Light falling snow greeted 26 visitors (16 children and 10 adults) from the 53rd Girl Guides for Exploring the Stars at the Cronyn Observatory, Monday, November 25th, 2013, 6:30 p.m. Graduate student Dilini Subasinghe made the digital slide presentation “The Scout / Guide Astronomy Badge.” She explained 25 “Star Finder” planispheres distributed to the group.
After the slide talk Dilini brought everybody upstairs into the dome where Bob Duff introduced himself and Everett Clark as representing the RASC London Centre. Bob gave a talk on the history and technical aspects of the Cronyn Observatory and the 25.4cm refractor. He explained the 2 clocks on the east wall and the difference between standard and sidereal time. He briefly explained the difference between a refractor and reflector telescope and invited them to view the spinning weathervane on the Engineering building through the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian, with 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X), which Everett had set up and directed out the dome door to the roof patio. Everybody was gone by 8:00 p.m. after an interesting and enjoyable evening of astronomy despite the weather.