Partly cloudy skies greeted 45 visitors (including about 25 children and 20 adults) from the Jean Vanier Catholic School Grade-6 class to the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars, Wednesday, October 16th, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Parshati Patel presented the digital slide show “Our Solar System” and then fielded some thoughtful questions from the audience.
Following the slide presentation, graduate student Tony Martinez showed the visitors the gibbous Moon through the big 25.4cm refractor in the dome, using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X). RASC London Centre was represented by Everett Clark and Bob Duff. Everett set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian on the roof patio and assisted Tony in the dome. Bob showed visitors the Moon through the 25.4cm Dobsonian, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X). Clouds eventually moved in and obscured the Moon. The big 25.4cm refractor was then directed towards the communications tower in south London for perhaps a dozen visitors to view.
Several people inquired about public nights and Bob gave one lady teacher a RASC London Centre brochure and described the Centre’s outreach activities with star nights. The visitors were gone by 8:35 p.m. and the Observatory was shut down around 8:50 p.m., after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy.