Cloudy skies with rain showers greeted 26 visitors (including 3 children) from Best Buddies at King’s University College for Exploring the Stars at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016, 6:00—8:00 p.m. Graduate student Robin Arnason made the digital slide presentation “Constellations” and fielded questions. Robin followed this with the activity “Kitchen Comet,” inviting everybody to the table set up at the front of the lecture room where he made a comet from dry ice and other materials.
RASC London Centre was represented by Everett Clark and Bob Duff, who arrived later around 7:15 p.m. Everett set up the observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain (26mm Plossl eyepiece, 77X) inside the dome and directed it through the door to the roof patio so as to view the lights on the communications tower in south London. Robin gave a talk about the big 25.4cm refractor in the dome, which remained closed due to rain.
When the group returned back downstairs Robin went to his laptop computer, connected to the digital slide projector, and opened the history page from the Cronyn Observatory Website and Bob Duff gave a talk about the history of the Cronyn Observatory and some of the technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor. Bob described the Schmidt Camera and Cassegrain reflector telescope piggy-backed on the 25.4cm refractor and Robin scrolled the history page down to show the 25.4cm refractor with the piggy-backed Schmidt Camera and Cassegrain reflector. Bob also explained the 2 clocks on the east wall of the dome and the difference between Standard and Sidereal Time.
The group left around 8:00 p.m. after an interesting and enjoyable evening learning about astronomy and telescopes.