Clear skies greeted 6 visitors from Western University Science Students’ Council for Exploring the Stars at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Wednesday, October 14th, 2015, 6:30 p.m. Graduate student Tony Martinez made the digital slide presentation “Extra Solar Planets” and followed this with the “Constellations” activity, distributing 6 “Star Finder” planispheres and showing the visitors how to assemble and use them.
Graduate student Kendra Kellogg was in the dome and was joined by Tony who operated the 25.4cm refractor for the evening. RASC London Centre was represented by Paul Kerans and Bob Duff. When everybody arrived upstairs in the dome Bob gave a talk about the history of the Cronyn Observatory and technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor. Tony showed the visitors the Ring Nebula (M57) and the yellow and blue double star Albireo in the 25.4cm refractor (52mm Erfle eyepiece, 84X). Paul operated the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X) and showed the visitors globular cluster M13 and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Paul also showed them the Owl Cluster (NGC457). The visitors were gone by around 8:15 p.m. after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy.