Barry Hervieux's 16" dob proved to be the gathering point for those of us that took advantage of some great skies to do an "AHDays Makeup" observing this past Saturday. With the dew point in the 30's, transparency was super and the Milky Way was vivid from horizon to horizon. Barry hit all of the Summer Milky way showpieces and then some, with a variety of eyepieces, and popping the O3 filter in for dazzling views of some of the emission nebula.
One of my all-time favorites is M-17, the Sway Nebula... that the O3 showed off pieces of it I'd never seen before. It nearly filled the field of a 24mm eyepiece! With the great transparency, dark nebula abounded in the Sagittarius Star Cloud, and dark lanes (somehow corrupted to "Ducklings") popped out of the Andromeda Galaxy.
Jay, Katrina, John Davis and I pretty much monopolized Barry's scope for a couple of hours(sorry about that Barry, hope you weren't planning on hunting down some faint fuzzies on you own), even taking our shot at Stephan's Quintet. I know I clearly saw 3 in averted vision, and maybe caught the elusive final 2 though I didn't have a photo to confirm my sighting.
Mike and Cher gave there new telescope a good workout, viewing along the Milky Way and studying Jupiter and its moons.
The was also a "mystery truck" parked on the hill that left about 10 PM without a word... hum...
I also enjoy binocular and "naked eye" observing. I think I caught M-33 naked eye because when I turned the binocs to the suspected spot, sure enough, the galaxy was right were I was looking. I thought I saw a bit of faint aurora in the north just above treetops, but alas, it never turned in to anything.
Heading toward midnight, with frost threatening, we all gradually gave in and packed up, but what a great night of observing from Arunah Hill!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Arunah Hill Days ’07… Starlight and Thunder
Another AH Days is in the books… thanks to all who attended and especially to those whose hard work make these events so special.
Friday began with steady traffic up the hill, and some interesting and large telescopes were set up on the hill.
A mostly clear sky and high temperatures and humidity made for some good seeing, though transparency wasn’t great, especially near the horizons. Still, the rift in the Milky Way was apparent overhead.
Daytime highs in the high 80’s gave way overnight to lows in the mid 60s, more typical for late July than mid September on the hill.
Friday night speaker Brian Hawthorne, a forester with MassWildLife, wowed us down in the speaker’s tent, with a PowerPoint depicting the evolution of a typical New England landscape since the time of the glaciers. The landscape depicted was not all that different from Arunah Hill. Brian stuck around to observe and proved that his knowledge of the natural world extended to the night sky. Brian lives in nearby Plainfield, and hopefully we can get him up on the hill again soon.
Through Brian’s suggestions, expect to see some taller grass next spring and summer on the hill. It won’t be from lazy mowing, it will be to provide nesting habitat to birdlife. We’ll still clear around the heavily used areas, but the the birds have the grasslands at the east and south end of the upper clearing during the nesting season, April through early August.
I’ve already subscribed to MASSACHUSETTS WILDLIFE magazine, at http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/publications/mwmag/mwmag_home.htm
After the tent talk, observing and lively conversations and some good guitar pickin’ continued far in to the night.
Saturday dawned heavy with dew, and the sky quickly turned to high thin clouds, but after some strong Boy Scout coffee, everyone seemed to be in high gear. Bruce Blanchard lead a fun and informative nature walk, then Jim Downing and Gary Cizlak did their usual fine job getting the kids in attendance organized building rockets. Somewhere around 20 rockets were completed.
With Gary loading engines, Jim and his son supervised the launches. Gusting winds created a bit of havoc, with 10 rockets lost when the parachutes carried the reentry pattern into the maples and oaks down the hill. Still, with over 30 successful launches and recoveries, our young rocketeers had a good time.
When I commented that “a ship was safe in port, but that’s not what she’s built for…”, young Jason caught the metaphor but responded that “ya, but we’re not losing the rockets with streamers, only the ones with parachutes”, and choose to take his ‘chute and rocket home to fly again another day. Young Jason should do well in life!
