Clear skies greeted the 3rd St. Thomas Brownies at the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars on Tuesday, November 27th, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Emily McCullough made the digital slide presentation “Brownies Exploring Space.” RASC London Centre member Everett Clark assisted and was joined later by Bob Duff, around 8:10 p.m., when everybody was in the dome. Everett counted 43 visitors (24 children and 19 adults) at the beginning of the evening and the final total was 47 visitors (26 children and 21 adults). Following her digital slide presentation, Emily distributed 47 “Star Finder” planispheres and showed everybody how to assemble and use them. Emily then gave them a green laser sky tour outside in front of the Cronyn Observatory, showing them Polaris, Cygnus, Jupiter and the Moon.
Emily brought everybody upstairs into the dome and Everett showed them the Moon and later Jupiter in the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 32mm Erfle (137X) eyepiece. The nearly full Moon was dazzlingly bright and Jupiter was most impressive. On the Observatory’s roof patio, Emily showed a long line-up of Brownies and their leaders and parents Jupiter in the 25.4cm Dobsonian, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X). Most everybody was gone by around 8:45 p.m., after expressing their thanks for a very enjoyable evening of astronomy.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre