Mostly cloudy skies greeted some 30 visitors for the Lake Whittaker Conservation Area Star Night, Friday, July 24th, 2015. This event was organized by new RASC London Centre member, Scott Vodon, working at the Conservation Area for the summer, and London Centre’s Public Outreach Coordinator, Dave McCarter.
Dave brought his 25.4cm Dobsonian and was joined by London Centre members Steve Imrie, with his Orion SkyQuest 20.3cm Dobsonian; and Mark Tindall with his 15cm Celestron NexStar 6SE Schmidt-Cassegrain. They were joined later by Peter Jedicke and Ron Sawyer. Observing was pretty well limited to the first-quarter Moon and Saturn due to the clouds. However, Dave did show people Arcturus, M27, M13 and M57 at one point in the evening. He tried for M51 but the sky was too hazy. Dave also did a constellation tour with his green laser pointer. There were many interesting conversation before everybody packed up to go home.
RASC London Centre member Peter Jedicke described the main action as already over, when he and Ron Sawyer arrived later in the evening, with the Moon and Saturn playing peek-a-boo between clouds. Peter reported that the visitors were not disappointed and Dave McCarter did an excellent job fixing his 6mm knock-off Erfle-Barlow eyepiece, so that it work nicely in Dave’s trusty 25.4cm Dobsonian telescope.