Clear skies greeted 6 medical students from Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry for a Special Event at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Thursday, March 12th, 2015, 9:00—10:00 p.m. (This was following the Exploring the Stars event, 7:00—9:00 p.m.)
There was no digital slide presentation for the medical students and graduate student Parshati Patel hosted the observing session. RASC London Centre was represented by Mark Tovey, Tricia Colvin and Bob Duff. (London Centre member Everett Clark, having assisted with Exploring the Stars earlier in the evening, headed home.) Parshati and Bob operated the big 25.4cm refractor (Radian eyepiece, 244X) in the dome and showed the visitors Jupiter and the double-stars Castor (in Gemini) and Algieba (in Leo). On the roof patio outside the dome, Tricia and Mark showed them the Pleiades (M45) star cluster in the Observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade 2080/LX3 Schmidt-Cassegrain (26mm Plossl eyepiece, 77X); and Jupiter, the Orion Nebula (M42), Betelgeuse, the Pleiades (M45), Aldebaran and Sirius in the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X). The medical students were gone by around 10:00 p.m. after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy under clear skies.