The Sirius Stargazers at Camp Miakonda in Ohio

Camp Miakonda is one of the oldest Boy Scout camps in America.  The original camp was purchased in 1917 and had 78 acres!.  The name Miakonda means "crescent moon".  The first building erected in 1917 still exists.  From the late 1930's to the early 1950's Camp Miakonda was  considered by some to be one of the greatest Boy Scout camps in the country.  Its facilities were legendary, sporting the world's longest-spring fed swimming pool, which was 480 feet long.  It was built into a ravine and held over one million gallons of water. The camp also had a tree house campsite, with eight tree houses, each with a built in bunk.  The houses were 32 feet high with staircases that went to the top of each one. The camp flagpole during those years was the main mast off a Great Lakes freighter, which had a crows nest halfway up that the camp bugler used to open and close each day of camp. The majestic eight-sided Council Lodge building was built to have campfires inside of it and remains a centerpiece of the camp. Thomas DeVilbiss, a famous Toledo industrialist, was Miakonda's first major benefactor in the 1920's. During the Great Depression many of the camp's facilities were built by the federal government as work projects. One of these was the creation of Lake Sawyer, which didn't exist when the land was purchased.  If you haven't been to the camp, you need to see it.  It's beautiful!  Want to learn more about its history? Click Here

Whitney is getting ready to help with the power point presentation that we did for the kids.   The kids got to see presentations on the solar system, telescopes and Hubble's greatest pictures! The also had the chance to ask and answer questions about the presentations.  We gave away Cassini bookmarks and posters to the kids for answering questions correctly.  They also got candy as a snack.   

After the first half of the presentation we headed to the parade field for a wonderful flag ceremony.  Boy Scout camp wouldn't be complete without showing respect for the flag.  Being a veteran and a current Naval reservist, this was one of my favorite parts of this day!  See the little bugler to the left.  He did an excellent job of playing Taps.

God Bless the USA!

After the flag lowering ceremony we began to assemble the telescope.  Jeff is showing the kids how to set up the 20" Obsession telescope on the parade field.  Here he is placing the secondary cage on top of the truss poles.

Putting the final touches on the telescope installation. The kids were shown how the telescope is set up and they all got a glimpse at the mirror.  The mirrors were collimated and we were ready to roll.  These kids were fun to work with.  Great job Denise! Your kids were awesome!

After we set up the telescope we headed back to the chow hall (can't remember the name of the building) for some of Hubble's greatest pictures while we waited for it to get dark.  The camp is really cool.

Whitney got this really cool picture of the kids heading out for some views of the planets.  They were carrying flashlights.  Can you tell?  Jeff is doing what he loves to do most, look at the sky.  Thanks for the picture Whitney.  It was very chilly at night.  The kids wrapped up in blankets and laid on the ground while waiting to get glimpses of Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and the moon.  Several of the kids kept getting back into line for a second and third look.  You guys thought you'd fooled me huh? That's okay, I love stargazing too!  Miss Ashline was busy all evening while we were viewing.  I'm glad that she got to see some of the views before the night was over.  Fun, fun, fun.

We would like to thank Denise Ashline for inviting us out for a night with the kids.  We would also like to thank Mr. Morrison for recommending us to the Toledo School for the Arts.  The kids were great!