Mar 21, 2018: Boy Scout Troop 4174 visits the Observatory

Michael Richmond
Mar 24, 2018
Apr 4, 2018

On the night of Mar 21, 2018, members and family of Boy Scout Troop 4174 of Livonia, NY came to visit the Observatory. They hoped to perform many of the activities which would count toward their Astronomy Merit Badges.

There were six scouts and two other children in the group, and they were very energetic. Fortunately, I was joined by Stacey Davis, an NTID instructor who teaches RIT's intro astronomy lab classes, and Kristina Punzi, one of our soon-to-graduate Ph.D. students in the AST program. We split up a set of activities:

• learn how telescopes work



• what's the difference between visible light and X-ray light?
• how can one get a job in astronomy?
• what causes the phases of the Moon?



• what causes solar and lunar eclipses?
• look at the Moon and the Orion Nebular through a telescope

It was too cloudy to learn a set of constellations, but we were able to see the Moon and (briefly) the Orion Nebula!

Last modified 4/04/2018 by MWR.