astronomy evenings with guest speaker john harris for osr scout troop

Now that the evenings are drawing in what better time to do the Astronomer activity badge at OSR. So we invited John Harris a keep astronomer and his wife Sarah in to OSR to help journey the scouts through the solar system and identify constellations and other requirements of the badge. This is the first of 2 sessions (you can never rely on the weather to be on your side). The classroom section was very interesting and then outside into the fridged temperatures to observe stars, planets and aircraft.
The second session consisted of the scouts using fruit to build a scale model of our solar system, a melon for Jupiter and a peppercorn for Mercury. Then they used the SS GB loan box about Navigation to build a Sextant and calculate some pre positioned cardboard stars on the osr ceiling. All the time answering the question from the badge requirements. Even the game tonight was about navigation (Port, Starboard, Stern & Bow).