Technical Tour: Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory
SPECTACULAR DAY TOUR OF SOUTHWESTERN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND THE DOMINION RADIO ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY
IEEE APS/URSI 2015 is pleased to offer a special full day tour of southwestern British Columbia and the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory to a limited number of conference participants. This is an outstanding opportunity to see a broad cross section of the spectacular geographical and ecological regions that make southwestern British Columbia a very special place while visiting Canada's premier facility for Radio Astronomy. A tour guide will explain key aspects of the fascinating history, geography and ecology of the areas through which we are passing.
The tour will leave The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver on Saturday, July 18, at 07:00 precisely and proceed through the lush beauty of the Fraser Valley, then on to the Hope-Princeton Highway, including the site of the Hope Slide and Allison Pass. The tour will pass through Princeton, Keremeos and the Similkameen Valley before arriving at DRAO at noon.
After lunch at DRAO, participants will spend a few hours viewing the facilities that enabled the facility's many notable achievements, including the first very-long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations using the John Galt 26-metre antenna, wide-field high-resolution mapping of the Galactic Plane using the 7-element interferometer, and the development of digital correlators for the Very Large Array (VLA), the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), and eMERLIN. Active development of antennas continue and includes a novel 15-metre offset Cassegrain reflector antenna for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), phased-array feeds (also for the SKA), and the CHIME cylindrical reflector telescope for cosmology.
At 15:00, the tour will proceed north into the Okanagan Valley, past Penticton and along the west shore of Okanagan Lake. Before we reach Kelowna, we’ll turn west and take Highway 97C and traverse the Interior Plateau to Merritt before turning south onto the Coquihalla Highway and heading back to Hope. From there, it's a short 1h45m ride back to the hotel, arriving by 21:00.
PLEASE SIGN UP EARLY. THE TOUR IS BEING OFFERED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS
Register for this tour as part of your conference registration.
| Date: | Saturday, July 18 |
| Time: | Bus departs at 07:00 promptly. Expected return by 21:00 that evening. |
| Transportation: | Group transport by bus provided as part of fee. |
| Meals: | Lunch and light dinner (sandwiches), plus snacks and water provided as part of fee. |
| Fee: | US$99 per person |
