There are approximately 6000 stars in the night sky that can be seen with the naked eye.

The magnitude of stars refers to a system of classifying stars according to their brightness. It is a scale that runs from negative (brightest) to positive (faintest) values.

Stars of the first magnitude are relatively bright objects in the night sky while the naked eye cannot generally detect stars fainter than around sixth magnitude.

The brightest star in the night sky, Sirius in the constellation Canis Major, has a magnitude of -1.5.

Our galaxy, known as the Milky Way, is a giant spiral disk about
90 000 light years in diameter, containing several hundred billion stars.

The oldest stars in the Milky Way are thought to be some 12-15 billion years old.

The position of the planets in the sky varies throughout the year as they follow their individual orbits around the Sun.

Periodically you can observe what is known as a planetary conjunction when two or more planets align in the night sky. This is particularly striking when the conjunction includes the Moon.

NRC helped develop the Canadarm as well as a special Space Vision System, which assists astronauts in guiding the arm with pinpoint accuracy.

NRC hired Canada's first astronaut Marc Garneau.

In its excited states, oxygen is responsible for the red and yellow-green colours of the Northern Lights – The Aurora Borealis.

Jupiter's moon, Io, owes it colour to the various forms of sulfur present in its crust.