Last Monday night, we, along with our neighbors - Placerville, El Dorado Hills, and Pollock Pines-Camino Rotary Clubs - hosted an ice cream social and stargazing event for visiting students from our sister city in Warabi, Japan, at the Rotary Club of Cameron Park Community Observatory. We were delighted to have Visiting Rotarian William Smyth from Palm Desert attend and Herme Reyes from Nicaragua attend as well. Thank you to Laurie Edwards, Julie Bauer and the wonderful docents for organizing this event. A special thank you goes to Janet Yarbrough, who arrived at 11:00 AM to help set up tables and chairs, and to Denise Leach and Stewart Warner for setting up and serving at the ice cream station.
While we were enjoying ice cream and fellowship, Chief Docent Randy Hodges excitedly pointed out the passing Space Station, much to the delight of our guests. We then moved to the Art Cort Sky Theater.
Laurie Edwards welcomed the international visitors in Japanese, and then wisely used a translator to give a brief history of the observatory and thank the sponsoring Rotary Clubs. Chief Docent Hodges took over from there. He used a laser to point out the Big Dipper, the Pointer Stars, North Star, Regulus (brightest star in the constellation Leo), Arcturas and Spica. He explained the “Summer Triangle” formed by the Vega, Altair, and Deneb stars. He also pointed out and described the Milky Way.
Afterwards, we observed the double star Alberio, the Ring Nebula, the Dumbell Nebula, the M13 and M5 globular clusters, and the Whirlpool Galaxy through telescopes.
This was a wonderful international youth event, as well as an outstanding example of local Rotary Clubs working together. Domo arigato! Thank you very much!