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Cassiopeia Newsletter – Vernal Equinox 2023

Updated: Aug 23, 2025

Date: March 23, 2023


In this Issue:

President’s Message

ALMA Matters

CASCA 2023 Announcement

Update on CASTOR

CATAC Update on the Thirty Meter Telescope

AstroEDU Conference

Gemini News

Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) Update

ngVLA Update

Report from the SKA

Dissertation: Nearby galaxies: modelling star formation histories and contamination by unresolved background galaxies

In Memoriam: Terence Dickinson


Editor: Joanne Rosvick

Cassiopeia is CASCA’s quarterly Newsletter, published on or near the solstices and equinoxes (March 21, June 21, September 21 and December 21).

To submit a contribution please email cassiopeia.editors@gmail.com. All submissions must be received by the due date (usually 2 weeks in advance of publication) to be published in the next edition. I accept plain text and Word documents. Note that the formatting of your document will not be preserved. Please include any images as attachments in your email, not embedded in the text. Please include URLs in parentheses next to the word or phrase that you wish to act as link anchors.

President’s Message


By Chris Wilson (CASCA President)(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


First, some good news: the Federal government has announced its intent to seek full membership for Canada in the Square Kilometre Array Observatory! Congratulations to everyone who has worked to make this a reality. More details can be found in the SKA update in this newsletter.


The CASCA Board has held two regular monthly meetings since my last report. In this report I will focus on 2 major initiatives that are in progress: a review of our ground-based optical/infrared facilities (10m-class and smaller), and a plan for a part-time Westar Lectureship co-ordinator.


In their December 2022 report to the CASCA Board, the Ground-based Astronomy Committee (GAC) recommended that we undertake a thorough review of existing and potential optical/infrared (O/IR) facilities that are or could be accessible to Canadian astronomers. The CASCA Board agreed that the need for this review is sufficiently urgent to scheduling it ahead of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the 2020 Long Range Plan that would be carried out in 2025. The O/IR review committee will be tasked with assessing science, technical readiness, schedule, and balance between community desires. I’m very pleased to announce that Doug Welch from McMaster University has agreed to chair this review committee.


In my December 2022 article, I mentioned that the Board had met with several members of the Westar subcommittee. At that meeting, we had discussed the possibility of hiring a co-ordinator to support the revision and expansion of the Westar Lectureship program, and possibly other Education and Public Outreach initiatives as well. Both an expansion of the Westar Lectureship program and an EPO coordinator paid by CASCA were recommendations of the 2020 Long Range Plan. The Westar subcommittee submitted a concrete proposal that the Board considered at our March meeting. This proposal included two options: a part-time Westar-only coordinator position, or a full-time National Outreach Coordinator, with Westar coordination being part of that role. The Board found that a full-time position is not within the scope of CASCA’s current budget without a large increase in dues or via a cost-sharing program with one or more individual universities. Therefore, the Board approved a motion to support a Westar co-ordinator at a part time level for up to 3 years. Final details of the funding available for this position will be reviewed and approved at the next Board meeting.


In other news, all current Board members have now taken some initial Indigenous awareness training by completing the course “4 Seasons of Reconciliation” offered by Reconciliation Education. We submitted our annual performance questionnaire related to IAU activities of the community to NRC in February; thanks to Rob Thacker who took this task off my hands. The CASCA Board also reviewed all applications for new IAU membership and these applications have now been passed on to the relevant IAU review committee. The Board approved an increase in the hourly rate of pay for the CASCA webmaster, who has not had a pay increase in several years. We have also been following up with CASCA members who were in arrears on their dues; thank you to everyone who has renewed recently.


The next CASCA AGM will be held June 13-15, 2023, in Penticton, B.C. This will be our first in-person meeting in 4 years, so I encourage you to attend and bring your students! The CASCA Board is looking for an institution to host the 2024 AGM; if your department is interested in volunteering, please contact CASCA Vice-President Adam Muzzin.


As a reminder, there will be 3 open positions on the CASCA Board for election at the 2023 June AGM: 2 for Director and 1 for President. Please consider standing for election yourself or encouraging other good candidates to stand. Suggestions can be sent to Rob Thacker, who chairs the Nominating Committee, or via the nomination form to the CASCA secretary, Rob Cockcroft.


Finally, I would like to acknowledge that progress continues to be slow on various aspects of Board business. A lot of the CASCA day-to-day work and planning falls on the President, who not only chairs the Board but is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation. Unfortunately, I have not been able to devote as much time to CASCA work as I had planned: I caught COVID in early November and have been suffering from first COVID and now long COVID symptoms for the past 4 months. I appreciate your patience if responses to emails are slow or if some aspects of CASCA business take longer to make progress. Special thanks to other members of the Board who are taking on tasks that I would normally be doing, especially Julie Hlavaceck-Larrondo who has been chairing the Board meetings and leading the organization of the optical/infrared review committee.


Wishing you all a good end of semester and looking forward to seeing many of you in Penticton in June,


Chris

ALMA Matters


By Brenda Matthews and Gerald Schieven (ALMA)(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


ALMA Marks 10 years of Science Observations!


Special events are scheduled on 13 March 2023 at the ALMA site to commemorate the 10th anniversary of ALMA science observations.


In Canada, an online mini-symposium of ALMA science was organized by the Millimetre Astronomy Group at NRC and held on 9 March, with participation from across the country. The excellent keynote presentation about the ALMAQuest Survey by Sara Ellison was preceded by exciting presentations from Ryley Hill (UBC), Anan Lu (McGill), Jiaqing Bi (University of Victoria) and Alex Tetarenko (Lethbridge University/Texas Tech) and followed by a short presentation on the future of ALMA’s science potential by ALMA Director Sean Dougherty.


Many thanks to all who participated and tuned in to learn about ALMA’s contributions to science in Canada.


Events are scheduled to mark this milestone throughout this year in Chile, culminating in the conference ALMA at 10 years: Past, Present, and Future to be held in Puerto Varas, Chile from 4-8 December 2023. Watch this space for registration information.


Cycle 9 Observing Update


Following the recovery period after the cyberattack of 23 October 2022, ALMA resumed Cycle 9 observing in mid-December. The primary losses were to projects requiring the two most compact 12-m array configurations. As per usual ALMA policy, incomplete A-grade proposals will be carried forward into Cycle 10.


Cycle 10 Pre-Announcement


Due to the impact of the cyberattack, which stopped observing and much of the work of observatory staff, the ALMA Director and the ALMA Management Team decided to delay the release of the Call for Proposals by 3 weeks and delay the proposal deadline by 2 weeks.


The Call for Proposals (CfP) with detailed information on Cycle 10 is anticipated to be issued on 12 April 2023, and the deadline for proposal submission will be in 10 May 2023.


ALMA Cycle 10 will start in October 2023. In the main 12-m Array, antenna configurations C-1 to C-8 (with maximum baselines between 0.16 and 8.5 km) will be offered. The number of hours to be available for approved science observations will be announced in the CfP. Projects with observations in the highest-frequency Bands 8, 9, and 10 are strongly encouraged. Proposers are encouraged to submit ACA stand-alone observations for targets that can be observed in the LST range of 20h to 10h.


New in Cycle 10


The following technical capabilities will be available this Cycle for the first time:


  • Band 1 on the 12-m Array and for Stokes I only (no Stokes Q/U/V), anticipated to be available from March 2024

  • Spectral scans that include Total Power observations

  • 4×4-bit spectral modes for improved sensitivity on the 12-m Array (dual polarization)

  • Solar observations in full polarization in Band 3 using only the 12-m Array

  • Phased array mode in Bands 1, 3, 6 and 7 (the total time available for this mode is expected to be capped at approximately 50 hours)

  • VLBI in Bands 1, 3, 6 and 7, including flexible tuning for spectral lines


New in Cycle 10 will be the availability of Joint Proposals with other facilities, including the Space Telescope Science Institute’s James Webb Space Telescope, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.


Also new this Cycle, band-to-band phase calibration will be available for high frequency observations on both the 7-m Array and all 12-m Array configurations. The total time available for projects needing band-to-band phase calibration is expected to be capped.


Need Help with ALMA Proposals? ALMA’s Ambassadors are Here to Help!


To prepare the North American community to fully participate in the ALMA Call for Proposals, the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) organizes proposal preparation workshops in the months leading up to the proposal deadline. In addition, the North American community is encouraged to request to host ALMA proposal preparation workshops at their home institutions. These events are one to two day workshops organized and led by experienced local postdocs from the ALMA Ambassadors program and/or NAASC staff with a focus on the capabilities of ALMA, mm/submm interferometry observing techniques, and the tools required to design ALMA observing programs and submit proposals.


For cycle 10, two ALMA ambassadors from Canadian universities will be running proposal preparation workshops. Please take notes of these dates and contact the organizers if you are interested in participating.


18 April 2023, 1030am – 530pm (Eastern time): CITA, University of Toronto (remote participation possible), contact Jiayi Sun, but first check the details here.

20 April 2023, 900am – 500pm (Pacific time): University of British Columbia (remote participation possible), contact Adam Dong.


Data reduction workshops will be held at later dates.


Other proposal preparation workshops outside Canada may be of interest. You can see the dates for all the workshops here.


NRC is Building the Next Generation ALMA Correlator


As reported last issue, NRC (hardware) and NRAO (software) are collaborating to build the next generation ALMA correlator, a key part of ALMA’s Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) project. The contracts have now been signed, and construction of the ALMA TALON Central Signal Processor (AT.CSP) at a projected cost of 35.9M USD, including contingency and commissioning, is now underway. The AT.CSP design leverages nearly a decade of R&D work at NRC-HAA’s Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory to develop the SKA-mid Correlator/beamformer (CBF). This next generation correlator for ALMA will double the current (dual-polarization) 8 GHz instantaneous bandwidth of ALMA, with a path forward to double it yet again. In addition, AT.CSP will allow up to 1.2 million channels to be sampled simultaneously, enabling high spectral resolution to be achieved across the observable band width.

More information about the correlator upgrade can be found in Carpenter et al., 2022, ALMA Memo 621.


ALMA Primer Instructional Videos


Radio interferometry, including with ALMA, is a complex and often non-intuitive field. Like the ALMA introductory document, Observing with ALMA – A Primer, the ALMA Primer Instructional Video Series is designed to provide a basic introduction to radio interferometry, calibration, imaging, and other topics in brief (5-15 minutes), bite-size pieces. In addition, short (<1minute) extracts of some of these videos are available to use when teaching or in presentations. The series is a work in progress; new videos are added periodically.


The ALMA Primer Instructional Video Series is now available from the ALMA Science Portal. The videos are also available from the ALMA Primer YouTube Channel. Subscribe to be alerted whenever new videos are added!


CASCA 2023 Annual General Meeting


By Alex Hill (UBC Okanagan) and Roland Kothes (DRAO), CASCA 2023 LOC co-chairs(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


The 2023 CASCA annual general meeting will be held on unceded Syilx Okanagan territory in Penticton, BC June 12-16 2023. The meeting is co-hosted by The University of British Columbia and the NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre. The early registration, talk abstract, and graduate student travel support application deadlines are April 11. The theme of this year’s meeting is “The Broad Spectrum of Canadian Astronomy”.


The meeting will include a graduate student workshop and teacher workshop on Monday June 12, the Helen Sawyer Hogg Public Lecture by Dr Kristine Spekkens on Tuesday June 13, the conference banquet on Wednesday June 14, and a tour of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory on Friday June 16. The meeting will be primarily in-person with an online registration option.


Please contact the organizers at casca-contact@lists.ubc.ca. We look forward to seeing you in Penticton!

Update on CASTOR


By Patrick Côté, John Hutchings (NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre)(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


  • UKSA has favourably reviewed a proposal to fund CASTOR work under a new bilaterals initiatives, subject to a program cost cap. A meeting between CSA and UKSA is planned for this spring to define a partnership in CASTOR.

  • CASTOR will be on the agenda during a CSA-NASA meeting later this month, and it is expected that a dedicated meeting to discuss a possible NASA partnership will happen this spring.

  • Discussions are underway with groups in Spain, France, and Korea to develop their partnership interests in CASTOR. ISRO have indicated an interest in pursuing a partnership, but progress towards that end has been slow.

  • The Phase 0 science and industry teams continue to make good progress in defining the mission, and a final review will be held at CSA in May. The STDP technical contract work also continues, but the characterizing the JPL-E2V detectors will now be carried out by HAA. This technical work will continue for most of this year.

  • A formal request to government for approval and funding, to be submitted jointly by CSA and NRC, will be based on the Phase 0 mission definition, science plan, and costing. This request will include expected international partner contributions, which should substantially reduce the cost to Canada while retaining Canadian leadership.

  • The mission science capabilities, which are increasingly well defined thanks to the ongoing Phase 0 study, are broad and unique, covering a wide range of topics in astronomy. The Coalition for astronomy (CASCA, ACURA, and industry) will be focussed on informing the government on CASTOR, and promoting it as a top-ranked national priority.

  • Those interested in learning more about the mission and its science programs are encouraged to participate in the upcoming Surveys 2 Discoveries Workshop (May 16-18) in Montreal. In addition, the upcoming CASCA AGM (June 12-16) in Penticton will feature a CASTOR Town Hall.


For more information on the mission, see the mission page here.

CATAC Update on the Thirty Meter Telescope


By Michael Balogh (CATAC Chair)(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


The NSF recently completed its comprehensive Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of TMT and GMT.  A recommendation on whether or not to proceed to Final Design Review (FDR) is expected for some time in late summer.  The FDR phase normally lasts about 18 months and will require a firm governance model and site selection.

An Environmental Review forms an important part of the NSF process.  This review is well underway, and the NSF is evaluating the numerous comments it received during the July 19-Sept 17, 2022, scoping comment period.  The current status of this review is maintained at this website, where you can also subscribe to email updates.

The annual call for individuals to join TMT: International Science Development Teams (ISDTs) closed on March 1, 2023.  Over the next few months, the ISDTs will be tasked with updating the 2015 Detailed Science Case in preparation for the FDR.


The first in a series of TMT webinars was held in late 2022/early 2023.  This included an overview of the project and site status and was well attended by Canadians.  It is anticipated that the next webinar, yet to be announced, will focus on first-light instrumentation.


Finally, we would like to acknowledge Don Brooks for his many years of service as Executive Director of ACURA, and his leadership in uniting University support behind Canadian participation in TMT.  ACURA has played a vital role in not only helping to secure the significant federal investment announced in 2014, but also in ensuring that continued participation in the project respects Canadian values as expressed in the Long Range Plan and in feedback from the University community.  Don has been an active participant in CATAC activities since our inception, and his sage advice and deep knowledge of the TMT project will be sorely missed.


CATAC membership


Michael Balogh (University of Waterloo), Chair, mbalogh@uwaterloo.ca

Bob Abraham (University of Toronto; TIO SAC)

Stefi Baum (University of Manitoba)Laura Ferrarese (NRC)

Harvey Richer (UBC)Jason Rowe (Bishop’s)

Stan Metchev (Western University; TIO SAC)

Kim Venn (ACURA Board Chair, non-voting, ex-officio)

Luc Simard (Director General of NRC-HAA, non-voting, ex-officio)

Christine Wilson (Acting CASCA President, non-voting, ex-officio)

Tim Davidge (TIO SAC Canadian co-chair; NRC, observer)

AstroEDU Conference Announcement


By Michael Reid (University of Toronto)(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


Join us in Toronto, May 10-12 for AstroEdu—the astronomy education conference


AstroEdu, the astronomy education conference, is coming to the University of Toronto, May 10-12, 2023. Registration and abstract submission are now open at the conference website. This international conference will feature experts and practitioners in the fields of astronomy and astronomy education, discussing all of the latest research and best practices in astronomy education at all levels. We warmly welcome the Canadian astronomy research community to participate. If you’re interested in finding out how your students learn astronomy, or how your colleagues teach it, this is the conference for you. If you’ve developed an innovative way of teaching astronomy or have studied how your students learn, we invite you to submit an abstract for a poster or talk.


The conference will be held in a hybrid format, both in-person in Toronto and online. To facilitate the widest possible participation, registration fees are indexed to Gross National Income and there are discounts available for virtual participants and students, so please pass this notice on to your colleagues worldwide. We encourage all participants to consider the climate impact of their participation, choose lower-carbon transportation options where available, and consider virtual participation.

We thank the Dunlap Institute and the International Astronomical Union for their generous sponsorship of the meeting.

Canadian Gemini News


By Eric Steinbring (Canadian Gemini Office, NRC Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre)(Cassiopeia – spring 2023)


Spring Deadlines


Heads up! There are three important Call for Proposal (CfP) application deadlines coming up for Canadian access to Gemini, all right at the end of this month or start of the next:


  • First is the monthly CfP for Fast Turnaround time, at noon Hawai’i Standard Time (HST) on 31 March. This will be for Gemini South only. For the FT Call see here.

  • And then right away is for 2023B Regular Semester proposals, at 4 PM (PDT) / 7 PM (EDT) on 31 March. Look here for the Canadian-specific information about that Call.

  • Finally, on 1 April is the deadline for new Large and Long Program (LLP) applications for 2023. There had been a hiatus on starting new LLPs, but a healthy response to the recent request for Letters of Intent. So, just a reminder that the deadline for those crazy-big idea proposals is coming up fast. No joking.


What’s Happening at Gemini North and South


As reported in December, the shutdown in the North had to be extended to allow repairs of the primary mirror following an incident last Fall. That work is now expected to continue for an extra 4 weeks, and will include re-coating, also taking about 4 weeks. With both of those things done, the Observatory currently plans for returning to sky by the end of April. That’s the reason why FT proposals this month are not being accepted for the North. Another impact is that the regular maintenance shutdown in the South has been re-timed (now set to September/October 2023) to avoid having both telescopes down at once. Makes sense. And then something coming later in the semester (last three months, up to January 2024) for the South will be a special Call for the Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST) only. This will make shared-risk time available through the FT proposal process. That will follow a System Verification (SV) phase to ensure all is ready to go for science. Stay tuned!


New HelpDesk System


In January Gemini switched to a new Jira-based HelpDesk system. This new system has improved functionality (particularly for monitoring and escalation of tickets) and should allow better management, and quicker response to your queries related directly to specific instruments and other problems, like data-reduction. See here. To you, the user, it should all be seamless. Now, instead please direct your Gemini-related help-requests to this portal. Don’t be shy. As you know, and as always, your friendly CGO staff is here to help.


Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) Update


By Patrick Hall (MSE Management Group Member)(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


Two MSE-related announcements are coming soon.


The Project Office is negotiating with a new MSE Project Scientist and hopes to announce their appointment soon.


