A clear, later increasing hazy, sky greeted 7 visitors from the Space Society of London for Exploring the Stars at Western University’s Cronyn Observatory, Tuesday, February 27th, 2018, 6:00 p.m. Graduate student Dan Hatfield presented the digital slide presentation “Extra Solar Planets” and fielded questions. There were 5 visitors early in the slide lecture with 2 later arrivals for a total of 7 visitors.
RASC London Centre was represented by Everett Clark and Bob Duff. Everett made ready the big 25.4cm refractor (32mm Erfle eyepiece, 137X) in the dome and set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian (17mm Nagler eyepiece 66X) on the observation deck, directing both telescopes towards the 4-day-past-first quarter gibbous Moon. Bob installed the Zhumell 2-inch Variable Polarizing Filter #3 on the 17mm Nagler eyepiece in the 25.4cm Dobsonian to reduce the Moon’s brightness for a more comfortable view. (The Zhumell 2-inch Variable Polarizing Filter #3 was donated to the RASC London Centre for use at the Cronyn Observatory by London Centre member Norman McCall in November 2016.)
Everett showed the visitors the Moon and the double star Castor through the 25.4cm refractor and Bob showed them the Moon and the Orion Nebula (M42), and the stars Betelgeuse, Sirius, Rigel and Aldebaran. The visitors asked many good questions and everybody was gone by around 7:50 p.m., after an enjoyable evening of astronomy.