Cloudy skies greeted 14 visitors (11 children and 3 adults) from the 3rd London Guides for Exploring the Stars at the Cronyn Observatory, Wednesday, April 17th, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Allison Hill made the digital slide presentation “The Scout / Guide Astronomy Badge.” She then distributed 14 “Star Finder” plansipheres to the group and showed them how to assemble and use them.
Bringing the group upstairs around 7:50 p.m. Allison demonstrated the big 25.4cm refractor but did not open the dome since rain seemed imminent. Everett Clark, Rob McNeil and Bob Duff represented the RASC London Centre. Bob showed them the weathervane on the Engineering building through the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X) set up on the roof patio outside the dome. Allison took the group back downstairs into the lecture room for a question and answer session on astronomy.
Allison brought the group upstairs into the dome for the second time at 8:35 p.m. and Everett set up the 25.4cm Dobsonian just inside the door leading out to the roof patio and directed it towards the lights on the communications tower in south London. Since the 8 X 50mm finderscope made the Dobsonian slightly unbalanced, Everett placed a chair with the dust cover from the big 25.4cm refractor on it to support the front of the Dobsonian optical tube. Bob supervised visitors as they viewed the communications tower through the Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X).
The visitors were gone by 8:50 p.m. and it had begun to rain. They were thankful for an enjoyable evening of learning about astronomy despite the cloudy skies.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre