Clear skies greeted some 60 enthusiastic children and parents for the Star Night at Byron Northview Public School, Wednesday, October 18th, 2017, 7:00 p.m. The Star Night involved some 40 children and 20 adults and was hosted by the grade-5 teacher.
RASC London Centre was represented by Peter Jedicke, Everett Clark and Bob Duff—who arrived later around 7:30 p.m. Everett helped Peter set up his home-built 40.6cm (16-inch) Truss-Tube Dobsonian in the school yard on the north edge of the playing field. The grade-5 teacher set up his 20.3cm Antares Dobsonian. Telescopes brought by families, included a Celestron 130mm Newtonian reflector and what appeared to be a 15cm alt-azimuth reflector on a pier mount. There was also a 60mm refractor.
Peter gave an outdoor digital slide presentation with the title “Today’s Solar System.” This was followed by observing as the sky darkened. Bob helped direct the 15cm alt-azimuth reflector towards Jupiter and then took charge of the teacher’s 20.3cm Antares Dobsonian for the rest of the evening. Bob showed people Saturn through the 20.3cm Antares Dobsonian, using the installed 20mm eyepiece (60X), and then swapped in his own 7mm Nagler (171.4X) for greater magnification. Bob also showed people the yellow and blue double star Albireo, the “Double-Double” star system Epsilon Lyrae and the Ring Nebula (M57) through the 20.3cm Antares Dobsonian (171.4X).
Peter showed people the Saturn, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and globular cluster M13 through his 40.6cm (16-inch) Truss-Tube Dobsonian, using a 35mm Panoptic eyepiece (52X), then swapping in a 15mm eyepiece (122X) for a better view of M13 at the end of the evening. The Star Night was over around 9:00 p.m. after a very enjoyable evening under clear skies.