Sanding the Road and Radio to the Far Reaches

We had a good turnout for the February workday. Dan Carnevale, Kevin Collins, Ray Burk, Tom Walker, Matt Paine, and I spread several barrels of sand on the slick spots of the driveway. By afternoon, even my little 2-wheel drive Matrix easily made it to the top of the hill.

We inspected the telescope storage shed, and were pleased that there are no signs of a rodent problem.

With the outside temperature hovering around 25 F and the sun struggling to break through the high overcast, we gathered around the wood stove and Matt went to work on the ham radio. Matt was soon hitting repeaters all over New England and New York. He had conversations with folks in Westboro, Ma, Troy, New York, and Rhode Island.

With a massive Nor'easter just south of the New England coast, the prospects for a clear night on Arunah seemed to fade. If the weather holds, the hill will be in good shape for next weekend's winter star party.... though a midweek storm looks like it might have other plans. We'll just have to wait and see.

Our mailbox was a midwinter casualty of snowplowing. I ran into town to pick up the Arunah Hill mail. We'll have to put mailbox repair on the list for the March workday.

Thanks to all who helped today.
-Ed

Midwinter's Day

Joe Zuraw carved out a tractor path to the top of the hill yesterday, and today Joe and I spread some sand on the newly rediscovered road and were able to get my little Matrix to the clearing. It's been a cold winter on the hill, but so far not a lot of snow. The cleaning looks like a wind-blown moonscape, frozen solid but down to bare ground in many spots. The trails have some drifting snow, I walked part of the Farrington trail and the snow varied from ankle to knee deep.



With a bit of luck from the weather and a solid workday next Saturday, the hill should be usable for star parties in February.

All of the buildings appear to be wintering over just fine, and so far the trails have seen a significant amount of blow-down. We still have the back half of the winter to go through, but for me it was nice to be back on the hill for the first time in six weeks.

Just to preview the upcoming spring, we'll again have a Memorial Day feast on the Saturday, May 29. It will be just two days after the full moon, so don't expect any great dark sky viewing, but Saturn will be just past opposition and Mars will be high in the south at sunset. Expect a few new geocaches to be hidden, and we'll have the First Annual Arunah Rocket Challenge: You goal, launch a model rocket (NAR approved!) keep it in the air for the prescribed time (to be chosen on launch day, but say 75 seconds) and try to land it on the bulls eye. For every second away from 75 seconds, and every yard away from the bulls eye, you get one penalty point. The person with the lowest score wins!


Bring your own rocket, or build one on site (I'll have a few kits available, plus a selection of engine sizes). You can have up to 3 chances, so you can change engines, add weigh, or change parachute / streamer size to you get that perfect combination.


Circle September 14 on your calendars. We're going to have a fundraiser at Flatbread's in Canton CT! We'll get a few dollars for every pizza sold that night, plus we'll have a raffle and some telescopes out on the sidewalk. Invite friends! Flatbread's has great food and is a fun place. It's at the Farmington Valley Shoppes, with great shopping for everyone in the family. Kohl's, Barnes and Noble, Dicks' Sports, Talbot's, Kid Jamboree, and other specialty shops make it a fun destination even of a drive for some of us.

-Ed

Geminids Worth the Effort!

Despite frigid wind-chill, icy roadways, and still being 24 hours from the Geminid Meteors peak, Mike Kozicki braved the elements and drove up to Trouble St on Saturday, December 12 to observer the shower. He expected he'd find a few die-hard sky observers, but turned out to be the only one. The road leading up to the hill was impassible, so he pulled over to the side of Trouble Street as far as he could and stood outside the car. He took a bunch of photos of Orion and Sirius but didn't catch any meteors - they were all in other parts of the sky. He stayed until about 2 AM before calling it a night. It was a good show - He reported seeing dozens over the four hours or so that he was there.

As many of you know, the Geminids turned out to be a very strong shower this year, perhaps the best since the Leonids of 2001... but by the shower's Sunday night/Monday morning peak, New England was enshrouded in rain and snow.

Snow Flakes

Small crew today, and just a little bit of work to get the hill ready for winter. Ray Burk picked up and stored some wayward tools. I walked most of the trail system to check up on things and clear blow downs where necessary. By early afternoon the overcast skies started dropping snow that was starting to stick. The forecast called for four to six inches of whiteness, so I called it a day early.

We've got a nice stack of firewood and set for the winter observing season. For the moment, he road is still in good shape, but if you are planning to use the hill be sure to check carefully on conditions before trying to drive to the top.

If we get good weather next Sunday, I expect to see some of you up on the hill for Geminds!

-Ed

Late November Observing

I came up to Arunah Hill this weekend for some observing. While both Friday and Saturday nights were both clear, the wind prevented any observing on Friday. This was unfortunate forTom Walker and Kevin Collins who showed up with Kevin's20" Dob.

Saturday night was a great night for observing. Joe Z. opened up the Gaertner for the scout troop he was hosting while Matt Paine, his friend Tom from Seekonk and I were at the summit. Tom was doing some imaging but the dew was winning the battle over his C8. Matt and I were cruising the sky with my 16" scope. M33 showed alot of detail while the Orion Nebula was incredible. We were also able to pick up theHorsehead using an H-beta filter. We also observed M31, M1, M44, M15, the Blue Snowball, Double Cluster and other objects including the California Nebula.

After Tom left and Matt turned in I stayed out until after 4:00 am. I took a look at Mars and Saturn, the Cone and Rosette nebulas and M81/M82 but the highlight came just after 4:00 when a Leonid fireball lit up the sky and ground. I quickly looked up to see the bright glowing trail this fireball left. The smoke trail was visiblefor almost 10 minutes as the upper level winds shaped it into a donut. I then called it a night. All in all a pretty good weekend at Arunah. Matt installed the radio in the clubhouse and it is now up and running. Here's hoping the snow holds off so we can get some observing done in December.

Barry

Cold Rain No Problem to Troop 32

For the second weekend in a row a scout troop used Arunah Hill to prepare for their Astronomy Merit Badge. Troop 32 out of Springfield braved cold blowing rain but didn't let it deter them.

Seven scouts and leaders participated in a "human" solar system, studied the phases of the moon, learned about distances in the solar system and beyond, and learned how to use a planisphere. The asked great questions and demonstrated quite a bit of knowledge about the night sky.

Though the weather was dismal, they were able to glimple the great square of Pegasus, Cassiopeia, and even catch a brilliant meteor before drizzle moved in Friday night.


-Ed

Notchview Public Observing on November 7th

Arunah Hill has concluded it's 2009 public observing program at Notchview. We were blessed with mild temperatures and clear skies well into the night. 20+ people from the hilltowns, and as far away as Colebrook, enjoyed views of Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and a variety of galaxies, clusters and double stars.

Our host Jim Caffrey had the wood stove running and set out hot chocolate to warm the young & old. The Notchview Visitor's Center is an excellent facility that makes late fall observing sessions (at 2000 feet) an enjoyable experience.

In a year of generally disagreeable weather, we had agreeable weather for an unprecedented number of events. My thanks go out to club members who brought their scopes and skills to these events: Ray Burk, Kevin Collins, Ed Faits, Barry Hervieux, Jonathan Klinkowski, Tom Walker and Ron Woodland.

On this night, and after spending the daylight hours at an Arunah Hill work day, Kevin Collins brought his 13" Dob to Notchview. It's good to have different types of scopes so that our visitors can enjoy the strengths of each design. Kevin's full day of commitment to Arunah Hill is much appreciated.

Early next year, we'll work with Colin & Jim to set 2010 Notchview dates. For those that enjoy cross-country skiing, I encourage you to visit Notchview during the winter months.

djc