Clear skies and cold temperatures greeted 18 visitors (10 children and 8 adults) from the 37th London Cub Pack to the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars, Thursday, February 21st, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Allison Hill made the digital slide presentation, “The Scout / Guide Astronomy Badge,” and then brought everybody upstairs into the dome.
RASC London Centre members Everett Clark and Bob Duff assisted with Everett making ready the big 25.4cm refractor (32mm Erfle eyepiece, 137X) and Bob setting up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X) on the Observatory’s roof patio. Allison showed the visitors good views of Jupiter, the Moon and the Pleiades (M45) star cluster in the big 25.4cm refractor. Bob showed them the Moon, the Orion Nebula (M42), Jupiter and the Pleiades (M45) star cluster in the 25.4cm Dobsonian. Everett opened the “Starry Night” software on the computer in the dome and displayed Jupiter and the positions of its Galilean moons.
Bringing the group back downstairs, Allison distributed 5 “Star Finder” planispheres to the leaders. Everybody was gone by around 8:45 p.m. after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre