Clear skies greeted 35 visitors, including 32 adults, 2 children and one infant to the Cronyn Observatory International Students Tour, Monday, August 27th, 8:30—10:30 p.m. Graduate student Allison Hill and undergraduate student Neil Bhatt made their 20—30 minute digital slide presentation on the theme, “Mars and the Astronomy Program at Western.”
RASC London Centre members present included Bob Duff, Everett Clark, Peter Jedicke and Dale Armstrong. Bob, Everett and Dale set up the 25.4cm Dobsonian and 20.3cm (8-inch) Meade LX-3 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes on the Observatory’s roof patio. Peter gave a telescope talk in the dome and then invited visitors to enjoy an excellent view of the three-day-past-first quarter Moon through the big 25.4cm refractor, with the 28mm Meade Super Wide Angle eyepiece (157X).
Dale worked with the Schmidt-Cassegrain, showing visitors the double-star Izar (Epsilon Bootes), before moving on to the M13 and Albireo. Bob operated the 25.4cm Dobsonian, showing visitors the Moon and Albireo. Dale also located the double-star Almach (Gamma Andromeda) in the Dobsonian, later in the evening. Bob gave a brief sky tour of stars and constellations when a good crowd had formed on the patio following Peter’s telescope presentation in the dome.
Everybody left around 10:30 p.m. after an excellent evening of astronomy under clear skies with many thoughtful questions asked by visitors. The coordinator of the International Students Tour confirmed with me that he had counted 32 adults, 2 children and one infant for a total of 35 people; however, if we included only adults and children we had 34 visitors plus one infant.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre