Scituate Brownie Troops: June 25, 2023
by Michael Corvese
Seagrave Hosts Scituate Brownie Troops 221 & 53
On Sunday, June 25th, Skyscrapers hosted the girls of Scituate Brownie Troops 221 & 53 at Seagrave Memorial Observatory in fulfillment of requirements for their Space Science Adventurer badges. The weather forecast was mixed for that evening but since we had planned and cancelled this event six previous times over the last 13 months because of weather, I made the call to go ahead. I’m glad we did, because it turned out to be an absolutely clear and pleasant evening!
We commenced the evening at about 7:30pm with the arrival of 10 Brownies accompanied by parents and siblings for a total of 25 people. We began the program in the meeting hall starting with a discussion about the planets. After passing out the planet stickers, which were a big hit, I asked many questions about the planets and these girls had almost all the answers! We talked about the number of planets, sizes, moons, and the order from the sun. From there, we moved onto the Moon and talked about where it came from and why it looks different each night. The girls participated in an activity to demonstrate the phases of the moon where the girls represented the earth, I represented the moon, and a giant flashlight represented the sun. We then distributed a Sky & Telescope brochure that contained a nice map of the moon and spent some time discussing some of the surface features on it.
The Sun was our next topic. We talked about its size relative to the planets, where it came from, why it burns so brightly, and the fact that the sun is actually a star! We had some nice holographic photos along with some solar bookmarks courtesy of NASA. The hologram showed the sun in three distinct types of light as you turned the photo which the kids thought was very cool. Next, we talked about constellations; what they are, what they look like, and how to identify them. To help with this, we all constructed a star finder game that listed all the constellations that are visible during that month. The children had a wonderful time putting them together and playing the game with each other.
After about an hour, we moved outside where member Mark Munkacsy had the dome open with the Alvan Clark in operation to observe the moon. Member Jim Hendrickson had the 12” Meade open as well, providing views of the Epsilon Lyrae (double double) and Arcturus. Both the children and the adults enjoyed observing through the telescopes and lively discussions ensued about the night sky while they waited for their turns at the eyepiece. By 9:30, the children were ready to head home and so we said our goodbyes and closed the site. The most common comment from the group was how they planned to come again during a public observing night. All in all, it was a great night for the children and their families, and I was happy we could provide that for them in the context of astronomy.
