Partly cloudy skies greeted 34 visitors, including students and several staff members, from the Summer Academic Writing Clinic for incoming first-year students, for evening observing at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Thursday, August 9th, 2018, 8:30—10:30 p.m. Professor Jan Cami presented the digital slide presentation on “Astronomy and Space Research at Western” and fielded questions. The students were then divided into 2 groups with one group going downstairs where graduate student Shannon Hicks showed them the “Transit Demonstration” and the “Spectroscopy Demonstration” in the “Black Room.” The other group went upstairs into the dome. The 2 groups later changed places.
RASC London Centre was represented by Heather MacIsaac and Bob Duff. When the first group arrived upstairs in the dome, Bob gave a talk on the history and technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor. He pointing out the Schmidt camera and Cassegrain reflector telescope piggy-backed on the 25.4cm refractor and explaining the difference between a refractor and reflector telescope. He also showed them the 2 clocks on the east wall of the dome and explained the difference between Standard and Sidereal Time.
Downstairs in the “Black Room” Shannon gave 2 demonstrations—one to each group of students—of the “Transit Demonstration” activity, with the “Transit Demo” model—showing how the transit detection method worked for finding extra-solar planets, and 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.
When both groups were together in the dome, Professor Jan Cami showed them Jupiter, Saturn and Mars through the 25.4cm refractor, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (258X). On the observation deck, Bob showed them Saturn and Mars through the observatory’s Meade 8-inch (20.3cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain (20mm Plossl eyepiece, 100X). Heather showed them Saturn and Mars through her Celestron NexStar 90SLT 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain, using her 13mm Plossl (96X) eyepiece.
The students were gone by around 10:20—10:25 p.m., after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy under clear skies, and the observatory was closed down around 10:30 pm.