Cloudy skies greeted 143 visitors to Western University’s Cronyn Observatory Special Public Night for the Mars Opposition, Tuesday, July 31st, 2018, 8:30 p.m.—1:00 a.m. (August 1st). Although Mars reached opposition on Friday, July 27th, its closest approach to Earth was on Tuesday, July 31st, 2018. There were 2 digital slide presentations including (1) Professor Jan Cami, “Mars Tonight: Close Encounters of the Bright Kind” (8:45 p.m.); and (2) Professor Livio Tornabene, “Mars: Up, Close and Personal – High Resolution Views from Orbit” (9:30 p.m.). Professor Livio Tornabene showed mostly images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), but also images from the European Space Agency’s and Roscosmos’ ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter’s Colour and Surface Stereo Imaging System (CaSSIS).
There was a second digital slide projector and screen set up with a 10×10 foot canopy tent on the south side of the observatory—to handle the overflow crowd. RASC London member Dave Clark operated the live feed slide presentation in the canopy tent. Department of Physics and Astronomy staff member Phin Perquin helped set up the AV equipment for the live streaming to the tent.
There were 74 people in the lecture room (9:22 p.m.) and 14 in the canopy tent for Professor Jan Cami’s slide presentation. There were 58 people in the lecture room (9:45 p.m.) for Professor Livio Tornabene slide presentation. Graduate student Viraja Khatu did “crowd control” and counted 143 visitors for the evening.
Downstairs in the “Black Room” Professor Robert Cockcroft did the “Spectroscopy Demonstration,” with the visitors putting on diffraction grating glasses to view the spectra of 4 gas discharge lamps, including hydrogen, helium, neon and mercury. Graduate student Shannon Hicks did the “Crater Demonstration” and invited children to “Draw Your Own Martian.”
Graduate student Ben George was telescope operator in the dome and he directed the big 25.4cm refractor to show visitors the communications tower in south London, using the Meade 28mm Super Wide Angle eyepiece (157X), and later swapped in the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X) to show them the star Vega between clouds.
RASC London Centre was represented by Everett Clark, Henry Leparskas, Steve Imrie, Dave Clark, Bob Duff, Paul Kerans, Dale Armstrong, Mike Roffey, Frank Sowa and Edith Tovey. Heather MacIsaac arrived around 11:00 p.m. Dale and Mike set up the London Centre’s home-built 30.5cm Dobsonian (18mm Radian eyepiece, 83X) on the observation deck and Steve directed it overhead to show visitors Vega. Bob showed people Altair through the observatory’s Meade 8-inch (20.3cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain (26mm Plossl eyepiece, 77X). Frank Sowa set up his Celestron NexStar 6SE 15cm Schmidt-Cassegrain and showed visitors Jupiter and Saturn (17mm Hyperion Modular eyepiece, 88X) and Vega and the “Double-Double” star system Epsilon Lyrae (40mm eyepiece, 37.5X)—all glimpsed between clouds. Frank directed his 15cm Schmidt-Cassegrain (26mm Plossl, 58X) towards the communications tower when the sky was obscured by clouds.
Dale Armstrong gave a telescope talk in the dome and Paul Kerans showed visitors his iron and chondrite meteorites and “Visitors from Space” collection, inviting people to view a tiny fragment of a Mars meteorite through his microscope. The observatory’s 2 round wood and clear plastic display cases containing tiny “Mars Rock” and “Moon Rock” meteorite samples were also on display.
Henry Leparskas and Edith Tovey showed visitors the “1940s Period Room,” a recreation of Dr. H. R. Kingston’s 1940 office, with his brass refractor and the Sotellunium—a mechanical eclipse demonstration model built by W. G. Colgrove—on display; and the “1967 Period Room,” recreating the early control room of the Elginfield Observatory to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation—Canada 150. The “W. G. Colgrove Workshop Period Room” was also open for visitors’ inspection. The 3 “Period Rooms” were designed by RASC London Centre member Mark Tovey.
Cloudy skies prevented any observation of Mars. However, the visitors enjoyed exploring Mars with the slide presentations, the spectroscopy and impact crater demonstrations, tours of the history rooms, examining meteorites and briefly viewing through telescopes before the observatory closed down at 11:30 p.m.