CFHT is also about to release a call for letters of interest from new partners to participate in the development of MSE either through the design and fabrication of an MSE-Pathfinder instrument or through advancing the design of MSE itself. The Pathfinder instrument is proposed to reduce technical risk for MSE by demonstrating on-sky the science capabilities of MSE’s primary subsystems and principal software platform while producing shared science data products for the community. It is envisioned as a scientific capability for timely spectroscopic follow-up on targets-of-opportunity (TOOs) detected by existing and upcoming high-profile facilities such as Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s LSST alerts for time domain and transient targets. The Pathfinder instrument is proposed to use moderate-resolution optical spectrographs fed by fibers from one of two systems: 1) a prime-focus MOS of ~1000 fibers; 2) a large-format IFU sharing the Cass Bonnette with VISION (a common feed for SPIRou and ESPaDOnS), enabling rapid switching between those three instruments.


Last but not least, mahalo to Kei Szeto who retired at the end of January. His contributions to the MSE project have been invaluable.


Mahalo,

Kei!

ngVLA Update


By Erik Rosolowsky (U Alberta)(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)


New Eyes on the Universe: Last Call!


Please join us May 1-5 in Vancouver, Canada for this meeting as we discuss and extend the cutting-edge science opportunities enabled by the unprecedented SKA-ngVLA coverage spanning three decades of frequency. We particularly encourage participation by early career scientists, who will be the major users of these observatories. April 7 is the deadline for in-person registrations, poster abstract submissions, and hotel reservations.


Progress Toward an ngVLA Prototype 18m Antenna


Following December’s successful preliminary design review, mtex antenna technology GmbH has begun manufacturing the ngVLA prototype 18m antenna. Most critical items are on order or have been received by mtex, and initial servo system integration tests have been performed. Currently mtex is finalizing the selection of bearings and gearboxes based on a common specification, as well as the selection of the surface treatment for the main reflector based on empirical tests of the thermal loading. Manufacturing files for the major steel assemblies are also being finalized. The ngVLA Antenna integrated product team is currently detailing the interface between the feed enclosure and the feed indexer and also preparing the infrastructure at the VLA Antenna Test Site to receive the new prototype. A manufacturing status review is planned for September, followed by an antenna factory inspection in November. If these go well, the prototype antenna will be transported to the VLA Antenna Test Site, arriving in January 2024. The prototype antenna will then undergo final assembly and extensive single-dish testing before being integrated into the current VLA for interferometric testing.


ngVLA Special Session: Chemical Probes of Astrophysical Systems


The NRAO and the ngVLA Project convened a Special Session titled “Chemical Probes of Astrophysical Systems” on January 11 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, WA. The session highlighted the ngVLA’s Key Science Goal 2: The Cosmic Origins of Life as well as presenting updates to the community about the ngVLA’s design and development. Eighteen presentations from the session are available here.

Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Update


By Kristine Spekkens (Canadian SKA Science Director) and the AACS(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)



In a press release on January 24th, 2023, the Honourable François Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced Canada’s intention to seek full membership in the SKA Observatory (SKAO) with NRC-Herzberg representing Canada in SKAO governance. This major announcement is consistent with our community’s recommendations for SKA participation in the Canadian Astronomy Long-Range Plan 2020-2030 (LRP2020), for which the Coalition for Canadian Astronomy advocated in meetings with government officials. Some additional information is available in the releases marking the government’s decision:


The steps necessary to complete the membership process are anticipated to take place in the coming months. CASCA members will be kept informed of this process and corresponding opportunities to participate as those details become available.

The SKA has been a high priority for the Canadian astronomical community for over two decades, and the efforts of many individuals over many years have made the government’s decision possible. Thank-you to everyone who contributed to this effort.


For more information, updates, and opportunities to get involved:


Dissertation: “Nearby galaxies: modelling star formation histories and contamination by unresolved background galaxies”


by Dr. Hadi Papei

Thesis defended on January 13, 2023

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western University

Thesis advisor: Prof. Pauline Barmby


Abstract

Galaxies are complex systems of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter which evolve over billions of years, and one of the main goals of astrophysics is to understand how these complex systems form and change. Measuring the star formation history of nearby galaxies, in which thousands of stars can be resolved individually, has provided us with a clear picture of their evolutionary history and the evolution of galaxies in general.


