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Pour 1 package raspberry Jello into a bowl.Add 1 litre hot water.Stir until dissolved.Add fruit punch drink crystals to taste.When it is okay to the taste, add some more.Stir and pour the lot into a thermos.Go to the observing site.Pour the lot into you and your friends.Do not let it go cold in your mug lest it become sloppy jello! Ohyes — be careful around the scopes. I just hate those stickyNaglers.–40˚ temperatures. Your scope will likely tell you when it hashad enough of that nonsense by creaking loudly or just refusingto move. If you should get cold and are not sure what to doabout it, just go for a walk. It is surprising how little you willhave to do to become warm. I would bet it takes less than ahundred metres to restore your comfort.Now then, no more excuses. I expect all of you to be oglingthe skies at observing sessions from December right throughMarch.Parting thoughtsThere you have it! Remember the three-layer formula and a fewtricks with the extremities and you will be a winter observerin comfort. Exercise an extra bit of common sense beforedeciding to venture out. That is, do not expect great results inTony Wallace’s interest in astronomy has recently come to includetelescope making. He can often be found suffering the rigours of the“Parabolic Willies” during yet another attempt to inflict his will uponsome obstinate piece of Pyrex.The Wilkinson Memorial Observatoryby R. A. Clark, Windsor Centre (rclark@wincom.net)The town of Eastend is in southwesternSaskatchewan, near the borders of Alberta andMontana. The population numbers seven hundredand fifty-two. It nestles in a wide coulee that was carvedby an ancestor of the Frenchman River. The stream windspeacefully southward through the prairie wheat lands.To the west, the Cypress Hills shelter the town from theinfamous prairie winds. These picturesque hills wereonce home to the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur,but are now a place where gentle white-faced cattle,mule deer, and antelope graze.Eastenders live in unique but quiet isolation. Thenearest large community is Swift Current, almost onehundred kilometres to the north. They are a communitymindedpeople. They have created resources that areunsurpassed by many larger towns. There are five churches,a high school, an arena, a curling rink, a nine-hole golfcourse, a 14-bed hospital, and a café where most of thecommunity’s business deals are consummated. Theyhave plans for a million dollar museum to display the completeskeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that was recently discoveredin a nearby canyon wall — and on a hill, just south of town,they have an astronomical observatory that would be the envyof most educational institutions having an astronomy program.It is called the Wilkinson Memorial Observatory.In 1927 when a young blacksmith named Wilkinsonimmigrated to Canada, Eastend was already a bustling cowThe Wilkinson Memorial Observatory at Eastend, Saskatchewan.town. The ranchers and the wheat farmers needed someonewho was good with a forge and who could repair their specializedequipment. Jack Wilkinson’s smithy business boomed and soonhe had expanded into a machine shop, using his own handcraftedtools. Jack had a lively curiosity about almost everything. Hisneed to know and to discover extended to the stars that shoneso brightly from the clear skies of Saskatchewan. Mostly from288JRASC December/décembre 1998