Graduate student Tyler Desjardins made his digital slide presentation, “The Search for Life in the Universe,” before 12 visitors (later increasing to 15 in the dome) from the Space Society of London, at the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars, Thursday, November 15th, 7:00 p.m.
Bringing the group upstairs into the dome, Tyler showed them Jupiter through the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X). On the Observatory’s roof patio, RASC London Centre members Everett Clark and Bob Duff set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian and the Observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain. Bob showed them the yellow and blue double star Albireo and later the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), with its companion galaxy M32 in the same field of view, in the 25.4cm Dobsonian, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X). Bob also showed them Jupiter through the Schmidt-Cassegrain using the 12.5mm Ortho eyepiece (160X). The sky was clear and hazy.
An attempt was made to locate the Double Cluster in Perseus in the big 25.4cm refractor, using celestial coordinates and the telescope’s setting circles without success. Bob used the Observatory’s binoculars and Everett’s green laser pointer to help direct the 25.4cm refractor towards the Double Cluster but this also was unsuccessful.
Everybody from the Space Society of London was very appreciative of Tyler’s slide presentation and the evening under the stars and they were gone by around 9:00 p.m.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre