Graduate student Robin Wing began the digital slide show the Big Bang before an initial group of 55 visitors, later increasing to 64 (42 children and 22 adults) from the Princess Anne French Immersion School grade-9 class, Wednesday, March 21st, 7:00 p.m.
Robin brought the visitors into the dome around 8:00 p.m. where RASC London Centre member Dave McCarter showed them Venus, Mars and Betelgeuse through the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 28mm Meade Super Wide Angle eyepiece (157X). On the Observatory’s roof patio Phil Marusaik, with his 127mm Sky-Watcher Maksutov, Dan Tremblay, with his 80mm Stellarvue refractor, and Bob Duff, with the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian, showed visitors Venus, Jupiter, Mars and the Orion Nebula (M42).
Venus appeared as a small bright crescent in the 25.4cm Dobsonian, using the 17mm Nagler (67X), which later gave a good view of the Orion Nebula (M42). Good views of Venus and Mars were obtained in the 25.4cm Dobsonian using the 6mm Orthoscopic eyepiece (190.5X). Dan Tremblay also obtained pleasing views of M42 the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian with his 9mm Plossl eyepiece (127X).
Most everybody was gone by around 9:00—9:20 p.m. with a few people remaining behind to talk to Robin and the amateur astronomers. Everybody expressed their thanks and appreciation for a very enjoyable evening of the slide presentation and observing under very clear skies.