Mostly cloudy skies greeted visitors to the Cronyn Observatory on Saturday, November 10th, around 7:30 p.m. However, there was some clearing later in the evening. Undergraduate student Neil Bhatt began his digital slide presentation, “Stars: An overview,” before 6 visitors, including children, around 8:00 p.m. There were possibly 36 visitors by the end of the evening (although this may be an overestimate). RASC London Centre members Peter Jedicke and Bob Duff listened to Neil’s interesting presentation.
Around 8:25 p.m., graduate student Allison Hill interrupted Neil’s presentation to announce that there had been a clearing in the clouds and invited everybody upstairs into the dome to view the yellow and blue double star Albireo while it was still visible. Everybody viewed Albireo through the big 25.4cm refractor, using the 32mm Erfle eyepiece (137X). This was followed by observing Jupiter in the east, with 3 of its Galilean moons visible. Neil continued his presentation and more people arrived throughout the evening and went into the dome. Neil counted 20 in the dome when he finally came upstairs. Bob counted 36 visitors all together for the evening (although this may be an overestimate).
Peter and Bob set up the London Centre’s 25.4cm Dobsonian on the Observatory’s roof patio and Bob showed the visitors Jupiter, using the 17mm Nagler eyepiece (66X). He later also showed a few visitors Albireo through the Dobsonian. The sky clouded over again later and everybody was gone by around 10:00 p.m., after a successful and enjoyable evening of astronomy.
Bob Duff
Higher Education Liaison
RASC London Centre