Clear night for kids' event

Sometimes things come together...

After more than a week of cloud, I went off this weekend with my
son on a Scout campout, with tentative plans to help with a
stargazing/education night. The forecast was chance of storms
each night. Friday night a fast storm did go across us.
Saturday was clear, so I was hopeful. At sunset we decided to
abbreviate the campfire and go for it. Up the hill to a
clear bluff above the river, the nearest place where the trees
give way for a nearly horizon-to-horizon view.

A beautiful clear night. I only took binoculars that I could
carry on my back, and it was a large enough group that we
mostly did naked-eye observation and Q and A. Started with
Venus westering, and watched it change color as it set.
That caused several boys in a row to ask essentially the same
question about things turning red when they set. I hope I gave
a clear explanation the third time.

I was able to point out how the twilight in the sky changed during
the time we were there, and how even though we were deep in the woods
we had significant light pollution from towns on the other shore
of the river. The Moon was young enough to not wash out the
sky. Seeing the "old moon in the arms of the new" was pretty and
gave an opportunity to talk about Earthshine. Nobody there
was familiar with the cause of this effect, and talking about
the sight was a bit mindblowing for some of them.

We did the basics: major constellations, "constellation-hopping"
from one to another, visible planets, and bright stars. Just about
all of them came with the urban legend that the North Star
is the brightest star in the sky. I think they all convinced
themselves from their own observations that it ain't necessarily so.
In an interesting social effect, when one boy announced he could
distinguish Alcor and Mizar by eye, all the others followed suit.

I worked with the binoculars with the few who were most interested
in them. I didn't do any significant observations of my own,
but I had a wonderful time with these kids.

I got a lot of requests to pass on info about the nearest
astronomy club (Rappahannock Astronomy Club) and star parties.

--
Glenn Holliday