Cloudy skies with some light rain greeted 37 visitors (32 children, 1 staff member and 4 helpers) from the Boys & Girls Club of London for Solar Observing at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Thursday, August 16th, 2018, scheduled 1:30—3:30 p.m. They arrived at 2:00 p.m. and graduate student Viraja Khatu presented the digital slide presentation “Our Star – The Sun” and fielded questions. Viraja then divided the children into 2 groups with one half going upstairs into the dome and the other accompanying her downstairs for the “Spectroscopy Demo” in the “Black Room.” The 2 groups later changed places.
Downstairs in the “Black Room” Viraja explained the 3 photographs on the wall and gave 2 demonstrations—one to each group—of the “Spectroscopy Demonstration,” with the visitors putting on diffraction grating glasses to view the spectra of 4 gas discharge lamps, including hydrogen, helium, neon and mercury.
London Centre was represented by Heather MacIsaac and Paul Kerans. Cloudy skies and rain ruled out solar observing and the dome remained closed. Heather gave 2 talks, one to each group, on some of the technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor. She rotated the dome to show how it worked and explained the 2 clocks on the east wall and the difference between Standard and Sidereal Time.
The children were able to view the trees behind the Western Sports & Recreation Center through Heather’s Celestron NexStar 90SLT 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain (17mm Plossl eyepiece, 73.5X) set up inside the dome to view out the door. Paul also set up the observatory’s 90mm Coronado H-Alpha Solar Telescope on display inside the dome. The visitors were gone by 3:30 p.m. after an interesting afternoon learning about the Sun, spectroscopy, telescopes and astronomy.