Clear skies greeted visitors to Western University’s Cronyn Observatory Public Night, Saturday, 4th October, 2014, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Dilini Subasinghe made her digital slide presentation "Jupiter". The talk finished at 7:30 p.m. and was attended by 26 adults and 7 children.
The Public Night as a whole was attended by 50 visitors, as counted by RASC London member Peter Jedicke and graduate student Dilini Subasinghe. RASC London Centre was represented by Dale Armstrong, Tricia Colvin, Peter Jedicke, and Mark Tovey.
Graduate student Emily McCulloch was telescope operator for the 25.4cm refractor in the dome, showing visitors the 3-day-past first quarter gibbous Moon, using the 52mm Erfle (84X) and 12.5mm Ortho (351X) eyepieces, and Mars, using the 18mm Radian eyepiece (244X), and then returning to the Moon, using the 18mm Radian (244X) and 12.5mm Ortho (351X) eyepieces.
On the roof patio outside the dome Dale Armstrong operated the Observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade 2080/LX3 Schmidt-Cassegrain, showing people the Moon, Mars, and the double star Gamma Andromedae using the 15mm Sky-Watcher UltraWide eyepiece (133X). Tricia Colvin operated the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian, showing visitors the Moon and the double star Albireo, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X). The visitors were gone by around 9:00 p.m. after a very informative and enjoyable evening of astronomy.
Report by Mark Tovey, Edited by Robert Duff