We are always up for exploring something new at Pfadfinder. Some of our venturers are keen on space and astronomy, others are keen on photography, others like anything STEM-related and learning something new. So when one of our leaders spotted an amazing photograph of the international space station captured crossing in front of a full moon, taken right here in Canberra by an astrophotographer the same age as the venturer scouts, she knew she had found our next great guest speaker to show us something new!
As soon as we had a clear sky evening, we met astro-photographer and night sky tour guide Lachlan at the designated spot in a clearing of the Pinnacles nature reserve. He had a fantastic telescope, cameras and tripods at the ready, and gave us lots of information and opportunities to view and participate.
We peppered Lachlan with questions and he fired back with all the answers. As the sun set, we got to see the international space station sailing across the sky with its enormous solar wings shining, exactly on Lachlan’s cue.
As the sky darkened, our night sky guide pointed out Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. It was cool seeing all sorts of constellations seeming to appear at the end of Lachlan’s magic laser wand as he pointed out various night sky wonders.
There has been a big focus on astronomy this year in SciScouts, and some of us have been inspired to learn more about astronomy, so learning about astro-photography was extra cool.
Want to see Scorpius? We did!
Next we will be looking for some Australian Indigenous constellations that we learned about in SciScouts, like the Dark Emu and the Canoe, and learning more about stacking and processing deep sky photographs.