The dark skies of Camp Paquette were not as dark as usual as the Girl Scout campout was on the same day as International Observe the Moon Night. So, although the Moon made a bright and easy target, it did hamper viewing any dim objects in the night sky.
Even so, there were an estimated 50 very enthusiastic girl scouts with an additional unknown number of parents and siblings who got to view, not only the Moon, but Venus, Jupiter and Saturn as well. Luckily, there were a few deep sky objects the scouts got to look at that weren’t overpowered by the Moon.
In addition to the telescopes set up by club members, we set up an example of the type of telescope that has been donated to local libraries. The scouts used that scope by themselves. There was a line of interested future astronomers.
We had lots of club support for the Camp Paquette event:
- Walter Dunn
- Dave Halupowski
- Tom Haugh
- Dennis & Marietta Hausch
- John Walker