I'm just back from BSA summer camp. This is a disjointed review of
a portion of my experience. Never having been to camp as a child, I
have had fun these past few years as an adult attending summer camp.
I attend summer camp with my son; I'm "the reluctant scoutmaster".
My lack of any scout experiance or camping skill qualifies me for
this position. But, I do know a little astronomy So ...

I took the 70mm NearStar, short tube 80, ETX 90, and 10" f5.6 dob.
The ST and NS shared an alt az mount.

In class, I used the virtual moon freeware to show the lunar
phases and give views of lunar craters and other features. The moon
was up to late for the boys.

In another class, Planets were handled with Sky and Telescope
Magazine and their intro to astronomy yearly publication. Whe
discussed where to look to determine what was visible when. We
discussed magnification and tracking motors Vs undriven mounts. We
used the planetary observing tips from the publications. Seeing,
aperture per inch of aperture, FOV, magnification were all
discussed. The planets were viewed as pictures. Major features were
descibed as well as the effects of seeing, aperture, etc.

We went out to observe on two nights. On the first night, we even
had some department store 60mm refractors with a 700 mm focal length
to compare too. These and my scopes were used to views stars, hard
at best in the camp scope. Viewed double stars: (double double,
Ablereo, Mizar, Polaris). On the first night we saw the ring nebula
as well. Transparency was poor ahd clouds move through. But, that
first night was good for the constellations. Their major stars were
visible and about nothing else so they really "stood out". We "arced
to Arcturus" and "spiked to Spica" and looked at the summer triangle
and its constelations, as well as Scorpio, Ursa Major, etc.

We did Solar astronomy on two days. Looked at the sun in white
light (Baader film) with the 10" and in H alpha with the NearStar.
Some took interst, two who were not in the merit badge class but who
stopped by as they were interested. Those are the ones who make it
worth while. There were some nice complex sun spot groupings. We
talked about sunspot "life cycle", magnetic fields, solar max, solar
processes. This was combined with real time viewing

Thursday night was very good for that location re transparency and
humidity. Saw 4 globulars: M13,10,12,14; as well as 2 PN (dumbbell
and ring), and 3 double stars. Boys arrived slowly. The first to
arrived looked up at the sky and said "thats Arcturus". "That must
be Vega. I looks like it's part of the southern triangle. I started
him out aming the ST 80 at those 2 stars with its finder scope. The
next boy to arrive was given instructions on how to drive the ETX's
electronic controls. He used the quickfinder reflex sight to find
the same stars. They switched scopes. Others arrived. Kids
were "inserviced on how to aim the 10" with its telrad and were
turned loose. At times it took 2 scouts to drive it (but there was
sand in the teflon which made it difficult to use). All boys rotated
between the scopes. Then I used the 10" f5.6 with a 32mm Konig 2" 60
degree relative FOV Eye piece to find the DSO's out lined above. We
quit when the younger boys began to burn out. Class dismissed. A few
random leaders viwed as well. Best night I've ever had at this
locatiion.

Tuesday at 10:30 PM the boys in my troop convinced me to walk down
to the car from the camp site, which is a bit, set
up/collimate/align finders in the dark. We saw the ring, M13,
Albereo, and the double double. The boys became bored and tried and
the sky was not transparent and it was humid. I sent them back to
camp (with 2 citronella candles in toarch holders to help light the
way). I broke down the scope and put it back in the van. Then I had
to walk back to camp.

So, I taught 8 kids astronomy merit badge and allowed a few other
scouts not in the class to view either the sun or the night sky.
Several got to drive the scopes.

When the kids are clustered arround the scopes in groups of 2 or
three and are fighting to use the scopes. Well that is when I feel
that I've done my job. Because its not about learning facts. Its
about ignighting the spark. As least it is for me.

What have you done with your scope this summer?