Clear but increasingly hazy skies greeted 15 visitors (10 youth and 5 adults) from the 2nd London Scout Troop for Exploring the Stars at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Wednesday, March 25th, 2015, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Dilini Subasinghe made the digital slide presentation “The Scout / Guide Astronomy Badge” and fielded questions. Dilini followed this with the “Constellations” activity, distributing 15 “Star Finder” planispheres and showing the Scouts how to assemble and use them. She showed several PowerPoint constellation slides as well as the slide “Reading a Star Finder”.
RASC London Centre was represented by Bob Duff and Tricia Colvin. Bob directed the big 25.4cm refractor (32mm Erfle eyepiece, 137X) in the dome towards the 2-day-prior-to-first quarter crescent Moon. Tricia set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian on the roof patio outside the dome and located Jupiter in the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X) field of view.
Everybody was upstairs in the dome by 8:00 p.m. and Bob gave a talk about the history of the Cronyn Observatory and technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor. Bob also explained the Standard and Sidereal Time clocks on the east wall. Dilini and Bob showed the Scouts the Moon through the big 25.4cm refractor (137X). Tricia showed them Jupiter, Venus and the Moon through the 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X). Increasingly hazy skies made observing difficult, with Jupiter and Venus nearly invisible to the unaided eye and lunar craters difficult to distinguish in the telescopes’ field of view. The visitors were gone from the dome by around 8:36 p.m. after expressing their thanks for a very enjoyable evening of astronomy despite the hazy skies.