, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia. See also *Extragalactic astronomy * Observational cosmology *Andromeda XXI *Andromeda XXII Andromeda XXII (Pisces VI, Triangulum I) is a low surface brightness dwarf spheroidal galaxy about away from the Sun in the constellation Pisces, of the Local Group. Andromeda XXII is located much closer in ...
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