I must apologize. I’ve been putting off writing this entry. I’m reluctant to share all my secrets lest too many borrow them. But since we were the only ones camping at the Hudson Mills Metropark Group Campsite on Saturday, August 15, 2009, the word must get out about the astronomical overnight adventure I shared with the Ann Arbor Pack 5 Cub Scouts and their families.

At a cost of $30 for the camping permit and a $4 daily fee per vehicle, youth groups are allowed to camp at one of several sites at the Hudson Mills Group Campsite. The campsite is located on Huron River Drive, just north of N. Territorial Road, whereas the main park of Hudson Mills is on the south side of Territorial Road. Campsites include a fire circle with wood provided by the park and (minimally fragrant) vault toilets. Well water is available from a pump in the middle of the group camping area. There is also a flag pole in the middle of a large mowed assembly/athletic field. The mowed field allowed us to create a scale model of the solar system to observe the relative distances between planets.

Be sure to make reservations in advance by calling Hudson Mills at (734) 426-8211 or (800) 477-3191. Obtain the key to the group campsite and multiple vehicle permits at the park office on the day of arrival. For groups seeking a water-based adventure, a canoe camp is available with a rate of $5 per canoe. Other parks in the Huron-Clinton Metropark system offer group camping for youth groups including: Kensington, Lower Huron, and Wolcott Mill (which is located in Macomb County, 1.5 hours from Ann Arbor). Check out the Metroparks website at www.metroparks.com for more information.

Our campout coincided with the end of the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks annually around August 12. Commonly known as “shooting stars”, meteors in this shower come from the comet Swift-Tuttle, which was first identified in 1862 and is associated with the constellation, Perseus. Since a comet is simply a ball of space dust and ice which melts slightly as it nears the sun, most meteors in this shower are smaller than a grain of sand and are technically known as meteoroids. Meteoroids can be seen several nights before and after the peak date, when around 60 per hour are visible.

Besides the meteor shower, we also attended the open house at the Peach Mountain Observatory hosted by the University Lowbrow Astronomers. The entrance to Peach Mountain is at 10280 North Territorial Rd., a half-mile west of Dexter-Pinckney Road. The entrance is marked with the unobtrusive entrance sign which reads, “University of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory”. On Peach Mountain is a 26-meter radio telescope, which is not open to the public since radio signals look like graphical lines on a computer monitor. Rather boring, unless you know what you are looking for.

On the second and third Saturdays of each month, assuming the sky is not overcast, the University Lowbrow Astronomers host the open houses at Peach Mountain. This amateur astronomy club is based in Ann Arbor, and university affiliation is not required to join. At the open houses, members of the club offer access to the University of Michigan’s 24-inch McMath Telescope (we missed out on this one - sorry, boys) and also bring their own telescopes (often self-built) to allow public participants to view celestial objects. Be sure to ask permission to look through a telescope. We were able to see several star clusters, the Andromeda galaxy, and the planet Jupiter and four of its moons.

Now that two of my secrets are out - Hudson Mills and the University Lowbrows, I’m going to have to book our reservations early.

Photo Captions and Credits:

1. Hudson Mills Metropark Group Campsite (Photo by Stefan Szumko) 2. Cub Scouts making a solar system model (Photo by Marc Ammerlan) 3. Peach Mountain Entrance (Photo by Stefan Szumko) 4. A few of the telescopes of the University Lowbrow Astronomers (Photo by Marc Ammerlan)

Stefan Szumko is a full-time homedaddy, part-time environmental educator at the Leslie Science and Nature Center, president of the Washtenaw Wanderers Volkssporting Club, and cubmaster of the Ann Arbor Pack 5 Cub Scouts at Eberwhite/Bach Schools. Contact him at slugwhisperer@gmail.com.