If anyone has some nice digital pictures of the rocket launches (or anything else at AH Days ’07), please email them to me, efaits@comcast.net.
By mid-afternoon rain and a brief thunderstorm moved in, washing out the horseshoe tourney and causing many of us to scramble to put away ‘scopes. Thanks to Alan Rifkin, who brought out Lego cars building and racing up in the pavilion to amuse everyone during the storm.
Thing dried up well enough to hold a lively raffle drawing. Congrats to all the winners, and thanks to all who bought tickets and especially those who donated prizes. AH Days is “free”, but there are still expenses to cover. And sorry I teased “Will” on a couple of his prizes; I really did know that it wasn’t “LLIM” on an up-side-down ticket.
Dr. Rob Gendler showed off his spectacular astro-photographs, and gave a great talk on the skill, planning, and hard work that goes in to making them. I’m now the proud owner of an autographed copy of “A Year in the Life of the Universe”.
Unfortuately, clouds and some light rain prevented any observing Saturday night, but Steve’s screening of “Final Countdown” provided some entertainment. “Final Countdown” might have been too good to qualify for “Bad Sci-Fi Theater”. Steve, you may have to do better (worse?) next year.
The hill stayed alive with music and laughter until at least midnight (I think that’s when I fell asleep, so I can’t comment on after that…”, so despite the weather everyone seemed to have a good time. I couple of thunder booms threatened during the night, but we got no worse than a light shower.
Special thanks to Steve and DeeDee Pielock, for the big and little things they do to pull off this event, to Joe Z, for everything Arunah, this time around especially for work with the scouts running a great kitchen, to Peter Schreff who does more for Arunah Hill than most people ever suspect, to Bruce Blanchard, Barry Hervieux, Dan Carnevale, the Volants and the Downings for doing whatever needs to be done, the Boy Scouts (and their parents!) and all of the rest of the Arunah Volunteers for making this happen.
Thanks too to John Davis, whose enthusiasm for this hobby is a marvel to us all. John, you’ve earned your way off triple secret probation. Just let me or Steve give the driving directions…
Now to plan Star Watch, and then start thinking about AH Days ’08!
Friday began with steady traffic up the hill, and some interesting and large telescopes were set up on the hill.
A mostly clear sky and high temperatures and humidity made for some good seeing, though transparency wasn’t great, especially near the horizons. Still, the rift in the Milky Way was apparent overhead.
Daytime highs in the high 80’s gave way overnight to lows in the mid 60s, more typical for late July than mid September on the hill.
Friday night speaker Brian Hawthorne, a forester with MassWildLife, wowed us down in the speaker’s tent, with a PowerPoint depicting the evolution of a typical New England landscape since the time of the glaciers. The landscape depicted was not all that different from Arunah Hill. Brian stuck around to observe and proved that his knowledge of the natural world extended to the night sky. Brian lives in nearby Plainfield, and hopefully we can get him up on the hill again soon.
Through Brian’s suggestions, expect to see some taller grass next spring and summer on the hill. It won’t be from lazy mowing, it will be to provide nesting habitat to birdlife. We’ll still clear around the heavily used areas, but the the birds have the grasslands at the east and south end of the upper clearing during the nesting season, April through early August.
I’ve already subscribed to MASSACHUSETTS WILDLIFE magazine, at http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/publications/mwmag/mwmag_home.htm
After the tent talk, observing and lively conversations and some good guitar pickin’ continued far in to the night.
Saturday dawned heavy with dew, and the sky quickly turned to high thin clouds, but after some strong Boy Scout coffee, everyone seemed to be in high gear. Bruce Blanchard lead a fun and informative nature walk, then Jim Downing and Gary Cizlak did their usual fine job getting the kids in attendance organized building rockets. Somewhere around 20 rockets were completed.
With Gary loading engines, Jim and his son supervised the launches. Gusting winds created a bit of havoc, with 10 rockets lost when the parachutes carried the reentry pattern into the maples and oaks down the hill. Still, with over 30 successful launches and recoveries, our young rocketeers had a good time.
