A partly cloudy sky greeted 22 visitors, including 10 children and 12 adults, from the 26th Scouting Group to the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars, Thursday, October 18th, 7:00 p.m. Bringing the group immediately upstairs into the dome, graduate students Emily McCullough and Allison Hill showed them the crescent Moon through the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 28mm Meade Super Wide Angle eyepiece (157X). They then took the group back downstairs and Emily made her digital slide presentation for “The Cub Badge.” Returning to the dome after the presentation, Allison directed the 25.4cm refractor towards Epsilon Lyrae and then M13, showing the visitors good views with the 32mm Erfle (137X) eyepieces.
RASC London Centre members Everett Clark and Bob Duff set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian and the Observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain on the Observatory’s roof patio. Bob and Everett showed them the Moon, Albireo and Vega through the 25.4cm Dobsonian, using the 17mm Nagler (66X) eyepiece. Hazy clouds made Albireo difficult to locate with the Schmidt Cassegrain. Epsilon Lyrae was easier to find near the bright star Vega, using the 26mm Plossl eyepiece (77X). Bob showed the visitors Epsilon Lyrae through the Schmidt-Cassegrain, using the 12.5mm Ortho eyepiece (160X). The communications tower in south London was also viewed through the Schmidt-Cassegrain.
Emily took the group outside in front of the Engineering building and used Bob’s laser pointer to show them the Big Dipper, only partly visible through the clouds, and the North Star, Polaris. The group was gone by around 8:35 p.m. after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre