Clear Nights Continue!

Thanksgiving weekend provided some seasonably warm and clear nights for some good observing opportunities. Of course, seasonable warm on Arunah in late November means survivable, with overnight lows in the upper 20's.

Friday Nov 25 saw a small crowd on the hill to get in some great views of setting Summer objects like the ring and the veil, all of the autumn stunners like the great Andromeda galaxy, the double cluster, and M-15 globular, plus a chance to catch Orion rising over the distant hills.

Kevin's big scope and the club 17.5" dob delivered great views on a night that became increasingly transparent as the afternoon's high thin clouds dissolved away.

Big Jupiter high in the south proved stunning, as we all watched for the approaching Europe transit and shadow crossing.

Some stray meteors keep things lively. Barry, Kevin, Matt, and Ben L and the Amherst College students and I enjoyed a pleasant night on the hill.

A Busy November Weekend

Seasonably mild temperatures and clears skies brought out lots of activity on the hill. On Firday night Ben L from Amherst College brought a group of students up to the hill, and reported "it was stunning and incredible... most of us hadn't seen a view like that before. One of the international students was particularly stunned. It was amazing."

On Saturday Ray Burk and I trimmed back some fallen trees from along the driveway. I also double checked the shower lines to make sure everything was drained.

Scott Masey and Joe Zuraw brought a group of scouts up for a late autumn camping experience. The scouts cleaned up the Towers Trail as a service project. Thanks guys!

On Sunday Joe fired up the tractor and added some gravel to fix some ruts on the driveway. The road is now in good shape, but as always, proceed with caution and go slow up the hill. Wet leaves can conceal rocks and ruts.

Barry Hervieux was up on Saturday night to move his camper to its winter home.

With a good forecast for Thanksgiving weekend, hopefully we are not through the 2011 observing season yet!

Autumn to Winter back to Autumn

A freak October storm dumped over 30 inches of snow on Arunah Hill on October 29, just 5 days after a more typical October storm put down 3 or 4 wet inches of white. Kevin Collins reports that by Sunday, Nov 6, things were pretty much back to "normal" November conditions of the hill. The storm spared the hill much of the blow-down damage experienced by the valleys in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The road is passible, though please use caution!

-Ed

Arunah Hill Days 2011

The return of the RUM, a clear Friday night of observing, great speakers, and our most successful rocket launches ever highlighted AH Days 2011. Even Saturday night wasn't a total washout, with nice views of Jupiter and the moon despite some "soupy" skies.

Gary Cislak was presented with the first "Curt Schilling Award" for meritorious service in so many ways: tractors, gravel, mowing, rockets, and medical emergencies. Thanks Gary!

Thanks to all who made this a memorable event.

Details to follow.

Arunah Hill Survives Irene

I went up hill tonight to check on things. Everything came through just fine with the exception of some moderate to severe washouts along the driveway. The worst part is where the road takes the big left hand turn past the brook. Fortunately, we have a good supply of gravel well positions and the tractor should make short work of the road repair in plenty of time for Arunah Hill Days.

Looks like Irene was exclusively a rain event for the hill... no damage at all to any of the buildings, and very little "blow down" around the clearing. The porto-potties are fine, and the new roof on the shower building came through its first tropical storm with no problem at all.


The hill is still pretty saturated, especially in the usual spots, like below the telescope storage shed. The berm we put in a few years ago seemed to do its job, the clearing and the top of the driveway came through it all in pretty good shape. I'm expected with the great forecast for the week we'll be in great shape for Arunah Hill Days.

On the way to the hill the Westfield River was flowing fast and muddy, but was below flood stage. Once I got the the Knightville Dam, it wasn't too hard to figure out why... The dam is impounding massive amounts of water that would have otherwise inundated Westfield and Agawam.
Click on pictures to view at full size

I'll be up on the hill Wednesday and Thursday after work. Hopefully if the mowing and gravel repair is done in time, we'll be setting up the RUM and enjoying some dark skies on Thursday night!

Quite a Busy Week

It was a hell of an astronomical week for me. No, I didn't win a ribbon at Stellafane for my tri-shiefspiegler (I didn't get around to making it again this year), and I didn't see a spectacular aurora (even if they did reach this far south this week, I saw mostly cloud bottoms). What I did was participate in a star party with a background sound track of John Williams and the Boston Pops playing live at Tanglewood (thanks Alan Rifkin for organizing this) on Tuesday, showed off Saturn and the quarter moon to a great group of kids at the Enfield CT library on Friday night, and got to watch Matt Paine and Joe Zuraw fabricate a roof on the new Showers.

Matt and Joe were ably assisted a "ground crew" of Ray Burk and Peter Scherff. Meanwhile, Kevin Collins and Tom Walker rebuilt the collimation setup on the 18" Dobsonian.

Barry Hervieux and I mowed, and we managed to clean the tube of the Gaertner.

Lots more work to do over the next few weeks as we approach Arunah Hill Day. Thanks to all for their efforts!

Photo by Kevin Collins.

Gem of the Berkshires

Troop 550 and Crew 550 had a great time on the mountain last week. An Indigo Bunting has taken up house keeping in the tree tops around the clearing and we were able to capture it with the Geartner. The new locking diagonal that Bruce made for the telescope will allow the use of the large eye pieces.

The scouts conducted a orienteering course across the clearing and several pioneering projects took shape. One, a Cranson kitchen, is still set up for use behind the pavilion. We also conducted CPR and First Aid certification and had numerous nature walks on the trails. Tuesday night was music night featuring the Bruce and Joe show with special guests. Wednesday was a canoe trip on the Deerfield river and movies in the Pavilion in the evening.

There was general agreement that it was better than any BSA summer camp.

The new showers were well received. Everyone used them whether they wanted to or not. Even with a three day hike on the Appalachian Trail, I managed three long showers. When the week was over we had used only one of the three tanks. Suffice to say we have built plenty of capacity into the system.

I was up on the hill today removing one last car load of camp equipment. I also cut and installed the rafters for the shower house. All that is left is the roof. We need to decide what kind of roof we want. It could be pine boards and shingles or metal.

It is time to put some work into the roadway. At the next work weekend I will start spreading lime stone and gravel.

Well that's all the news from the Mountain. All the girls, boys and parents of troop and crew 550 say thank you Arunah hill it is truly one of the gems of the Berkshires.

Joe