EX BAS member Steve Crane was vacationing in Melbourne Fl. when he saw the Star Party advertised in our website, he decided to bring his 8" Black composite SCT . and helped out his old club!
Members, MAS, & Friends. Due to bad weather Friday night March 12, the Girl Scout Camporee at Wickham Park, in Melbourne Fl. was moved to Saturday March 13, 2010. On Friday It rained all day long, at times we were under a Tornado watch, However Saturday came and the skies were blue with very little clouds and breezy. The Temperature was in the low 60's and dropping. It was shaping up to be a good night for observing. The grounds at the park were saturated with water, We have done many Star Parties here in the past, and it has always been dry. This time It was wet and muddy, The scope volunteers did managed to find a spot high enough to set up the telescopes About 150, to 200 yards south of our normal observing location. When I pulled up to the Star Party area, I noticed everyone else busy setting up their telescopes and getting ready to observe. A little bit of water and mud were not going to stop these scope volunteers from putting on a great Star Party for the Girl Scouts and I did not hear not one complaint. I quickly got out of my vehicle and took some pictures of the volunteers, Shafuo Chang helped set up the BAS banner, unload equipment, he brought some bottled water, and some extra homemade Red flash lights for the observers. He also passed out BCC dollar off Planetary movie pamphlets, and Book markers. We could already see groups of Girl scouts coming down the road, towards the scopes, At 7 pm we were officially open for business!! The Girl scouts were so well behaved. We used our green lasers to point at and identity as many Constellations that we could see with the naked Eye. Like Orion The Hunter, Canis Major, Canis Minor, The Big Dipper, Gemini, and others,... We also saw three planets Venus, Mars, and Saturn. We also saw some Star Clusters like the Seven Sisters, The Beehive Cluster, M41, some double stars. etc....The Girl Scouts got to see some fantastic sky wonders with some very nice telescopes. The Best sayings was "That is so Cooool!. I tried to take some night pictures, with the Girl Scouts poising in front of the BAS banner. I wish I could have gotten them all! I want to Thank our special scope volunteers from the MAS club. Peter Scheuter he had a 12" Newt telescope on a GEM., Phil Henderson, with his awesome looking 14" Celestron SCT in Alt, AZ. We also had a guess name Steve N. using a 10" Black SCT He came because he saw the Star Party advertised in the events calendar. BAS scope volunteers were Bill Manley with his homemade 14.5" Truss dob, Gordon Schafer with his 12" Discovery Dob, he was able to see all six stars in the trapezium of the Orion Nebula, Yes It was a good night! David Guibert with his Celestron 8" SCT with binos, John Small that came but had to leave early, and ofcourse Oscar Sifuentes with his 14" Truss Dob the Tscope. The Girl Scouts as well as all the scout volunteers had a great time observing with us and were very appreciative. Miss Beth McMullan Girl scout point of contact is going to try to get us a Camporee patch. I will pass them out when I get them. I just want to Thank all the volunteers that supported this event, under this conditions. You truly have to love Astronomy, Observing, and helping and showing the young future astronomers the wonders in Florida's Skies! Until we meet again!! See you at the Erna Nixon Moon Light stroll!
TSP2009
2010/3/18 19:06
106 
0 