When I commented that “a ship was safe in port, but that’s not what she’s built for…”, young Jason caught the metaphor but responded that “ya, but we’re not losing the rockets with streamers, only the ones with parachutes”, and choose to take his ‘chute and rocket home to fly again another day. Young Jason should do well in life!
If anyone has some nice digital pictures of the rocket launches (or anything else at AH Days ’07), please email them to me, efaits@comcast.net.
By mid-afternoon rain and a brief thunderstorm moved in, washing out the horseshoe tourney and causing many of us to scramble to put away ‘scopes. Thanks to Alan Rifkin, who brought out Lego cars building and racing up in the pavilion to amuse everyone during the storm.
Thing dried up well enough to hold a lively raffle drawing. Congrats to all the winners, and thanks to all who bought tickets and especially those who donated prizes. AH Days is “free”, but there are still expenses to cover. And sorry I teased “Will” on a couple of his prizes; I really did know that it wasn’t “LLIM” on an up-side-down ticket.
Dr. Rob Gendler showed off his spectacular astro-photographs, and gave a great talk on the skill, planning, and hard work that goes in to making them. I’m now the proud owner of an autographed copy of “A Year in the Life of the Universe”.
Unfortuately, clouds and some light rain prevented any observing Saturday night, but Steve’s screening of “Final Countdown” provided some entertainment. “Final Countdown” might have been too good to qualify for “Bad Sci-Fi Theater”. Steve, you may have to do better (worse?) next year.
The hill stayed alive with music and laughter until at least midnight (I think that’s when I fell asleep, so I can’t comment on after that…”, so despite the weather everyone seemed to have a good time. I couple of thunder booms threatened during the night, but we got no worse than a light shower.
Special thanks to Steve and DeeDee Pielock, for the big and little things they do to pull off this event, to Joe Z, for everything Arunah, this time around especially for work with the scouts running a great kitchen, to Peter Schreff who does more for Arunah Hill than most people ever suspect, to Bruce Blanchard, Barry Hervieux, Dan Carnevale, the Volants and the Downings for doing whatever needs to be done, the Boy Scouts (and their parents!) and all of the rest of the Arunah Volunteers for making this happen.
Thanks too to John Davis, whose enthusiasm for this hobby is a marvel to us all. John, you’ve earned your way off triple secret probation. Just let me or Steve give the driving directions…
Now to plan Star Watch, and then start thinking about AH Days ’08!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Ready for Arunah Hill Days!
As I write this, Arunah Hill Days is just 4 days away and the weather prospects are looking up. I hope to be up on the hill Thursday night with the setup preparations, but with the mowing crew this past weekend, the hill is looking good.
Look for a new feature at AH Days, The Arunah Hill Observing Challenge. There will be two versions, one for anyone wanting to log nine showpiece objects, and one for observers who want to "push the envelop". Anyone who complete the challenge will get their observations posted on this site.
A special thanks to new member Mike from Florence, MA, the first one to show up for the Saturday workday, for generously leaving his weed wackers for the weekend. Thanks also to mowers and trimmers John Davis, Barry Hervieux and his wife Pamela, Gary Cislak, Dan Carnevale, and of course Joe Zuraw and Steve Pielock, who also came up the hill on last Thursday to repair the hydraulic lines on the tractor.
Look for a new feature at AH Days, The Arunah Hill Observing Challenge. There will be two versions, one for anyone wanting to log nine showpiece objects, and one for observers who want to "push the envelop". Anyone who complete the challenge will get their observations posted on this site.
A special thanks to new member Mike from Florence, MA, the first one to show up for the Saturday workday, for generously leaving his weed wackers for the weekend. Thanks also to mowers and trimmers John Davis, Barry Hervieux and his wife Pamela, Gary Cislak, Dan Carnevale, and of course Joe Zuraw and Steve Pielock, who also came up the hill on last Thursday to repair the hydraulic lines on the tractor.
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