Girl Scout Astronomy Badge

There was some discussion here a few months ago about the Boy Scout
Astronomy Merit Badge requirements. As it happens, I'm helping my niece
with her Girl Scout requirements, which make the Boy Scout requirements
look like graduate school in comparison.

Some examples:

Tools of the Trade - Learn the parts of a telescope and how to use one.
If possible, use a tracking telescope or look through telescopes with
different magnitudes.

Star Stamps - Address an envelope to yourself or a friend, including
your solar system and galaxy address.

Time for the Moon - The best time to observe the moon is when it is
full, or almost full.

At the bottom of this page of requirements are three images- one of
which is horribly wrong: http://www.cloudbait.com/misc/gscoutastro.jpg

Really, this whole thing is pretty pathetic.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Hi Chris,

Perhaps you can offer your services to rewrite it. I had similar problems
with a Brownie Star Gazer Badge a couple of years back (7-10yr Girl Scouts
in the UK)

Quote:

"The moon is the brightest object in the night sky. Unlike stars, it does
not
give off light of its own. Its 'light' is a reflection of the sun's rays.
The moon appears as shapes (or phases) when the Earth comes between the sun
and the moon, casting a shadow. The moon completes its orbit of the earth
every 29 days. The current phase of the moon along with its setting and
rising times can usually be found in newspapers. "

I corrected the text and provided new diagrams - not sure if they used them
mind you.

Robin

"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
There was some discussion here a few months ago about the Boy Scout
Astronomy Merit Badge requirements. As it happens, I'm helping my niece
with her Girl Scout requirements, which make the Boy Scout requirements
look like graduate school in comparison.

Some examples:

Tools of the Trade - Learn the parts of a telescope and how to use one.
If possible, use a tracking telescope or look through telescopes with
different magnitudes.

Star Stamps - Address an envelope to yourself or a friend, including
your solar system and galaxy address.

Time for the Moon - The best time to observe the moon is when it is
full, or almost full.

At the bottom of this page of requirements are three images- one of
which is horribly wrong: http://www.cloudbait.com/misc/gscoutastro.jpg

Really, this whole thing is pretty pathetic.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

At the bottom of this page of requirements are three images- one of
which is horribly wrong: http://www.cloudbait.com/misc/gscoutastro.jpg

Yuke. I was expecting some funny picture that you had inserted. You're
serious and apparently so are they. You're right, makes the boys scout stuff
look like grad school.

So I guess if you have a daughter and want her to go into a science field,
you have to keep her out of girl scouts.

:-(

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/

To reply, remove Delete and change period com to period net
************************************************** ************




Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Robin Leadbeater wrote:
Quote:

"The moon is the brightest object in the night sky. Unlike stars, it does
not give off light of its own. Its 'light' is a reflection of the sun's rays.
The moon appears as shapes (or phases) when the Earth comes between the sun
and the moon, casting a shadow. The moon completes its orbit of the earth
every 29 days. The current phase of the moon along with its setting and
rising times can usually be found in newspapers. "

I corrected the text and provided new diagrams - not sure if they used them
mind you.

Well, it's not *terrible*, right? Only one complete bonehead remark in
the set.

The weird thing is that I've met some scout leaders who really are
interested in the night sky, and I find it hard to believe that they
wouldn't have sent corrections along, too. Wouldn't you, in their
position?

--
Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

look through telescopes with different magnitudes. ??? me thinks they used
the wrong word. What mag would my Babylon 8 be I wonder?


Time for the Moon - The best time to observe the moon is when it is
full, or almost full.

Oh how little they know.


--

The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net



"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
There was some discussion here a few months ago about the Boy Scout
Astronomy Merit Badge requirements. As it happens, I'm helping my niece
with her Girl Scout requirements, which make the Boy Scout requirements
look like graduate school in comparison.

Some examples:

Tools of the Trade - Learn the parts of a telescope and how to use one.
If possible, use a tracking telescope or look through telescopes with
different magnitudes.

Star Stamps - Address an envelope to yourself or a friend, including
your solar system and galaxy address.

Time for the Moon - The best time to observe the moon is when it is
full, or almost full.

At the bottom of this page of requirements are three images- one of
which is horribly wrong: http://www.cloudbait.com/misc/gscoutastro.jpg

Really, this whole thing is pretty pathetic.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

That is depressing. You'd think they could do MUCH better than that.
And then later, the magazines aimed at these girls will be chock full of
astrology, numerology, psychics, etc. And people wonder why females are
under represented in the scientifically oriented professions...
Marty

"Marty" wrote in message ...
That is depressing. You'd think they could do MUCH better than that.
And then later, the magazines aimed at these girls will be chock full of
astrology, numerology, psychics, etc. And people wonder why females are
under represented in the scientifically oriented professions...

.. doesn't explain why they're pouring into law and medicine
or why more females attend college then males in the U.S.

--

Hilton Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35.3"
Lat +42° 11' 06.7"
---------------------------------------------------------------
Webcam Astroimaging
http://home.earthlink.net/~hiltoneva...troimaging.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------
ChemPen Chemical Structure Software
http://www.chempensoftware.com

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 07:10:22 -0400, John Steinberg
wrote:

And speaking of shuttle foam, can someone explain the physics involved
in what most of us have already seen, i.e., big hunk of foam coming
off big external fuel tank. Was the shuttle in the vacuum of space at
the time of *separation?

The foam came off the ET after the SRBs were jettisoned. So the shuttle
was 40 miles high, maybe more. Not a hard vacuum, but close enough if
you had to suck it. Still, given the launch vehicle velocity, there were
aerodynamic forces present.

Presumably, this failure was like others- moisture got behind the foam,
froze, and cracked a section. Then all it took was a combination of
vibration, thermal effects, and aerodynamics to pull it away.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris L Peterson wrote:
The foam came off the ET after the SRBs were jettisoned. So the shuttle
was 40 miles high, maybe more. Not a hard vacuum, but close enough if
you had to suck it.

Assuming a scale height of 8 km (5 mi), it's about a third of a millibar.
Less than what you get on Mars.

--
Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 21:18:01 +0000 (UTC), (Brian Tung)
wrote:

Assuming a scale height of 8 km (5 mi), it's about a third of a millibar.
Less than what you get on Mars.

About 0.1 mb at 64 km (40 miles). But that probably feels like a pretty
stiff wind at 15,000 mph!

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com