CREDIT: RYAN KILPATRICK
Western University opens the observatory doors to the public to use its telescopes and see the starry wonders.

With the continued excitement of NASA’s James Webb Telescope, set to be launched in late 2018 as a much-needed update to Hubble, as well as recent news about protesting around Hawaii’s Mauna Kea proposal for the world’s largest land telescope which would measure a 30-metre behemoth capable of seen back 13.5 billion years ago, sometimes Londoners forget that the Forest City boasts its own high-powered telescope.

The Cronyn Observatory is open to the public, if you know where and when to go. Each summer Western University opens the observatory doors, allowing the public to look through one of its three telescopes or one of the many portable amateur telescopes set up on the roof by the London chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC).

While also open during the other seasons – the doors only open once a month during those times – each Saturday evening the summer months, the Cronyn Observatory is packed with budding amateur astronomers.

With an oblong asteroid roughly five kilometres across named after him – 5899 Jedicke – Peter Jedicke is still humble about what he does, when looking out to the stars it puts everything in perspective though.

Jedicke is a Western alumnus and professor of math, physics and astronomy at Fanshawe and the president of RASC from 2004 to 2006. He has been helping co-ordinate the weekly summer viewings at the Cronyn for a number of years and openly discusses his passion for the stars.

Jedicke says the most daunting aspect of his previous role as president of RASC was that despite the group boasting over 4,000 members, trying to get youth involved in “club oriented activities” was a continuing challenge. He was quick to add that’s not to say no one’s looking up.

“There’s an awful lot of interest in astronomy when I talk to young folks,” Jedicke said. “They watch a TV show or documentary about astronomy or space, or go on a website like NASA to see the latest discoveries, but they are not joiners – they don’t come out to a club meeting.”

He says that meetings target a narrow demographic and that it “ends up being guys my age.”

While getting everyone talking together is an issue, getting people to be able to view the summer’s best celestial events is not. Jedicke talked about his favourite summer viewings to look out for.

“In spring and summer 2015 Venus is visible, but it will not be visible all summer,” he said. “Jupiter will be easy to see … but Saturn is just starting to be visible now, and Saturn is the most amazing thing to look at through a telescope.”

“Jupiter [is] a close second, with Venus in third place. The Moon changes from night to night, the moon is available for telescope targets that’s almost always a good thing.”

The Cronyn Observatory is located across from Alumni Hall just after entering the campus through at the Lambton Street entrance. The summer hours are Saturdays from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and there is no cost and no reservations are required.