In this work, we have developed the first public Python package, SFHPy, to measure star formation histories of nearby galaxies using their colour-magnitude diagrams. In this algorithm, an observed colour-magnitude diagram is modelled as a linear combination of many simple stellar populations with different ages and metallicities. This package treats metallicity as a free parameter, and the uncertainties are estimated by bootstrapping. This algorithm was tested on two different simulated populations and successfully recovered the input parameters. We have also measured the star formation history of the galaxy IC 1613 and found that the measured star formation history agrees with previous measurements for this galaxy.

Observing fainter phases of stellar evolution plays an essential role in the accuracy and precision of star formation history measurements for nearby galaxies. However, fainter sources are more contaminated by unresolved background galaxies. In the second project, we investigated the contamination effect of background galaxies in star formation history measurements by simulating stellar populations of nearby galaxies and a population of unresolved background galaxies. We found that deeper photometry helps to reduce the contamination only for distance moduli larger than (m-M)=23 or 0.4 Mpc. Most of the contamination effect comes from galaxies less than 2 magnitudes brighter than the photometry limit, and the contamination affects the older stellar populations more than younger populations. We also showed that including a model of background galaxies in the fitting process can result in a more accurate and precise measured star formation history compared to removing the contaminated part of the colour-magnitude diagram.

In Memoriam: Terence Dickinson (1943 – 2023)


By Alan Dyer(Cassiopeia – Spring 2023)




Terence Dickinson, Canadian astronomer and author of numerous popular books on astronomy, passed away February 1, 2023 at age 79 after a long battle with Parkinson’s.


Described as Canada’s Carl Sagan, Terence Dickinson spent a lifetime promoting astronomy and Canadian research through many channels, including his books, newspaper columns, lectures, radio show spots, and TV appearances.


His interest in astronomy began when he was only five years old, when he saw a meteor streak across the sky. Terence’s professional career began in 1968 when he became a staff astronomer and teacher at the McLaughlin Planetarium of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. In 1970, he became assistant director of the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York.


Terence served as the editor of the then new ASTRONOMY magazine in 1974 and 1975. From 1995 until 2016, Terence edited and co-owned SkyNews, Canada’s magazine of stargazing. He is perhaps best known in the amateur astronomy world as the author of the NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing The Universe, a book that has helped tens of thousands of people get started in the hobby of amateur astronomy. It has been in print through several editions for forty years.


Terence also authored many other popular books, including The Universe and Beyond, Hubble’s Universe, and The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide, co-authored with Alan Dyer.


From 1981 until the mid-2000s, Terence wrote a weekly astronomy column for The Toronto Star newspaper, taking over the popular column from long-time author and Canadian astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg. Another of Terence’s regular platforms for promoting astronomy was television, through his frequent appearances in the late 1990s and early 2000s on Canada’s Discovery Channel. He was also a regular on CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks science show.


Among his numerous awards are the New York Academy of Sciences’ Children’s Book of the Year (1988), the Royal Canadian Institute’s Sandford Fleming Medal (1992), Industry Canada’s Michael Smith Award for Public Promotion of Science (1993), and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Klumpke-Roberts Award (1996). He was the recipient of honorary degrees from Trent University and Queen’s University. In 1995, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to public understanding of astronomy.


In 1994 asteroid #5272 was officially named Dickinson in his honor by the International Astronomical Union.


Terence Dickinson’s ability to explain the universe and simplify astronomical concepts in ways easily understood by the average reader has gained him a huge international audience. Many thousands of people have developed an interest in astronomy and the wonders of the universe because of his work.


His love for astronomy was infectious, as anyone who attended one of his wonderful lectures will attest. He once said, “I want to do what I’m doing for as long as I can. There’s just so much more to know and see, and I’m still excited as a kid about new discoveries. I’ll never run out of things to write about – I’ll just run out of time.”

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