Going on an Astronomy Field Trip to Pebble Beach (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Going on an Astronomy Field Trip to Pebble Beach (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Note: The American Astronomical Society has many activities for K-12 students listed on its website - K-12 Activities from American Astronomical Society


I was beginning to eagerly await the parent packets that my daughter Florence’s Waldorf School sent home.  I read that my daughter’s class was going on a star gazing field trip to support work in the classroom on the topic and thought that sounded interesting. 

I volunteered to drive a carful of kids of from Seaside to Pebble Beach for the stargazing outing.  We arrived early to drive around and play on the rocks.  We finally drove to the appointed parking lot for our beach meeting point.  A blazing bonfire was burning on the beach.  The Pebble Beach golf links were behind the car.

The kids scampered down to the fire and got vegetarian marshmallows to roast.  The class mom handed me vegetarian graham crackers and chocolate bars to make ‘smores with roasted marshmallows.  They tasted great.

Florence’s teacher led the skygazing discussion.  He had a masters degree in education from Stanford and stayed with the class throughout their education according to the Waldorf model.

We began by locating Polaris, the North Star.  Florence’s teacher said the school was northeast from where we were.  He asked us to point to where the school was using Polaris.  Everyone wandered around until we reached a consensus on direction.  Teamwork begins early.

Next the teacher talked about the moon getting bigger (waxing) and getting smaller (waning).  He showed us the Milky Way Galaxy and fielded questions about UFOs and aliens.  He played shaman as well and pointed out the zodiac signs and told their stories.

Everyone was getting red cheeked and cold at this point.  We sat around the fire again and sang songs as we ate ‘smores.

I was actually getting eager to leave and helped put out the bonfire.  I was nervous the Pebble Beach CEO Clint Eastwood might show up at any time and shout, “Put the that bonfire out now, you ragamuffins.”

I got my car loaded up with kids and marshmallows for the trek home.  I noticed my gas tank was empty.  I could not find my way to an exit.  There are no streetlights in Pebble Beach and few signs to indicate exits.

The junior astronomers all told me, “Find Polaris, Ruth, to get to Country Club Gate.”  That gate was by their school and gas stations.

“Ask someone,” one of the kids remarked.

“Where?” I said as we drove through forest.

“There’s lions, tigers, and bears out there,” another kid remarked.

“Actually, they have mountain lions in Pebble Beach,” I said.  “Nobody is getting out of the car.  They have skunks here, too,” I said.

“Ew!” the kids said in unison.

My engine warning signal started beeping just as we found an exit – not the one I wanted, but I wanted out.  The road led through the forest to the freeway.  If I ran out of gas and blocked traffic, I knew the police would come.

We had mountain lion sightings on the way home.

“Did you see those orange eyes?!  Speed up, Ruth!” was a typical comment.

When we approached Seaside, the kids were wondering if lions came out during the Pro-Am golf tournament.

“They hide during the day,” I said.

“Pebble Beach is dangerous.  I’m glad we don’t have mountain lions in Seaside,” one of my little guests commented.

“We have coyotes where we live,” Florence remarked.

We dropped kids off at their homes.  I took Florence’s sleepover friends home and gave them some real food – delivery pizza.

Florence’s school focused on naked eye stargazing.  I wanted to do more than that at home.  One of my husband’s degrees is in physics and we wanted to amplify stargazing work.  We bought an equatorial mount telescope, and my husband showed Florence how to use it.

The sky by the coast is incredibly clear.  We used the sky maps in Rick Shaffer’s Your Guide to the Sky to identify constellations by season.

I had read E.C. Krupp’s books and found his book Skywatchers, Shamans, & Kings: Astronomy and the Archaeology of Power to be very useful in discussing astronomy in other cultures.

I showed Florence our globe and the area under the equator.  “The area under this line is called the Southern Hemisphere.  The people here see different stars and constellations, so they have different names for what they see and different stories,” I said.

We looked at images of observatory towers at in Macchu Pichu (Incan Civilization) and designs of astronomical symbols from the Mayan and Aztec Empires.

“People in power have always had control over who knows about the skies,” I said to Florence.

“For example, in China the emperor’s astronomers told him about the changes in seasons.  In spring, he would plant the first seeds to show that he was in charge of the country’s being fed.  Kings who knew astronomy like in Babylonia were called priest-kings,” I told her.

We went through more of Skywatchers, Shamans, & Kings and looked at Native American astronomical sites in California, Stonehenge in England, and Carnac in France.

“We also have to watch the sky to see if meteors are going to hit us,” I said.  “One of the theories about how the moon formed is that a meteor hit the earth and created the Pacific Ocean while the moon was put into orbit,” I told her.

“That’s scary,” Florence said.

“Not if you prepare for it,” I remarked.  “Studying science and math, which is the language of science, is very important for knowing how to deal with the skies.”

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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