Clear skies, later becoming cloudy, greeted 25 visitors (13 children and 12 adults / leaders) from the 1st St. Mary’s Guides / Pathfinders for Exploring the Stars at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Tuesday, November 29th, 2016, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Robin Arnason presented the digital slide presentation “The Scout / Guide Astronomy Badge” and fielded questions. Robin followed this with the activity “Kitchen Comet,” making a comet from dry ice and other materials on a table set up at the front of the lecture room.
RASC London Centre member Everett Clark directed the big 25.4cm refractor in the dome towards Mars early in the evening, but it was clouded out by the time the visitors had arrived upstairs in the dome. When everybody arrived in the dome Robin gave a brief talk about the history and technical aspects of the big 25.4cm refractor. They were able to view the stars Vega and Betelgeuse and finally the lights on the communications tower in south London through the 25.4cm refractor (28mm Meade Super Wide Angle eyepiece, 157X) as the sky became obscured by clouds. The visitors were gone by around 9:00 p.m. after a very enjoyable evening of astronomy.