shotgun TSTM

François was a no-show. He was supposed to deliver The Sky This Month presentation tonight. No phone calls, no emails. We were hung out to dry. So Paul asked him if I'd step in. Yikes!

I borrowed Shawn's RASC Observer's Handbook and quickly scoured it. And I checked my online Google Calendar for interesting astro events.

• Apr 12 - celebration of human space flight, Yuri in 1961, the shuttle Columbia in '81
• Apr 16 - Lyrid meteor shower starts, continues to 25th, during the peak up to 18 per hour
• Apr 17 - Lunar X opportunity at twilight (if you like the Moon); Orbital's Antares rocket launch test
• Apr 19 - eta Aquarid meteors start, to May 28, up to 65 per hour
• Apr 20 - International Astronomy Day
• Apr 22 - Earth Day; also, the anniversary of the first Canadian astronaut space walk
• Apr 28 - Saturn, at opposition, nearest to the Earth
• May 8 - RASC recreational astronomy night meeting
• generally, it's a good time to view all the galaxies in the Coma, Virgo, and Leo area!

I looked for events to next RASC RAN meeting. When the next TSTM was scheduled. I asked who was presenting that. Paul said, "You!" Gah! Me again!

Happy to help our members. But mildly stressful...

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We heard from François. There was a significant security breach at his work so he was entangled.