Graduate student Tyler Desjardins began his slide presentation, “The X-Ray Universe,” before 3 members of the Space Society of London (SS0L) at the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars, Thursday, March 14th, 2013, 7:00 p.m. They were joined later in the evening by another member for a total of 4 visitors for the evening after everybody had gone upstairs into the dome.
It was a clear night and RASC London Centre member Everett Clark arrived early, setting up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian on the roof patio and making ready the 25.4cm refractor in the dome. Everett showed the visitors the 3-day-old crescent Moon in the 25.4cm refractor using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X). Tyler then showed them Jupiter and the Orion Nebula (M42). He used the Nebula filter to enhance contrast on the Orion Nebula. There was some discussion of Comet PanSTARRS, which was too low in the western sky to be seen from the Cronyn Observatory.
On the roof patio outside the dome, RASC London Centre member Bob Duff used the 25.4cm Dobsonian to show visitors the Moon and Jupiter, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X) and, later, the 12.5mm Ortho eyepiece (89X). He showed them the double star Castor in the 25.4cm Dobsonian, nicely resolved using the 12.5mm Ortho eyepiece (89X). He also showed them the Orion Nebula in the 25.4cm Dobsonian, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X) without the Nebula filter, allowing the Trapezium stars to be more clearly visible.
The visitors left shortly after 9:00 p.m. after some discussion in the lecture room. Everybody was appreciative of enjoyable evening of astronomy under clear skies.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre