Saturday July 26 was our pad pouring day for the second pad, the one just below the telescope storage shed. I came up just before sunset on Friday, did a bit of mowing and prep work, then set my old 13" Coulter dob up on the Gaertner Pad. I was rewarded with some pretty good skies and a vivid view of the Milky Way. I picked off all of the old favorites from Sag and Scorpio on up past Cygnus. The night wasn't exactly a 10, but was the best skies I've seen since last fall. The clusters still look great in my battered old 'scope, but I just couldn't get a real sharp focus on Jupiter. We're still a couple of weeks from the Persieds, but the sky was alive with lots of meteors and many satellites.
I had my watch set for a brilliant Iridium flare, spectacular at -7 magnitude just to the southwest of Arcturus. I was well dark adapted and Arcturus looked brilliant, but it wasn't even close once the flare maxed.
I turned in before moonrise, but was awakened about 1 AM when my son Tyler and his buddies showed up. They did a bit of stargazing, then turned in. They knew a long work day awaited them, but I suspect they didn't know how long and hard a day.
Steve Pielock showed up at 8 AM and we began to get everything ready for the pad pouring. My son Tyler, about to go back to Atlanta for his junior year at Emory as a biology and chemistry major, and his friend James, a physics and engineering major home for the weekend from Fordam, woke up and got right to work laying out the rebar and reinforcing mesh.
Since we didn't have use of the tractor, Steve and James made a "sled" out of an old pallet and some rope, and we hauled gravel, bags of cement, and water on sled dragged by Steve's SUV.
After a quick breakfast and two pulls on the generator, we were pouring cement on a warm, sunny morning. After a few hours Steve commented about what good progress we were making and that we were 1/2 done. Within 10 minutes the cement mixer motor conked out, and we were reduced to turning the mixer by hand. We let the motor cool off, and it did come back to life, but for the rest of the day were were dealing with a flaky motor. By 2 PM when we were all wearing out (OK, at least I was!), Tyler's buddies Myles Gordon and Myles' girlfriend Lina showed up as reinforcement's. Myles and Lina were quickly put to work shoveling gravel. and dragging water. Lina even found time to shoot a few pictures (to be posted here soon! Thanks Lina).
With our gravel and Portland cement quickly running out, we finally finished pouring. MUCH THANKS to Tyler, James, Myles, and Lina for all of your hard work. It's great to get young people involved with the hill, and I look forward to your coming back up to enjoy the starry nights over the hill.
Special thanks to Arunah neighbor and our newest member, Laurel for supplying Steve and I with much needed food and drink while the cement curing. Thanks much to Ernie Zuraw, for applying his skills to finishing the surface of our pad.
Now we have two pads ready to go, and we're just 6 weeks from Arunah Hill Days.
I had my watch set for a brilliant Iridium flare, spectacular at -7 magnitude just to the southwest of Arcturus. I was well dark adapted and Arcturus looked brilliant, but it wasn't even close once the flare maxed.
I turned in before moonrise, but was awakened about 1 AM when my son Tyler and his buddies showed up. They did a bit of stargazing, then turned in. They knew a long work day awaited them, but I suspect they didn't know how long and hard a day.
Steve Pielock showed up at 8 AM and we began to get everything ready for the pad pouring. My son Tyler, about to go back to Atlanta for his junior year at Emory as a biology and chemistry major, and his friend James, a physics and engineering major home for the weekend from Fordam, woke up and got right to work laying out the rebar and reinforcing mesh.
Since we didn't have use of the tractor, Steve and James made a "sled" out of an old pallet and some rope, and we hauled gravel, bags of cement, and water on sled dragged by Steve's SUV.
After a quick breakfast and two pulls on the generator, we were pouring cement on a warm, sunny morning. After a few hours Steve commented about what good progress we were making and that we were 1/2 done. Within 10 minutes the cement mixer motor conked out, and we were reduced to turning the mixer by hand. We let the motor cool off, and it did come back to life, but for the rest of the day were were dealing with a flaky motor. By 2 PM when we were all wearing out (OK, at least I was!), Tyler's buddies Myles Gordon and Myles' girlfriend Lina showed up as reinforcement's. Myles and Lina were quickly put to work shoveling gravel. and dragging water. Lina even found time to shoot a few pictures (to be posted here soon! Thanks Lina).
With our gravel and Portland cement quickly running out, we finally finished pouring. MUCH THANKS to Tyler, James, Myles, and Lina for all of your hard work. It's great to get young people involved with the hill, and I look forward to your coming back up to enjoy the starry nights over the hill.
Special thanks to Arunah neighbor and our newest member, Laurel for supplying Steve and I with much needed food and drink while the cement curing. Thanks much to Ernie Zuraw, for applying his skills to finishing the surface of our pad.
Now we have two pads ready to go, and we're just 6 weeks from Arunah Hill Days.
