A Star Lit Hill

More mice and fireworks

2009-06-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

I managed to clear more trails Saturday and Sunday. The Tower trail is now clear from bottom of the hill to Dogleg corner. The Bartlett trail is completely open. The Farrington trail is open 3/4's of the way from Raven's perch to lower parking lot. I hiked the other trails to see how bad of shape they were in. The Amanda trail beyond Scout Heaven is a mess. The Klondike trail is not quite as bad. The Pileated path from Land's End to Poet's Rock is also in rough shape. While I was clearing the Tower trail I came upon a Red Spotted Newt. I did not have my camera with me nor my camera phone so I was unable to get a picture. I managed to do a little mowing around the clubhouse, the dome and path to the toolshed. I was unable to keep the trimmer running so I couldn't do any weed wacking.

The mice have several nests in the telescope shed. I removed a dead one and saw another one running away.Saturday night I was treated to a natural and man made fireworks show. I was able to see fireworks from someplace near Springfield/Holyoke as they burst just above the hills. At the same time there was a thunderstorm in the same general area sending lightning bolts across the sky. Arunah stayed dry but some storms were not far off. I did get a picture of the setting sun illuminating thunderclouds to the east. Unfortunately I did not get much observing in due to the persistent clouds.

Barry

A Hill Full of 8th Graders

2009-06-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 16 turned out to be an amazing night on Arunah Hill. Seven van loads of 8th graders from the Springfield Renaissance School arrived a bit before sunset for an evening of stargazing and exploration. Thanks to Keith Wright, one of the school's science teachers, for arranging the visit.

We treated the kids to a couple of rocket launches as a warm up, then took them on a hike out to Scout Heaven. After that, it was to the pavilion for a welcome and orientation talk and a little history of Arunah Hill. The kids were fascinated with the pavilion's timber frame construction techniques.

By sunset all eyes were scanning the sky to try to see the first star of the night. One of the kids found Arcturus, then Vega, Saturn, and Regulus emerged. Quickly lines formed at Ray Burk's small dob, Dan Carnevale's wonder refractor, but the longest lines of all were at the Gaertner. All 3 telescopes caused oohs and ahhs as the kids first looks at Saturn produced squeals of delight that the rings were really visible. The Gaertner was a joy, tracking beautifully and delivering crisp images. The kids were impressed with the 100 year old instrument.

A -8 magnitude Iridium flare caused quite a stir in the twilight. Once darkness descended we gave the kids a green laser tour of the constellations of spring and summer.

The kids asked great questions and soaked up the wonders of the night sky. For many kids, this was there first time under a dark sky. They asked great questions and quickly learned to master the skills of using telescopes.

All too soon it was time for the kids to head back to the vans. It was fun to be around so much energy and enthusiasm, and I'm sure some of these future scientists will long remember their evening on Arunah Hill.

Ravens, Woodpeckers, Mowing, and Trail Clearing

2009-06-06T19:28:00.001-07:00

The June work day was fun, efficient and even had some nice birding activity. Tom Walker and Kevin Collins weed whipped around the Gaertner, telescope shed, and club house before rushing off for the 5A's solar public observing program. Ray Burk was rejuvenated with his knee feeling good, and was a "mowing maniac" and got quite a bit of mowing done. Matt Payne did some shovel and rake work on the gravel road, smoothing out ruts, then took the mower from Ray and expanded the mowed area up at the top of the cl earning, then around the telescope pads. New member Andy Johnston worked with Barry Hervieux with loppers and a chain saw to open up the path from the clearing to the Pilated Perch lean-to. Dan Carnevale mowed around the barn and chainsawed some of the blow down on the lower trails.

After firing up some burgers and enjoying some watermelon, we settled in to a bit more mowing and trail clearing. The top of the Billy Farrington trail had be all but obscured, but now it's open and easily passable.

We got to watch a courtship flight, complete with screeches, from two ravens, then were treated to hearing a least 2 woodpeckers (one probably a pilated) working the trees at the edge of the clearing.

The weather was pleasant, and the black flies and mosquitoes were at a minimum. Not a bad June workday. Thanks to all.

Just a note, the July workday will be postponed until July 11 to not conflict with the 4th of July holiday.

-Ed

Realm of Galaxies

2009-05-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, some observing did take place on Arunah Hill over the Mememorial Day weekend. Kevin, Barry, Rich, and others (?) had clear skies on Sunday night, despite the rain many of the rest of us experienced. Barry, Rich, and I also had some good stargazing on Monday night, and had fine views of the Sombrero and M-87, and the host of small galaxies around the M-84 & M86 pair. We also got a fine look at Saturn and at least 3 of it's moons.

Good passes of the International Space Station were seen on Friday, Sunday, and Monday night.

-Ed

We are not An Angry Mob

2009-05-23T20:24:00.001-07:00

Saturday, May 23 was a great day on the hill. The day began with gathering of a large group of geocachers, looking to find the 5 caches hidden on the hill. Despite the blow down on the Billy Farington Trail, most cachers had no problems with the finds. A hot dog roast for lunch capped the caching events.

After that, with Jim Downing's leadership, about a dozen kids built rockets. Ranger Gary arrived right on time and set up his 7 station launch pad. Kids had a great time launching rockets. The "C" engines put the smaller rockets right out of site. I know several people got some great pictures, I'll post them as soon as I get them.

After a small ceremony for the100th anniversary of the Gaertner telescope, it was on to the turkey fry. burger grill, corn boil, and a great pot luck dinner. Whatever the Volants brought was a great appetizer, though I'm pretty sure Rich just made up a name for them, whatever they were. I'm proud to say I didn't set anything on fire, though I did make a bit of a grease spill on the extended north section of the pavilion floor.

After dinner, several of us stayed and enjoyed a nice camp fire and were even treated to a few sucker holes for a nice view of the dippers, Draco, Corona Borialis, and Hercules. The title from this posting comes from a comment made around the campfire by Barry's young daughter while playing with a stick in the fire... it seemed to fit the mood perfectly.

I'd guess at various times we had 50 or 60 people visit the hill, and I'm pretty sure all had a great time.
-Ed

Updated Forecast for Saturday May 23

2009-05-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Some passing showers during the daylight hours, partial clearing but some passing thunder showers at night. It won't slow down the celebration, though we might have to "shoot the holes" for stargazing.

I cut the grass tonight and got to enjoy the peace and tranquility of being alone on Arunah Hill, watching the stars come out. With bats and the night birds busy overhead, Arcturus was the start to emerge, quick followed by Saturn, then just the "top" of the winter circle: Castor and Pollux, flanked by Procyon and Capella. Soon Spica was visible, then by reversing the "arc", the whole big dipper. Saturn showed the way to Regulus and Denebola, and then most of the lion. The surprise to me is how much ealier Vega rises then it's summer triangle buddies. I got in the car, clicked on the radio to Brubeck's Take Five... a perfect choice. After that, I listened to the last two innings of a Red Sox win. Not bad for a work night.

There's another new addition on the hill... Pete brought up a portable observatory. It looks great, can't wait to use it.

Hope to see you all up on the hill.

-Ed

Hill Soggy, but Ready for a Birthday Party!

2009-05-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Arunah Hill has a new charcoal grill and 5 new "Geocaches" and is ready for the big May 23 Gaertner Birthday Party. Things were pretty soggy on the hill so I couldn't mow, but with sunny weather predicted this week we should be ready for Saturday.

If you don't know what "Geocaching" is all about, see : http://www.geocaching.com

-Ed

May 23 Pot Luck Dinner Items

2009-05-06T16:16:00.001-07:00

Ed F - Deep Fried Turkey, Birthday Cake
Tom W - Potato Salad
Matt - Italian Pasta Salad
Ray B - Chips and Dip
Steve H - Macaroni Salad
Bruce B - Bolide Stew
Barry H - Still deciding
Chevy - 4 Bean Salad
John D - Chips and Dip, and corn on the cob

The math works out that you don't have to try to feed everyone... just bring an entree, a side, or a dessert that will feed about 8 - 10 people. If everyone does that, we'll have a feast!

Stove Pipe, Chains Saws, and the Return of the Mirrors

2009-05-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

The May workday proved to be very productive. Matt Paine, Steve Pielock, Glenn Benscoter, Ray Burk, and I mostly got in each other's way, but we eventually were able to replace the rusted out stove pipe to the timber frame clubhouse. When we got through Matt commented that it looked like something out of Dr. Seuss... not quite straight or square, but it will do the job.

Kevin Collins and Tom Walker arrived with the freshly re-coated mirrors and got to work cleaning out the telescope shed and storing the mirrors. We were disappointed to find more evidence of mice activities, some minor damage to the fan harness on the 18" mainly. That lead to some creative brainstorming about what else we can do to keep out the mice. Tom will research getting a retractable corrugated steel box to surround the 'scopes while in storage. That may be the most cost effective way of keeping the mice away from the telescopes.

Meanwhile, Dan Carnevale, Barry Hervieux were busy with chainsaws turning more of the winter's ice storm damage into firewood. Mr. Zuraw Sr was his usual dynamo clearing things down by the barn, then later helping us haul dirt.

Steve and I did a little grading around out telescope pads. Bob Osgood and Peter Scherff showed up and help out with the brush clearing. Bob and Kevin both took pictures, I'll post them here once I get them.

Thanks to the Labodycz family for the donation of a nice patio table and chairs, and for Dan C for loading it all into his truck. We all enjoyed the new "breakfast nook" in the pavillion.

On his way out, Barry reported seeing a strange bird on the road a few hundred feet below the clearing. He suspects it may have been the elusive ruffed grouse. We've heard these on the hill before, but I don't think anyone has seen oune. Barry reports it had a black plume around it's neck. It flew off into the woods before he could get a picture.

Thanks to all who helped make this a great work day, and I look forward to a wonderful celebration of the Gaertner's 100th birthday on May 23. Bruce has the finder and the counterweights back on, it looks great.

-Ed

April 24 / 25... A Summerlike weekend of stargazing

2009-05-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

It was a warm weekend of observing on the hill. John Kocur, Jay Emirzian and his family, and I spent Friday and Saturday nights camped out under the stars.John with his homemade 8" scope, Jay with his 15" Obsession and me with my 16" Lightbridge.We were also joined by Mike Johnson of Holyoke on Saturday. Friday we were dealing with passing clouds that thickened up by midnight. Saturday there were high clouds passing through in the evening and pretty much clouded up by midnight.We were able to spot many of the springtime galaxies including the Leo triplet, NGC 4565,M63, M104, and many members of the Virgo cluster.We also observed Saturn with it's thinning rings and retinue of moons. The warm weather also brought out the black flies. Hopefully they will be gone before the Memorial Day Potluck Weekend. It felt more like August than April but it was better than dealing with snow.

-Barry

NEAF update

2009-05-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

Through to the generousity and hard work of Pete Scherff, Arunah Hill has some new members. Peter had the chance to network with amateur astronomers from all over the northeast and vendors from around the world. Thanks to Peter, and all of the NEAF attendees who made contributions to Arunah Hill.

Garlic Mustard, Cleared Trails and Kayaks

2009-04-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

A good day on and around the hill isn't always about stargazing. Saturday April 18 proved to be an interesting day in and around Cummington despite a heavy overcast and occasional drizzle. For me the day started by attending a fascinating "Invasive Plant Species" seminar at the Cummington Community Center. In Massachusetts non-native invasive plants like Garlic Mustard, Oriental bittersweet, and Japanese barberry crowd native species and cause subtle ecological changes that can poison butterflies, inhibit the growth of oak and sugar maples, and even lead to the spread of Lyme disease.

After the seminar I headed up to the hill, and immediately used my new booklet "A Guide to Invasive Plants in Massachusetts" to identify the invasive herb Coltsfoot growing along our roadway, basically from near the stream most of the way up to the road. We'll try to get a handle on this before it extends up to the clearing.

Once I got to the top of the hill I realized someone had been pretty busy clearing out the ice storm damage on some of our trails. Not surprisingly, I followed the trails and found the steadfast Hadley troop lead by Joe Zuraw, Bruce Blanchard, and Scott Massey. Also clearing trails on another part of the hill were the Windsor, MA troop lead by Gleen Benscoter. Thanks to all for their hard work. It will take many more weekends to open up all of our trails and clean up the remnants of the December ice storm.

I drove home down Rt 112 S to Rt 20 and was treated to a parade of canoes and kayaks in the Westfield Whitewater River Novice Race. I pulled off at "Turtle Bend", one of the more technically challenging spots in the novice race, despite the lack of lots of rapids. The river makes a sharp turn at turtle bend where the river runs up against Tekoa Moutain. The more experienced paddlers gain speed in the current, but novices get washed ashore or get dumped on the one big rock in the path.

The race brought back some painful memories of my near diasaster while practicing for the 1973 novice race. Let's just say I learned a lot about life, whitewater paddling and trying to swim in 33 degree water that day.

-Ed

April (Snow) Showers...

2009-04-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

The April workday was productive despite cool weather and persistent snow flurries. Water was flowing all over the hill and the grounds were "mud luscious". A hearty work crew accomplished a lot. Tom Walker and Kevin Collins boxed up the 24" and 18" mirrors and took them away for re-coating. Joe Zuraw, Ray Burk, Barry Hirveaux and I all worked on making some quick repairs to the gravel road. Once the road thoroughly drys out we'll still have to do some grading work, though I was able to get my little Matrix to the top of the hill without too much problem.

Barry fired up his chain saw and cut up the tree that came down in the December ice storm just a few feet from the telescope shed. He also removed some of the debris that had fallen near where the driveway opens up to the clearing. Our outhouse wintered well, but the shower is knocked out of operation. Maybe a rebuild job for the WPI fraternity?

We had a visit from members of Troop 45 in Southington, CT. The will be camping on the hill and working on their astronomy merit badges next month and wanted to check out the facility. They look forward to a service project, and I think they are going to tackle clearing the trail to Scout Haven that has been badly clogged with damage from the ice storm.

After examining Scout Heaven we realize we were lucky that all of our buildings came through fine. Scout Heaven had a "near miss" from a big hemlock that fell behind it, and the telescope shed wasn't too far from a fallen tall beech tree.

As I was leaving, Peter Scherff arrived, we talked briefly about his exciting plans for NEAF this year. If anyone has some time to volunteer to help staff the Arunah booth please contact me or Peter. NEAF is April 18th - 19th in Suffern, NY.

-Ed

Barry's Late March Visit

2009-03-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

I went up to Arunah on Friday but the clouds rolled in when I finished setting up my scope.
I made it through the snow with little trouble. The top of the hill has dried out some more.
I stayed for the day on Saturday but the clouds returned late afternoon so I packed up and
left just after sunset.

The snow at big curve had softened up some but I made it back through.
There is alot of debris around the top of the hill that will keep us busy in the coming months.
The outhouse was untouched by falling limbs but the shower stall was not so lucky. The telescope shed was free of mice. The decon was still untouched. The stovepipe will need to be replaced as it has rusted out just outside the wall allowing some ash to fall to ground and singe the grass.

I spent part of the day Saturday watching about 50 robins looking for grubs, a sure sign that spring has arrived. I have attached a couple of pics.
Barry

Winter and Spring in a Standoff

2009-03-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

No longer winter on the hill, but not quit spring on Arunah Hill. I just depends where you are standing. It's high mud season on the lower driveway... It' passible, but watch out for some serious washouts. I don't advise going up to the hill alone at night right now. There are some DEEP washouts that can grab even a 4 wheel drive vehicle, and one wrong turn and it's mud up to your axle.

Past the brook it's still winter... over a foot of snow at 'the big turn'. As you approach the top of the road, it' starts to clear and firm up. The clearing is a bit muddy, but mostly snow free.

I don't think the road will be passable by the April workday, but we should be able to hike up and get lots done.

As for a Messier Marathon next weekend, as long as the dry weather holds up you can at least set up at the lower field... just watch out on the driveway. See the red circle in this, the rut is 10" deep!

-Ed

March 8, 2009

2009-03-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

No workday this month, but I visited the hill today to show some film students around Arunah Hill. Three grad students from Massachusetts College of Art and Design are making a short video of "The Hidden Hills" of Western Mass. They are having a good time touring the Berkshires and enjoyed seeing our Gaertner Telescope and admiring the fine craftsmanship to the Timber Frame Pavilion. I don't know how much of Arunah Hill will make the final cut, but we may see the students back for Arunah Hill Days.

Today was a warm spring day and Mud Season has hit Trouble Street and is starting to hit our gravel road. The Sugar House down in Worthington had a booming brunch business going, and the Sugar Evaporators on Rt nine were all on a full boil.

-Ed

February Work Day

2009-02-07T14:02:00.001-08:00

Steel gray skies and "warm" temperatures that hovered near 32 were the order of the day. Barry H, Tom Walker and I spent a couple of hours on a short mid-winter workday. The road is only passable to the lower lot, beyond that we had to trudge up to the top of the hill. There's maybe 14" of snow covered by a thick layer of ice and a thin frosting of powdery snow. This made walking an adventure... sometimes you broke through, sometimes not. Barry could mostly glide on top of the ice, Tom and I not so much...

The buildings are wintering over nicely. A couple of dead mice were found in the telescope shed, but it looks like the double effort of making it more difficult for mice to get in, plus the De-Con spread around the floor is keeping the critters under control this year.

After spreading a bit of sand around the driveway from the barn to Trouble St., we all packed up and headed home.

The snow pack isn't real deep so far this year, but I suspect it will still be well into April before spring reaches Arunah Hill. I'm already planning my menu for the Memorial Day pot luck dinner... 14 weeks away?! Thanks to Barry and Tom for working on a day when enjoying starlight on the hill seems a long way off.

January Workday

2009-01-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

On the eve of the Quadranid meteors, a small group of us braved the elements on a sunny, seasonable-but-blustery morning. Dan Carnevale's four wheel drive made it up the driveway to the stone wall, but my little Matrix stuck in the ice just past the barn. Dan, Barry Hervieux and I spent a little time clearing the small parking area across from the barn, and we sanded the area.

The lower drive is now "passable", but I still don't recommend anyone go up to the hill to observe alone. If you do come up, I'd recommend bringing your own sand, just in case. NOTE: free sand is available at the Cummington DPW yard just off Rt. 9, just bring your own shovel and container.

Ray Burk joined us, and we made our way up the hill, clearing the driveway of blow down as we went along. Barry and Dan's chains saws got a good workout, there were lots of large tree limbs to move out of the way. Dan had to stand on his tailgate to carefully cut up one of the limbs that was on some telephone wires.

I walked out to the lean-to's to check things out... both Scout Heaven and Piliated Path Lean-to's are in good shape, but there's a lot of blow down around Scout Heaven. All of the paths are impossible to follow, I needed to bushwhack my way through a tangle of brush... good thing I had my trusty pair of loppers. Maybe we can get the scouts to do some cleanup on the trails in the spring. It will take a lot of work. The big lean-to at Scout Heaven took a near miss... the top of a huge Hemlock must have missed the roof by a matter of inches!

The wind has blown most of the snow from the clearing, though where the drifts pile up the snow can be knee deep. All of the buildings are in great shape.

By noon we had cleared up the road enough for Dan and Barry to get their trucks to the clearing. Thanks to Dan, Barry, and Ray.

After all that hard work, I hope someone gets to see some meteors tonight!

-Ed

Into the Belly of the Beast

2008-12-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

On Friday, December 12, the area was hit with one of the worst ice storms in recent memory. Today temperatures rose just above freezing, and the work crews had cleared at least the main roads in town, so I carefully ventured out to have a look around.

As I turned off Rt 20 and turned north on to Rt 12, I was pretty surprised that Huntington wasn't touched by the storm. Even South Worthington had missed the brunt of the ice. By the time I got to Worthington Center, tree limbs were down and power was out. I got stopped a couple of times, waiting for power trucks and work crews to load up cut up timbers and clear one lane to traffic.

Crystalline trees gleamed in the sunlight to create a surreal beauty... though to the local residents without power for 48 hours, I don't think they saw things quite the same way I did. Soon enough, I had reached Trouble Street. Some folks had obviously worked hard, there were branches in piles along the way, but the road was sanded and passable, even in my little Matrix.

I didn't dare do anything but back 10' up into the Arunah Hill driveway. The drive was glare ice, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't part of the problem for emergency crews. I wasn't going to risk getting stuck.

I slipped on my crampons and started up toward the hill. I keep a wary eye on the ice-encrusted power lines to the barn and beyond. Some pretty large branches cover the driveway, but nothing a crew of volunteers and a chainsaw won't make quick work of once the footing is safe. We've got some limbs on top of the power lines near where we set up the speaker's tent. VENTURE CAREFULLY if you go up to the hill in the next few days. I'm not sure what will happen to his line when power is restored!

Without crampons the walk would have been impossible, and there were still down branches to walk around, but all in all, the road is in pretty good shape. Once I got up to the clearing, it was obvious we had lucked out, all the buildings came through just fine. Some small limbs were hanging on the old tool shed, but I don't think they are a threat to the building.

Our hiking trails will need a lot of maintenance, the Scouts will be pretty busy come spring time, but I'm sure they will be up to the task. I'm not sure how our lean-to's fared, it's definitely "hardhat required" to be bushwacking out there with so much ice still up in the trees.

I'll probably call a work day as soon as it's safe to do one, but for the mean time there's no immediate needs for maintenance on the hill. We got lucky on this one.

-Ed

Winter Sets in on the Hill

2008-12-08T08:45:00.001-08:00

I whiffed on sending out a work day reminder for December, but hardy members Ray Burk and Bob Osgood showed up anyway. Thanks! -Ed

Ray reports:

A word of warning to anyone attempting the summit: drive up VERY carefully. Both Bob and I had to make several attempts using the 4 wheel drive locks on his truck and my SUV to get past the lower regions of the hill, which were very icy. Getting down again was an interesting experience as well. As to work, we simply picked up some trash (one plastic knife and one piece of blowing paper), tested the chairs in the warming hut (they all worked just fine), killed at least 4000 flies and one yellow jacket, and left about 2:00 PM or so. Air temp outside was 26 degrees, wind about 20 knots, and inside air temp 80 degrees and wind 2 knots.

Respectfully submitted,

Ray Burk

Notchview Public Observing - 11/22/2008

2008-11-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

The drive to Notchview began with stop at Arunah Hill to check out the recent tree clearing. I arrived in the midst of a snow squall (see home page), snow devils would come and go with the wind. When it comes to weather, there's rarely a dull moment at Arunah Hill!

On to Notchview, where I met up with John, Kevin and Tom. It was already 4:00 pm and cold, so the Visitor Center stove was stoked and scopes were set up.

By 5:30pm, we were scanning the cloudy sky for a glimpse of the ISS, with the Space Shuttle in tow. This was a 4+ minute pass that peaked at 84 degrees. Sure enough, a very bright object was spotted almost directly overhead, and Kevin was able to track it for a short while with his dob. Under better conditions, this would have been a memorable pass. Oh well, some you win...

During the best moments, we had a partly cloudy sky on a windy 18 degree night. Not ideal, but observing did take place between runs to the Visitor Center for hot chocolate and warmth.

The event was well publicized and approx. twenty people braved the elements, including a large scout troop. The scouts decended upon the Visitor Center from their tent site on the hill. When resolve and endurance peetered out, we packed up and convoyed back toward Northampton.

This concludes our 2008 program at Notchview. We were able to conduct three of six planned events, for over sixty people that came from the hill towns, as well as Pittsfield, Northampton and Springfield. Thanks go out to Ray Burk, Ed Faits (and family), John Klinkowski, Kevin Phillips and Tom Walker for helping me with these events. Over the winter, I'll be working with the Notchview folks to set dates for 2009. Stay warm!

djc

Youth Trumps Weather

2008-11-15T15:04:00.000-08:00

A contingent of 28 dedicated young people from Worcester Polytechnic Institute made an incredible contribution to the hill today, despite a steady rain that soaked everyone thoroughly. Among the tasks they completed:

Hauling a huge pile of brush off the south end of the top of the clearing. We now have a much lower southern horizon from the parking area, after Joe Z and his dad did some major chainsaw work.
Help pull timber snags out of the east side of the clearing
Pile dirt around the telescope pads so now hopefully no one will fall off that pads in the dark.
Re-stack the "log cabin" that's been slowly decaying at the bottom of the clearing. The re-stack should buy us time to use the wood for something come spring, maybe a shelter on the south summit.
Cleared out the entrance to the trail from the clearing to the Piliated Lean-to.

I apologize that our attempts to feed them were hampered by running out of Coleman fuel. They put up with rain, wind, lukewarm Bolide Stew and some warm but not quite hot bratwursts, all without complaint. They seemed to enjoy the work. Thanks to a great group of young people. A special thanks to Dan Herzberg for organizing this. I promise if you guys come back in the spring time well have a building project!

-Ed

See all the pictures

Incredible Day... and Night

2008-11-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

The November 1, 2008 work day proved to be a winner on many levels. It started bright and early, with Joe Zuraw and his amazing father working the chain saws to free up some snags just east of the top of the clearing. Mr Z is somewhere in his mid '80s I think, and still out-works most of us on the hill.

Sometime mid-morning the high thin clouds thickened, but it wasn't an unpleasant day... no wind, and temperatures near 50.

The recent Star Watch grads were well represented and did an amazing amount of work... Matt Payne and Kevin Collins cleared brush and did some creative mouse-proofing of the telescope shed. Steel wool, foam, and a bit of pine sealed the place up nice and tight.

Steve Herzberg and his crew cleared some brush on the east end below the pavilion. Chevy and his son Ben moved many wheel barrows of dirt out around the upper pad, so it's now not such a drastic step-off in any direction.

Tom Walker swings a strong axe and split a cord of wood or so in front of the clubhouse. We should be set with firewood for a while.

Regulars Dan Carnevale, Ray Burk, and John Davis also did there usual fine work. Barry Hervieux had his chain saw roaring 'til sunset. It was also great to see Bob Osgood up on the hill on a rare Saturday off and got involved in brush clearing and cleaning up the telescope shed. Peter Scherff stopped by to review the proceedings, take care of some official paperwork, and also lent a hand to the activities.

Sunset brought a great community foil dinner, and skies cleared out nicely.

Jupiter was razor-sharp in twilight, as Io peaked out from behind the gas giant and gave us a nice shadow transit. I moments of good seeing in Dan's wonderful refractor I was making out detail in the bands.

As twilight deepened and the milky way emerged, we all knew we had a terrific night coming on. Highlights for me was the double cluster in Dan and Matt's scopes, and an awesome M-13 in Barry's scope. We had a nice collection of glass and knowledgeable folks that knew how to use it. M-13 was definately a naked eye object once the sky got fully dark.

After a quick binocular tour of the milky way and some wide field views of the Andromedia galaxy, I had to turn in relatively early (despite getting my "lost hour" back as daylight savings time ended), so I look forward to reports from those that stayed later!

Thanks to all who helped today, it was a terrific day and fun night on Arunah Hill!

-Ed

Up in the Clouds

2008-10-25T17:04:00.001-07:00

I made a quick stop up on the hill this morning, to do a little mice eradication. Just a quick stop, but it was interesting to drive up the hill into a fairly dense fog and mist. Trouble street wasn't foggy at all, but the top of the hill was in the cloud.

Anyway, I opened two packages of De-Con and put them in the telescope shed. If anyone is up there and notices all of the De-Con has been eaten by the nice, I've got two more packages on the self in the shed, ready to go.

-Ed

Star Watch 2008

2008-10-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Steve Herzberg, Dan Herzberg, Tom Walker, M.P. Chevrette, Mike Kozicki, Matt Payne, and Kevin Collins, the Star Watch class of 2008. Pictures coming soon!

Thanks also to Bruce B, Joe Z, John D, Dan C, Rich V, Mike O, and the rest of the crew for putting on another great weekend of leadership training.

-Ed