Congratulations to STAR WATCH 2013 Graduates!

Crystal Mengele, Sean Marien,  Read Predmore, Mark McDonough, Barry Freedland

May Workday and NotchView Viewing

Brilliant blue skies and comfortable temperatures made for a nice workday, and great public viewing at Notchview. Thanks to Kevin Collins, Matt Pain, Ray Burk, and Jonathan Klinkowski, we got the hill in great shape for spring. The water gathering system is now turned on, we just need some rain to fill the buckets to power the showers. There Gaertner is cleaned and oiled and ready for another year of service. The road is in decent shape, and the trail system seems to have weathered the winter well. Kevin got the weather station back in operation, in time to report the low humidity, comfortable temperatures, and light winds. Just a couple of warnings: Hornets are nesting in the observatory and the warming hut. I'll spray next time I'm on the hill, but just be aware of them. The other warning is the hill is pretty parched. Fire danger is HIGH! Please do not do any camp fires until we get some rain. The Notchview public viewing was a big success, thanks to Dan Carnevale, Ray, Kevin, Matt, and Jonathan. About 3 dozen folks were treated to stunning views of a setting Jupiter, a rising Saturn, and the galaxies of the spring sky.

Geminids Light Up The December Sky!

Last night was one of those rare nights when the New England weather cooperates with a celestial show and rewards those who brave the elements with a rare treat. With a good forecast in hand, a moonless night, and the promise of a strong Geminid meteor show, Ray, Dan, and I traveled up to Arunah Hill. Relatively mild December weather has left our road in pretty good shape. I knew it was going to be a good night when I pulled out of my driveway, clicked on the car radio, and caught a great Terri Gross musical interview with jazz legend John Pizzarelli. An hour later I arrived on the hill, where Dan already had Jupiter in the crosshairs of his wonderful refractor. Io was just beginning at transit. The Jupiter moons were little orbs under high power, not mere pinpoints. A memorable site! Soon I had a roaring fire going in the wood stove, and the hut was soon toasty. I was then able to settle in to my "Gravity Chair" for a great night of observing. By 8 PM we were seeing meteors every couple of minutes, some spectacular slow motion fireballs, many faint and fleeting. By 9 PM the rate had picked up a bit as the radiant rose well up in the northeast. The meteors often came in bursts of 2 or 3, seconds apart, in nearly the same path. Lots of dim fire specs seemed to rain out of Orion's belt, onto Lepus to its south. Many also seemed to plow westward, low through the big dipper, partly obscured by the stand of beech trees behind the telescope shed. The best ones all seemed to buzz Jupiter and pass nearly overhead, seeming to take aim at downtown Pittsfield and Albany over the horizon. As usual, during the lulls in viewing, Ray, Dan, and I covered lots of topics, from local politics to disc golf course land use to astrophysics. By 10 PM the cold seemed to be winning out, and Dan and I packed up and headed home, despite the wonderful sky show overhead. Ray was going to hang in for another hour or so, alone with the deer and the coyotes …and the dazzling fiery show overhead.

Ready for AH Days 2012

The grass is mowed, the Fitz ready to set up, the Gaertner lens is clean, and the really bad SciFi theater is in the DVD player. Ready to go!

The Fitz Telescope is Going Back to Stellafane!

The last time the giant refractor made to to Stellafane was in 1996! Wow, that long ago? We had a GREAT TIME. I'm looking forward to going back.

A Productive May Work Day

I arrived at the Hill around 11:00 with my stepson Tyler for the May work party. Joe, Kevin, Matt and Tom were just finishing attaching backhoe to tractor. After taking a few minutes to reverse the hydraulic hoses on the backhoe to their correct position, work began on the new culvert project. With Tom operating the backhoe and Joe maneuvering the tractor,the trench along the south side of the road was dug out. Matt tidied up the sides with a shovel.

Kevin, Tyler and I began work on the damaged culvert further up the road. Ray headed to top of hill for work on the weather station. Steve and DeeDee showed up and went up to help Ray and do a little mowing. Dee went out for gas and diesel as the rest of us continued with the various projects. Ray and Steve removed anemometer from clubhouse so it could be placed on pole with the other instruments. Kevin and I were working on how to repair the broken culvert. We removed part of the damaged end and after a trip to the barn to look for materials to support a concrete patch, Kevin found some steel mesh that we rolled into a tube a pushed into culvert from lower end. Tyler cleaned out end of culvert and we pushed the mesh in until Kevin was able to grab it and get it in place. We mixed up hydraulic cement and spread it over the mesh, and after waiting for it to setup, we mixed up some regular concrete and finished the patch. Tom, Joe and Matt got the new culvert in place and after several loads of gravel and a load of stone the road was passable again. Only one of the mowers was operational and that quit after a few passes. While Matt, Joe and Tom were putting the finishing touches on the road, Kevin, Tyler and I headed up to finish things up. Kevin and Ray got all the weather instruments in place, installed new batteries and after a few resets it was up and running. I did some maintenance on the clubhouse batteries, tinkered with the lawnmowers and called it a day. Tom put the 17.5" mirror back in the telescope shed and a productive work day came to a close. We left the hill just after 6:00 pm, tired but pleased with what was accomplished. Barry

Snow Flurries Give Way to Starlight

Arunah Hill hosted 3 carloads of engineering students from Olin College last night. They arrived to blustery winds and chilly temperatures and even a few snow flakes falling out of an overcast late April sky. However, persistence payed off, and by midnight they enjoyed some pristine skies as the Summer Milky Way climbed out of the valley. Here is their email: Oh yeah, it got super clear around midnight. We caught saturn and a great view of the sky! Thanks again, Andrew and SEDS