[sac-forum] Re: Girl Scout Encampment

Rick;

We had Joe Goss, me and Lynn Blackburn at 5 Mile Meadow.  I had a couple of
good nights and then on Saturday it really started to look ominous, so I
packed up and got home for a real storm at my house.  I did get some
observing done and had a cool time.

Steve Coe


                -----Original Message-----
                From: sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rick Tejera
                Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2008 6:27 PM
                To: sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                Subject: [sac-forum] Girl Scout Encampment 

                Well it was another successful encampment, despite Meteroa's
best efforts to the contrary. Jimmy Ray, Andrew Goodwin, Dick Harshaw and I
left Friday afternoon and as we drove through Prescott Valley the prospects
looked dim as we drove through a thunderstorm.

                Friday night's plan was to regale with tales of star lore
around the campfire. Fortunately the rain stopped and the Skies cleared
enough that we were able to tell the epic saga of Perseus, Cassiopeia,
Cepheus and Andromeda. I probably shouldn't have been, but I was surprised
at how much of the story was familiar to the girls.  After the Fire was out,
we stayed out in the sport field and gave the girls a better look at the
characters of the stories they just head (The campfire area was kind of "Sky
restricted" by the trees).

                Saturday we had pretty much to ourselves as the astronomy
program was schedules for after dinner and then observing. Jimmy had brought
his PST and Chris Hanrahan joined us about 1030 and set his PST up  as well.
The girls would pass by on the way to their next activity and we'd show them
the sun. No sunspots but we were treated to some very nice solar flares. The
views got lotsa of "WOWS". As the afternoon pressed on the clouds again made
their presence known and we did have another thunderstorm (Looks like those
who went to the Antennas made the right choice). After dinner the girls made
Planispheres and then we set up our scopes (At least the ones that had a
mount and un-fried electronics). The night wasn't that good, but we were
able to shoot sucker holes and get all the girls some time at the eyepiece,
so the objectives were met. 

                As before the Scout leaders and Camp Moms were all very
appreciative of our efforts and in fact I think we'll have a few more
inquiries from them in the future. The accommodations were again nice if not
a bit rustic, with the exception of "The Daddy Long Legs incident".   

                All in all we all had fun and more importantly, the girls
had fun.

                Now to begin work on getting some content on the website.

                Clear Skies

                Rick Tejera
                Editor SACnews,
                Public Outreach Coordinator
                Saguaro Astronomy Club
                Phoenix, Arizona
                www.saguaroastro.org <http://www.saguaroastro.org/> 
                saguaroastro@xxxxxxx

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