[sac-forum] Re: Report from Camp Friendly Pines

It is nice to get a paycheck that does not involve currency;-)

Sounds like you had a great time;
Steve Coe


                -----Original Message-----
                From: sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rick Tejera
                Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 10:29 PM
                To: sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                Subject: [sac-forum] Report from Camp Friendly Pines

                Well, the Girl Scout encampment is over and I'm beat! It was
a lot of work, but as you'll see well worth the effort. Camp Friendly Pines
is about 6 miles south of Prescott at 6000'. Our Accommodations (Dubbed the
"Mancave" by Jimmy) were very comfortable and the Food was quite good as
well. We were made to feel very welcome by the Scout leaders, camp staff &
parents.

                The girls were full of enthusiasm & curiosity and a lot of
fun to work with.

                We Helped 96 girls earn their Space Explorer Try it badge.
To do this, Chris helped them make Planispheres and showed them how they are
used.  Jimmy showed them how to make a sundial and how to tell time with
one. We used the sundial template that Jeff Hopkins had given me a while
back and they worked out great, Kept good time too! Thanks Jeff.

                The girls also got to use their imaginations and "designed
their own constellations". They were able to look at them through Pringle
can telescopes. I then took them on a journey to Girl Scout camp on the
moon. But they had to design their own spacesuits. We talked about all the
things a spacesuit has to do to keep an astronaut safe and then they drew
pictures of themselves in their spacesuits.

                We work in 8 rotations of 12 girls each over Saturday &
Sunday. We had 4 tables set up for each activity and he girls moved between
each table as they finished that activity. This means we each demonstrated &
taught the activities 32 times over the course of the encampment! 

                The highlight of the night was taking them out into the
meadow after the campfire and showing them what we'd been talking about. I
gave them the 50 cent laser tour of the sky, pointing out the constellations
we talked about during the day. Then we showed them through the telescopes.
As you'd expect, Saturn was the show stopper, with plenty of OOH's and
"Awesomes" to go around. I also got to show them M35, M3 & M81&82. By this
time most of the girls (and a lot of moms) were pretty dead tired, along
with three astronomers, so about 2200 things wrapped up for the evening. We
would've stayed out and observed a bit more, but we had to get up at 0630 to
make it to breakfast and get ready for our last three rotations. (Did I
mention this was a lot of work?!)

                For me the whole thing was worth the trip when while waiting
for dinner to be served, I felt something around my legs. A girl named
Stephanie was giving me a big hug. That was worth more than I can say. 

                I'll have some pictures and more about the event at the next
meeting (Steve, may as well put me on the agenda now).

                Clear Skies

                Rick Tejera

                Editor SACnews

                Saguaro Astronomy Club

                Phoenix, Arizona

                www.saguaroastro.org <http://www.saguaroastro.org/> 

                saguaroastro@xxxxxxx

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