Mostly cloudy skies greeted 27 visitors (16 children and 11 adults / leaders) from the 1st Shedden and 1st West Lorne Cub Scout Groups for Exploring the Stars at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016, 6:00 p.m. Graduate student Dilini Subasinghe presented the digital slide presentation “The Cub Scout Astronomy Badge” and fielded questions. Dilini followed this with the “Constellation Activity,” distributing 23 “Star Finder” planispheres and helping the Cubs assemble them with adhesive tape. She showed the slide “Reading a Star Finder” followed by 2 slides of constellations for them to practice using the planispheres.
When everybody arrived upstairs in the dome, RASC London Centre member Bob Duff gave a talk on the history of the Cronyn Observatory and technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor. Bob explained the 2 clocks on the east wall and the difference between Standard and Sidereal Time.
Since it was cloudy, Dilini opened the dome and showed the Cubs and their leaders the lights on the communications tower in south London through the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X). Bob set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 66X) on the roof patio outside the dome and showed them the wind turbine on the Engineering building. The Cubs and their leaders were gone by around 8:00 p.m. after an enjoyable evening learning about astronomy and looking through the telescopes.