Doug Welch, "Through the Eyes of Giants - Gemini, CFHT, and the Amateur Contest", Main Tent, Friday 1:30 p.m., is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and a founding member of the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers. At present, he is the Canadian Gemini Scientist and Acting Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies (Engineering & Science) at McMaster.

Canada is a partner in two of the world's great optical and infrared observatories: Gemini and CFHT. In autumn 2004, a contest was held for an hour of imaging on the 8m Gemini North telescope and the 3.6m CFHT with its wide-field imager Megaprime. In this talk, I will present the winning images and describe the proposers, the proposals, and the process by which the data was acquired and reduced. The latest discoveries and developments at these remarkable facilities will also be reported.