Cloudy skies with a light drizzle greeted 19 visitors (9 children and 10 adults / leaders) from the 1st Watford Cubs for Exploring the Stars at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Wednesday, January 25th, 2017, 7:00 p.m. Graduate student Jeff Vankerkhove presented the digital slide presentation “Constellations” and fielded questions. Jeff followed this with the “Constellation” activity, distributing 15 “Star Finder” planispheres and helping the Cubs assemble them with adhesive tape. He showed the slide “Reading a Star Finder” followed by 2 slides of constellations for them to practice using the planispheres.
RASC London Centre was represented by Everett Clark and Bob Duff. The dome remained closed due to the cloudy damp weather. When everybody arrived upstairs in the dome, Bob gave them a brief tour of the big 25.4 cm refractor in the dome. Everett had set up the observatory’s 8-inch (20.3cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain (26mm Plossl eyepiece, 77X) inside the dome door to the roof patio and Bob supervised as the Cubs viewed the TV screen visible in the windows of the Western Sports & Recreation Center. The visitors were gone by around 8:20 p.m., after an enjoyable evening learning about the constellations and looking through the telescope.