2004 was yet another busy and successful year for the Ottawa Centre. Our membership remains stable with 412 regular members, 13 youth members and 41 lifetime members, for a total of 466.

Our popular monthly meetings are held at the Canada Science and Technology Museum with Mike Earl continuing as Chair until his term expires at the end of 2004. Mike starts with a presentation of new astrophotos taken by members during the last month. This show has grown enormously in quantity and quality. Members are in awe each meeting seeing the newest deep sky images by Albert Saikaley and Bob Olson, the latest planetary shots by Rolf Meier, solar images by Mike Zeidler, and lunar images by Mike Wirths and Doug Luoma, to name just a few. Mike Earl and Jenn Tigner were also regular contributors. Of course, the largest number of members' images was generated by the transit of Venus and the lunar eclipse. We have continued with our normal format of four to six members giving talks in their area of expertise. Chuck O'Dale has continued his series on meteorite craters and added talks on Mars geological features, while Roland Prevost continues his "Beginners' Corner". Carmen Rush presented a series on the history of Venus transit observations. Brian McCullough started a new series titled the Ten Minute Moon, covering observing techniques and sketching of lunar features. Paul Comision's "Cutting Edge of Astronomy" series will sadly come to an end in December as Paul wishes to retire from the post after only 15 years. One change this year was a guest speaker, Tom Harris, who talked for one hour on the future of space exploration in the 21st century.

The highlight meeting of each year is the Annual Dinner. This year, we were privileged to hear Canadian astronomer, Dr. Jaymie Matthews, describe his work as the science leader for Canada's humble space telescope, called M.O.S.T. Dr. Matthews described the design, manufacturing and launch of the telescope, followed by the scientific work and surprising new results. Guests again left with a bounty of door prizes, thanks in particular to large donations by Focus Scientific, Main Sequence Software, Starry Night, Sky & Telescope and the Ottawa Centre.

Another highlight was the announcement at the 2004 GA that Ottawa has been selected to host the 2006 GA. This will be a special opportunity for Ottawa to celebrate its 100th anniversary with members from across the country. A large contingent of Ottawa members visited St. Johns to observe more carefully how a GA is run.

Public outreach and education remains an important part of the Ottawa Centre. Debra Tigner again organized numerous public star parties at nearby Pinhey's Point and the Canada Museum of Science and Technology. The best event had a big crowd, and local media at the Museum for the transit of Venus. The museum's 15" refractor was outfitted for the first time with a solar filter and SmartScope was operated remotely and displayed on a laptop. This year, we held a successful Astronomy Day at a local Chapters store. Visitors outdoors viewed the moon, sun and even Venus naked eye during the day, then continued observing into the evening. Indoors, shoppers were treated to astronomy displays and crafts.

The Centre's Fred Lossing Observatory, managed by Al Seaman, continues to be well used by members. The Centre was fortunate to receive a donation of a 13" dobsonian reflector that is stored at FLO for members to use.

The SmartScope project is advancing. Part of the year was lost to retrofitting the 16" SCT to fix the classic SCT problem of mirror flop. A special clamp was designed and fabricated to fix the mirror in place so that it cannot move. The procedure was handled by Paul Boltwood, Al Seaman and Tim Cole with great results. The year will end with regular December meeting, when SmartScope will be operated remotely, displayed on the Museum's large screen, and used to image members' requests (weather in December permitting). If clouds persist, recent images taken with SmartScope will be shown instead.

The Centre's monthly newsletter, AstroNotes, is now successfully produced in two formats - the original B&W paper format that is mailed to members, and new coloured electronic format. There has been quick acceptance of the new format which reduces printing and mailing costs for the Centre at the same time as delivering a better product to the members.

In the awards department, the Centre was thrilled to see the 40 years of work by Art and Anne Fraser recognised. The national RASC presented a Service Award to Art and the Ottawa Centre added its recognition to Anne. Art has been a Councillor, Recorder, active builder of the Centre's observatory, and membership coordinator. Together, they have provided hospitality for 25 years at the monthly meetings. This year's "Observer of the Year" award went to Pat Browne, who submitted her extensive logbook with numerous and methodical written notes and sketches of her observations. A Finest NGC observing certificate was awarded to Geoff Meek, a Messier certificate to Chris Teron, and the first Explore the Universe certificate to an Ottawa member went to Robert Lavoie.