A clear sky with some hazy clouds greeted 13 visitors from the Space Society of London to the Cronyn Observatory for Exploring the Stars on Wednesday, October 17th, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Tyler Desjardins made the digital slide presentation, “Mars,” and this was followed by observing.
Bringing the group upstairs into the dome, Tyler showed them the yellow and blue double star Albireo through the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 28mm Meade Super Wide Angle eyepiece (157X).
RASC London Centre member Bob Duff set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian and the Observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain on the Observatory’s roof patio. Bob showed the visitors Epsilon Lyrae and Albireo through the 25.4cm Dobsonian using the 6mm Orthoscopic (186X) and 17mm Nagler (66X) eyepieces, respectively. He also showed then Vega through the Schmidt-Cassegrain, using the 26mm Plossl (77X) eyepiece. Bob explained to several visitors how the Schmidt-Cassegrain and Dobsonian telescopes worked.
The visitors were gone by 8:55 p.m. after an enjoyable evening of astronomy discussion and observing.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre