Partly cloudy skies greeted 246 visitors to Western University’s Cronyn Observatory Summer Public Night, Saturday, July 28th, 2018, 8:30 p.m. Professor Sarah Gallagher made 2 presentations of her digital slide presentation“How to Ruin a Beautiful Machine: Radiation Damage in the Early Days of the Chandra X-ray Observatory,” first at 8:30 p.m. and the second time at 9:25 p.m. Graduate student Collin Knight was in charge of “crowd control” and counted 246 visitors for the evening.
Graduate student Hadi Papei was telescope operator for the big 25.4cm refractor in the dome and showed visitors Venus, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (258X), the one-day-past-full waning gibbous Moon, using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X), and Mars, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (258X). RASC London Centre was represented by Everett Clark, Henry Leparskas, Paul Kerans, Heather MacIsaac, Dale Armstrong, Peter Jedicke, Steve Imrie, Frank Sowa, Norm McCall, Mike Roffey, Mark Tovey and Edith Tovey, and youth member Jacob Renders.
There were 5 amateur telescopes set up for the evening, including 4 telescopes on the observation deck and one on the sidewalk on the south side of the observatory. On the observation deck, Dale Armstrong operated the observatory’s Meade 8-inch (20.3cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain showing visitors Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, using the Sky-Watcher 15mm UltraWide eyepiece together with the CEMAX 2X Barlow lens (266X). (The CEMAX 2X Barlow lens was from the observatory’s 90mm Coronado H-Alpha Solar Telescope.) Dale later showed them the Moon through the 20.3cm Schmidt-Cassegrain, using the 26mm Plossl eyepiece (77X). Steve Imrie and Paul Kerans operated the London Centre’s home-built 30.5cm Dobsonian (Meade 28mm Super Wide Angle eyepiece, 54X) showing visitors Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Heather MacIsaac set up her Celestron NexStar 90SLT 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain, showing visitors Jupiter and Saturn (13mm Vixen Lanthanum LVW eyepiece, 96X) and the Moon (22mm Vixen Lanthanum LVW eyepiece, 57X). Frank Sowa set up his Meade 10-inch (25.4cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain on a Celestron AVX mount and, together with Norm McCall, showed visitors Jupiter, using a 40mm eyepiece (62.5X).
Paul Kerans installed the Rigel QuikFinder on the 30.5cm Dobsonian and checked the telescope’s collimation, which was good. Paul also helped Jacob Renders and Mike Roffey set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian (18mm Radian eyepiece, 62X) on the sidewalk on the south side of the observatory—to handle the overflow crowd. Jacob and Mike showed visitors Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and the yellow and blue double star Albireo.
There was an International Space Station (ISS) pass predicted (9:50—9:55 p.m.) travelling northwest to northeast, reaching a maximum altitude of 18 degrees above the northern horizon—too low to be visible from the observation deck. (See: ISS – Visible Passes for London, Ontario, on Heavens Above: http://www.heavens-above.com/ )
Downstairs in the “Black Room” Henry Leparskas did the the “Transit Demonstration,” with the “Transit Demo” model, showing how the transit detection method worked for finding extra-solar planets, and 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. Henry also helped Mark Tovey with tours of the historic “1940s Period Room.”
Mark Tovey and Edith Tovey showed visitors the “1940s Period Room,” a recreation of Dr. H. R. Kingston’s 1940 office, with his brass refractor and the Sotellunium—a mechanical eclipse demonstration model built by W. G. Colgrove—on display; and the “1967 Period Room,” recreating the early control room of the Elginfield Observatory to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation—Canada 150. The “W. G. Colgrove Workshop Period Room” was also open for visitors’ inspection. The 3 “Period Rooms” were designed by RASC London Centre member Mark Tovey.
Peter Jedicke gave 3 telescope talks in the dome throughout the evening. The sky clouded over by around 10:10 p.m. just as Mars was rising above the trees to the southeast. The observatory was closed down around 10:30 p.m. after an enjoyable evening of astronomy.