Graduate student Tyler Desjardins made his digital slide presentation, “The Scout / Guide Astronomy Badge”, before 17 visitors (14 children and 3 adults) from the 2nd London Scout Group, at the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars, Wednesday, November 28th, 7:00 p.m. He answered questions by the Scouts and their Leaders.
Bringing the group upstairs into the dome, Tyler showed them the Moon, and later Jupiter, through the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X). RASC London Centre members Everett Clark and Ryan Fraser set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian and Ryan’s 80mm Stellarvue refractor on its alt-azimuth Vixen Porta Mount. They were joined by Bob Duff who showed the Scouts Jupiter through the 25.4cm Dobsonian, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X). Everett worked with Tyler throughout the evening, directing the 25.4cm refractor towards the Moon and later Jupiter. Clouds passing overhead from west to east partly obscured Jupiter for a time.
Ryan showed them the Moon and Jupiter in his 80mm Stellarvue refractor, using his 25mm Plossl eyepiece (22.4X), and the Moon using 25mm Plossl together with his 2X Barlow lens (44.8X). With the Observatory’s 18mm Tele Vue Radian eyepiece (31X) together with his 2X Barlow lens (62X) he showed them the Moon and Jupiter in the same field of view. The Moon and Jupiter were very close together. Ryan noted that the Moon and Jupiter were nicely visible in the 25mm Plossl eyepiece (22.4X) in the same field of view so that the Scouts could see the relative size comparison. Everybody was gone by around 9:00 p.m., after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre