The sky was cloudy with occasional light rain as graduate student Tony Martinez began the digital slide presentation “The Life and Times of Stars” before 5 student visitors from Huron University College on Tuesday, October 14th, 2014, 6:37 p.m.
RASC London Centre was represented by Everett Clark, Tricia Colvin, Bob Duff and Mark Tovey. Bob gave a talk about the history and technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor in the dome and explained the Standard and Sidereal Time clocks on the east wall. Since rain ruled out opening the dome, Everett, Tricia and Mark set up the Observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade 2080/LX3 Schmidt-Cassegrain and London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian telescope inside dome. The visitors were able to view the TV screen visible through the Western Student Recreation Centre windows in the 20.3cm Schmidt-Cassegrain (12.5mm Ortho eyepiece, 160X) and wind turbine on the Engineering building through the 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X).
Tony distributed 5 “Star Finder” planispheres downstairs in the lecture room and showed the visitors how to assemble and use them. It was an enjoyable evening of astronomy despite the cloudy sky and rain and the visitors were gone by around 8:00 p.m.