The March 20th meeting of the RASC Mississauga Centre will feature a talk on the Apollo 13 mission.
Talk Title: Apollo 13 - The Flight That Failed
Speaker: Randy Attwood
President - Mississauga Centre RASC
Abstract: Fifty years ago, the third mission was launched to land two people on the Moon. On the third day of the flight, a problem occurred which cancelled the plans for the lunar landing and instead, started a race to get the astronauts home alive. In this talk, the speaker will detail all the things which had to go right to save the Apollo 13 crew.
The original Apollo 13 crew
J. Randy Attwood
J. Randy Attwood is a resident of Mississauga and has been looking up at the night sky for nearly 50 years. He joined the The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 1970. He was President of the Toronto Centre 1982 – 1986, Society National President 1998 – 2000, the founder, a Past-President and Honorary President and currently President of the Mississauga Centre. He was the Society’s Executive Director and Publisher of SkyNews magazine from 2014 – 2019.
Media Experience
He has appeared on CTV, CBC, GLOBAL and the Discovery Channel to provide background information for space and astronomy related stories since 1981, has covered 12 space shuttle launches and landings as a journalist and as a Canadian Space Agency photographer. Between 1981 and 1994 he produced and hosted 63 astronomy cable television shows called Astronomy Toronto which are stored on the Society’s RASCANADA You Tube Channel.
Travel and Career
He has travelled to various places around the world to observe and photograph 12 total eclipses of the sun. He has written High School Astronomy text book units on astronomy and presented planetarium programming at schools. He is the President of The Earthshine Astronomy and Space Science Organization, a Mississauga based not for profit charity organization. Earthshine hopes to build and run a public astronomy facility in the Mississauga area. He is also on the Board of Directors of Space Place Canada – a non for profit charity whose objective is to build and run a large planetarium / astronomy/space exploration educational facility in the greater Toronto area.
Honors
- In 2005 he was awarded the RASC’S Service Award.
- in 2013 he was named as one of the first Fellows of the RASC.
- In 2012, Asteroid 260235 was renamed Asteroid Attwood in his honor.
The meeting will be held from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. at The University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus, in lecture hall SE2074 in the William Davis Building.
Park in parking deck P4 or P8, across from the Recreation and Wellness (Fitness) Centre south of the Davis Building. The parking rate is $2 per hour or $6 maximum.
Consider paying the maximum, which will allow you to park all night. If not, you should return to your vehicle before your time expires to avoid being ticketed.
Enter the Davis Building through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs until you reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator, follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the main floor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room.
Enter off of Mississauga Road. Pay and display parking available in lots P4 and P8. Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room. Directions
