Cloudy skies greeted 12 visitors (9 children and 3 adults) from the 2nd Thamesford Brownies to the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars, Wednesday, February 27th, 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Graduate student Allison Hill already had them complete a solar system drawing activity and had begun her digital slide presentation, “Brownies Exploring Space” when RASC London Centre member Bob Duff arrived around 6:40 p.m. Around 7:15 p.m., with the presentation and questions finished, Allison introduced the “Telescope Kits” activity in which the children assembled small telescopes made with cardboard tubes and lenses.
Bringing the group upstairs into the dome, Allison showed them the lights on the communications tower in south London, through the big 25.4cm refractor (using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece, 137X). Bob showed them the weathervane on the roof of the Engineering building through the RASC London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian telescope (using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X), set up on the Observatory’s roof patio.
Bringing the group back downstairs, Allison distributed "IYA 2009" cards, including 3 to each of the 9 children and one to each of the 3 adults, for a total of 30 cards in all. Each card had a picture of a planet or other celestial object. Everybody was gone by around 8:15 p.m. and the Observatory was closed down by 8:30 p.m.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre