Jan 24, 2009: Girl Scout Overnight Astronomy Camp (VIII)

Michael Richmond
Jan 25, 2009

The RIT Observatory has hosted several special events for local Girl Scouts recently:

Our latest overnight camp took place on January 24, 2009, when the skies were clear early, but the temperature was a frigid 10 Fahrenheit during the early evening. As a result, we decided to stay indoors and do some educational activities that wouldn't risk frostbite.

You can look at our schedule for the night (and next morning).

We arranged the Scouts into four groups and rotated them through a set of four activities.


  1. Jake Noel-Storr (CIS) helped the Scouts create a scale model of the planets in the solar system.
  2. Adam and Nick, members of the RIT Insight Lab, took the Scouts on a tour of the solar system and the Milky Way using "The Cube", an immersive theatre.
  3. Meghan Dorn (Imaging Science major) explained how telescopes work, and gave the Scouts a chance to use one.
  4. Michael Richmond (Physics) explained how scientists use spectral analysis to determine its chemical makeup of the Sun and stars. The Scouts tried to identify four mystery elements via their spectra.



For more information


Last modified 1/25/2009 by MWR