Telescope Reviews: Girl Scout camp at Natural Chimneys, Virginia.

Last night I did a little outreach at Natural Chimneys Park in Augusta
County. There was a Girl Scouts overnight camp being held that had an
astronomical theme and I volunteered to bring my scope.

The other astronomy teacher was supposed to be bringing 3 telescopes,
but didn't bring any. The girls all got to build a model rocket and
they were all fired off to great excitement. The trees ate half of
them, I think!

The weather forecast was dismal, and a weather frequency broadcast that
was on a handheld radio was worse, with lightning, heavy rain and 35
MPH winds expected for Augusta. I was sure that I'd leave my scope in
the truck for the night, and the girls & I huddled in the shelter all
night...
Then during the rocketry I noticed the moon rising next to the chimneys!

The excitement peaked again when I set up my scope. I didn't do a real
polar alignment as I couldn't see the Polaris through the clouds that
were in the North, so I approximated one with my compass and went with
that. The girls got to see the moon and after a bit about 1/4 of them
got to see Jupiter and it's 4 Galilean moons. They were utterly
thrilled, even though I apologized profusely for the cruddy weather.
After a while the moms and leaders all said to say "Thank you!" and
they headed off to the campground to go to bed and I packed up.

Just as I was finishing the pack-up and doing my usual "sweep" of the
site to look for dropped astro-gear, a group of 10 or so of the younger
(6 & 7 year old) girls came back from the campground, sad to see the
scope was put away. So I whipped out my green laser and did a sky tour
of the stars that were visible, the Big Dipper, Vega, "arc to Arcturus,
South to Spica", and answered dozens of questions, many to do with
Pluto!

I tell ya, there ain't nuttin' better than working with the little ones!
Rich

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Orion Atlas 10 (10" Newt on an equatorial mount)
Celestron 15x70 SkyMaster Binocs
Coronado Ha PST
President, Charlottesville Astronomical Society
IOTA member

38° 10' 57"N, 78° 23' 09"W