It’s been seven years since we last set up our scopes at Camp Timpoochee. The last was for 4-H youngsters, this time it was for a local Girl Scout Jamboree. Our first attempt this year was postponed due to weather but luckily, we had an opening in our schedule when the scouts re-scheduled. We had plenty of guest observers as we hosted 103 scouts and their parents and leaders.
Several NWFAA members were able to support the Camp Timpoochee event:
- James Dubben
- Dave Halupowski & and his granddaughter Kennedy Odom
- Tom Haugh
- Dennis & Marietta Hausch
We started in the late afternoon with solar observing. Dennis setup his H-alpha scope. There were no sunspots visible so instead of showing a featureless disk, Tom set up his spectroscope and displayed the Sun’s spectrum.
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After all the scouts got to see the Sun, we were invited to join the scouts for supper. By then Dave & Kennedy and James had arrived and set up their scopes for nighttime viewing. After supper was over, and as the Sun started to set, the scouts adjourned to the campground meeting hall for our general astronomy presentation.
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After the question and answer session, it was everyone outside to the scopes. Even though it was not completely dark yet, Venus was very obvious in the western sky and was our first target of the evening. Once dark it became obvious that there was a very high haze layer interfering with dim targets so we were limited to bright ones. Thankfully, there were several. Ultimately, Jupiter rose over the southeastern tree line. Several of the scouts had sharp enough vision to see the Jovian moon Europa’s shadow as it traversed the planets disk.
James used the club’s 16″ scope to show M 51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) which was just visible through the haze. M 13 (Great Hercules Cluster) was also visible along with the big dipper’s Alcor and Mizar. Dave and Dennis moved one of the scopes to try and view Omega Centauri but it was very low and they could not find it through the trees.
We had an additional question and answer session with several scouts right up until it was time to break everything down and pack up. We would like to thank the Twin Cities Girl Scouts for their invitation and supper. We had a great time and look forward to our next event with the scouts. We also thank Marietta Hausch for her event photography.