June 8th  - Day 1 - Welcome to Astronomy Camp and Mount Lemmon

Welcome to Beginning Astronomy Camp 2023!  Thank you to all the families who were able to join us for our opening session yesterday.  The campers had a smooth trip up the mountain to the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, where we moved into the dorms before watching a beautiful (although slightly cloudy) sunset from the mountaintop.  It was extremely cold and many of the campers (and counselors) were unprepared for just how crazy cold the wind chill made it! We had a tour of the dorms and the fauna that live on the mouintain before a scrumptious dinner of Tucson Tamale Co. After dinner, the campers had a naked eye observing session outside and with the 32-inch Schulman Telescope, exploring the sky before heading to bed in preparation for a busy first full day.  

The campers will be taking over the blog to tell you all about their experiences later today-- look forward to it!

Dark Adaption Music - Phantom of the Opera - Music of the Night - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZTsIljP9RQ 

June 9th  - Day 2 - First Day on the Mountain

After a full night's rest and a good breakfast,  the campers looked forward to a day full of activities, science, food, and some crafting. We toured the Mount Lemmon Observatory and saw the telescopes and the views in the bright light to get a feel for what we are doing at night. We also started making observations of the path of the Sun and made scale models of the Moon and Earth system. We then tried to simulate the way the Earth, Moon, and Sun align for Lunar and Solar Eclipses. Many of our models started out with the Earth and Moon WAY too close but we all finally agreed upon the models with 30 earth's between the Moon and Earth. This afternoon, we covered our flashlights with red filter plastic so they are better for keeping dark adaption at night and making it safer for the campers to walk around. We also made planispheres, which are also called star wheels so the campers have a way of finding the constellations tonight when they begin their Observing Challenge. After an hour of crafting, we split into groups where half the campers started deciphering an Alien Signal from the star system 55 Cancri where there are known exoplanets.  The other half spent some time in the portable planetarium where we introduced how we study the sky and find new objects with coordinate systems and star hopping. We then rotated before we took a break before dinner.

After a delicious lasagna  dinner complete with cannolis , we watched the Sun set from the 60-inch Catalina Sky Survey Telescope over Picacho Peak to the northwest of Mount Lemmon. The full moon rose as we listened to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (movements 1 & 3. After some constellation hunting, we then observed some  familiar celestial objects, like Venus, M57 (the ring nebulae),  M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy), and many others! We had a delicious "night lunch" of brownies before heading to bed. 

June 10th  - Day 3 - Solar System Hike and Light

The campers woke up to a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and turkey bacon (made by the counselors) and enjoyed some fun videos including the Sound of Music Flash Mob,  Think Big, and other science videos. We then made sure all the campers were sun-safe to go on a scale model hike of the solar system. We started down by the Minnesota building with a yellow 8" kickball as the sun which means we had to hike nearly a kilometer to "travel" all the way to Pluto. That means that each step counts as 30,000,000 miles on the solar system. In Arizona, we still count  Pluto as a planet because it was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. Pluto's moon, Charon, was also discovered in Arizona. 

In the afternoon, we learned about the properties of light including wavelength, speed, and how different stars emit different kinds of light based on their composition.  We used spectra glasses to look at different light sources as well. 

Another cold evening was heralded in by dark adapting with Astronaut Chris Hadfield's version of Space Oddity and then looking at binary stars, globular clusters, spiral galaxies , and more on the 32", 24", and 8" telescope. Some of the campers even built a telescope entirely out of 3D printed parts! 

June 11th  - Day 4 - Solar observing, phases of the moon, Newtons Laws

Today's brunch was fantastic with the diverse cereal choices although the eggs were a bit too salty. After  brunch we got to observe the sun through multiple telescopes for example the Questar and we got to keep the eclipse glasses. We then went into the Minnesota building and Doctor McCarthy showed us the phases of the moon and at what time of the day that moon phase would rise. We then went back to the Learning Center, got a snack and then started to learn about Newtons Laws and got to test it with liquid nitrogen by dumping it onto the table and letting it slide the whole way. We then started to try to make a Newtons car and raced them to see who would win. At 7:45 pm we left for the 61" Kuiper telescope and got to meet David Levy.  After watching a few more galaxies we decided it was time to go back.

~Eszter

June 12th  - Day 5- 

Today the campers learned more about different types of stars, about how they burn their "fuel". We also learned about  exoplanets with a great talk from counselors Aiden and Eden!   The campers then went up to the 32" and 24" for some more solar observing and some solar oven S'mores! After a delicious Italian dinner, we watched sunset and then headed down to Mount Bigelow and the Kuiper 61"   for our last night of observing!