[Flickr images]

The cozy indoor environs of Cronyn Observatory greeted over 200 visitors as damp weather descended over London on Saturday, October 1, 2016.

Volunteers from The Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada were on hand during Cronyn Observatory’s first foray as part of the 15th annual Doors Open London.

In the main floor lecture theatre volunteers Dilini Subasinghe and Robin Arnason directed visitors to the basement demonstrations and 1940 period room as well as to the upstairs observing floor.

The upstairs observing floor is home to the original observatory telescopes. The newly painted purple 1940 25.4cm refracting telescope built by Perkin Elmer Corporation of New York is still the second largest refractor in Canada next to the 38cm Brashear refractor of the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology (closed for repairs til 2017) in Ottawa. On the observing floor volunteers had also set up many of the telescopes that are normally used on the outside deck.  These included the 90mm Coronado solar telescope, the 20cm Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain, the 25.4cm Dob, and Paul’s 23.5cm Schmidt-Cassegrain scope. Helping on the observing floor were Paul Kerans, Everret Clark, Steve Gauthier, Peter Jedicke, Dale Armstrong, and Henry Leparskas.

In between bouts of Scotch mist the dome was opened and the 25.4cm refractor as well as the Dob were pointed at various towers and construction cranes in the distance.

In the downstairs ‘black room’, Tricia Colvin, beautifully attired in period garb, showed visitors a real life demonstration of how the photo sensor of a space telescope can detect extrasolar planets via the transit method.

In the 1940 period room, Mark Tovey, dressed as the late Professor Harold R. Kingston, gave tours of observatory’s treasured historic artificats. These include Kingston’s original brass refracting telescope, a 19th century French noonday cannon, and models such as the Sotellunium which were hand built on premises by the retired Rev. William Colgrove and Harold R. Kingston, and much more. Dale Armstrong and Henry Leparskas also gave tours of the period room to small groups of visitors.

At 19:00  Peter Jedicke, Honorary President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, gave a fascinating 40 minute lecture titled, “The Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory: A Brief History”.

Reluctantly, after such a wonderful day of hosting so many curious visitors, the observatory was closed at 10pm.

On Tuesday October 4, 2016, Marwa Dawaga successfully defended her MSc thesis.

Marwa presented a public lecture on her thesis topic titled, “Automatic detection of eye blinking using the generalized Ising Model”.

Marwa’s thesis supervisor was Prof. Andrea Soddu.

The morning of Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016 promised to be perhaps the last warm day of the year.

At 10:00am, on the east lawn, the Department of Physics and Astronomy held a ceremonial tree planting in memory of the late physicist John David Jackson, a London boy who became a giant in the field of physics.

Department Chair Bob Sica commenced the planting ceremony for the healthy looking red maple tree by reciting the wording for a plaque which commemorates David Jackson’s career and his impact on the world of physics.

The plaque reads:

Taking part in the soil turning ceremony were the two most recent Lillian Margaret and Walter David Jackson Scholarship winners, Sivayini Kandeepan, and Cameron Hopkins.

[Flickr images] [Youtube video]

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016, Abedin Abedin successfully defended his PhD thesis.

Prior to his examination, Abedin gave a public lecture titled, “Formation and past evolution of the meteoroid complex of Comet 96P/Machholz”.

Abedin was co-supervised by  Professors Peter Brown and Paul Wiegert.

The Lead TA program at Western is an initiative funded by The School for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS) and the Teaching Support Centre (TSC). This is the first official year of the program, following a two-year trial.  This year, eight lead TA positions were available for graduate student applicants from across all faculties/departments.  We are pleased to announce that our own Carolyn Cadogan has been awarded one of these positions for the Faculty of Science.

The role of the Lead TA is intended to be department-specific. That is, the Lead TA’s task is to identify departmental needs, from both the faculty members and graduate students’ perspectives.

This position will be rotated within the Faculty of Science in the future, so we in Physics and Astronomy should all take advantage of this opportunity.  Besides providing input to Carolyn, we should make an effort to participate in the activities designed to make graduate students’ life easier as TAs, and help elevate Physics & Astronomy undergraduate learning experiences to the next level.

Congratulations to Isabelle Cyr for receiving the William H. Wehlau Award, and to Cameron Hopkins for receiving the John David Jackson Scholarship for 2015-16.

The announcement was made by Associate Graduate Chair Silvia Mittler on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016.

On Thursday, September 1, 2016, Fereshteh Rajabi successfully defended her PhD thesis.

Prior to her examination, Fereshteh gave a public lecture on her thesis topic, titled “Dicke’s Superradiance in Astrophysics“.

Fereshteh was supervised by Professor Martin Houde.

An informal farewell get-together on the occasion of electronics and instrumentation specialist Doug Hie’s upcoming retirement was held at the Grad Club on Wednesday, August 25, 2016.

It was a jam packed affair with three full tables being occupied by members of the Physics and Astronomy community.

Doug held court at one of the tables, and everyone had a chance to shake his hand, to reminisce a bit, and to wish him well in the next phase of his life.

Phin Perquin recounted some humourous moments from his work with Doug.  Certainly almost every corner of the department has been touched by Doug in his long career, including the first, second, and third year laboratories, as well as every major research lab.  Doug, along with his ex-colleague Harry Chen, had a hand in the manufacture of much of the modern departmental electronics equipment that is used in laboratory and public demonstrations. The number of computers that Doug had a hand in diagnosing or fixing for the department very nearly surpasses the number of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy.

Doug was then presented with a few mementos with which to remember the community that he has been such a vital part of.  One gift was a beautiful caricature by a local London artist, depicting Doug relaxing in his favourite Cincinnati Bengals attire. In addition, Brian, Frank, and Phin presented Doug with a historic coat/hat rack, complete with bronze plaque. A bag of Doritos chips was thrown in for good measure.

[images on Flickr]