2005 marks an exciting and successful year for the Ottawa Centre with several positive changes in Council and appointed positions. This changing over of 'new blood' is vital for the well being of the Centre with new and creative ideas and dynamics coming together.

The Ottawa Centre is proud to have one of the highest memberships in the country. Our membership remains stable with 386 regular members, 14 youth members and 42 lifetime members, for a total of 442. We also have the highest turnout at our monthly meetings, with attendance frequently exceeding 150. The Ottawa Centre is also known for having a high concentration of advanced amateur astronomers.

There has been an explosion of supernova discoveries made this year by Ottawa Centre members belonging to the Puckett Supernova Search international team. This year, Doug George co-discovered SN 2005M in January, this supernova discovery triggered the Hubble Supernova Observing Program! Doug also co-discovered SN 2005ax in March and SN 2005gk in October, Lou Cox co-discovered SN 2005bh in April, Ajai Segal co-discovered SN 2005cy in July and SN 2005dy in September, both images were taken on Canadian soil in Osoyoos, B.C. Jenn Tigner (junior member) co-discovered SN 2005de in August and 2005kx in November, and Peter Ceravolo co-discovered SN 2005gl in October. Congratulations to all of you! All discoveries are co-discovered as Tim Puckett gets credit for taking the images and is the team leader.

Our popular Centre meetings are held on the first Friday of each month at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The new Meeting Chair, Chuck O'Dale, brings an exciting change to the format with an invited guest speaker each month as well as short talks by members in the first half of the evening. Chuck begins each meeting with a presentation of impressive astrophotos submitted by Ottawa members including Albert Saikaley, Rick Wagner, Rolf Meier, Mike Zeidler, Doug Luoma and Mike Wirths to name just a few. The Ottawa Centre has seen interesting talks from Paul Harrison (Small Satellite Attitude Control), Yuri Amelin (Precise Dating of Meteorites), Dan Falk (Universe on a T-Shirt), Maurice Lamantagne (Charlevoix Impact Structure), Michael Dence (Formation of Impact Craters), Simon Hanmer (Three Rocky Planets), Peter Jedicke, RASC National President, (Gemini Observatory), Alex Brett (Cold Dark Matter), Martine Simard-Normandin (My Father-RASC National President), Neil Rowlands (James Webb Space Telescope), Richard Ernst (Geology of Venus) and David Shiga (Two Dark Matter Mysteries).

The highlight meeting of each year is the Annual Dinner. This year, we were privileged to hear Dr. David Sinclair, describe his work with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Guests again left with a bounty of door prizes, thanks in particular to donations by Focus Scientific, Diffraction Limited, Imaginova, Sky Publishing, Ron St. Martin and the Ottawa Centre.

Another highlight of 2005 is the ongoing organization of the 2006 GA in Ottawa next May. The General Assembly will take place on Victoria Day weekend at Carleton University and promises to be great. With a strong core group of volunteers, much has been done and things are falling into place. The speaker program promises to be the GA 2006's most remarkable feature with no less than 18 prominent speakers and including a discussion forum on the future of amateur and professional astronomy. Day tours have been scheduled for spouses and companions to the National Art Gallery, a bus tour of Ottawa with lots to see including the famous tulip festival in full swing, a trip to the Museum of Civilization and a viewing of the IMAX film, Magnificent Desolation-Walking on the Moon. Also planned is a tour of the David Florida Lab Satellite testing facility along with the Ottawa Centre's SMARTscope. This GA will be a special opportunity for the Ottawa Centre to celebrate its 100th anniversary with members from across the country. A Centennial logo has been designed and t-shirts, golf shirts, mugs and pins are being investigated for promotional items.

Astronomy Day this year was in collaboration with the Canada Museum of Science and Technology and the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Dominion Observatory and the 15 inch refractor which was used by Ottawa members nearly 100 years ago. The telescope is now housed on the grounds of the museum in the Helen Sawyer Hogg Observatory.

The Centre's Fred Lossing Observatory, managed by Al Seaman, continues to be well used by members, with a total of 30 "keyholders", who have full access to observatory equipment. In addition, numerous other members use FLO as a dark site to set up their own equipment. Aside from the usual routine maintenance, this year we completed a major site cleanup with the disposal of two surplus, and deteriorating, observatory domes, a pair of large radio telescope antennas, and a damaged storage shed. The RA drive on the 16 inch telescope was also given a complete overhaul after many years of service.

The SmartScope project is beginning to see the light. New project leader Doug George is ensuring that all the integrated systems are working well before taking it to the next phase of making the remote observatory accessible to the members and ultimately to the public. The Ottawa Centre is looking forward to showing off the SMARTscope with tours during the GA 2006.

The Centre's Ted Bean Telescope Loan Library now has a new 10 inch Colter dobsonian telescope donated by Ron Clough of Kanata. A very nice addition for members use.

In the awards department, member Paul Sheppard Jr. received the Messier Certificate, Rick Wagner won the Observer of the Year Award presented at the annual dinner, and the Astronote article of the year award goes to (it's a surprise!)

Finally, it is with sadness to announce the passing of two members of the Ottawa Centre. W. F. Campbell, a life member passed away on July 01, 2005, and Robin Molson, a member of the RASC since 1970 who had served on the Ottawa Centre Council as Councillor and Secretary died on August 26th, 2005. Robin also took care of circulation of the Centre's newsletter Astronotes for 22 years up until his death.