The Grinch Couldn't Steal Chrismas, and Hurricane Bob Couldn't Steal Aruanah Hill Days

Despite a category 3 hurricane churning off the New England coast throwing some serious rain bands on the hill, a soggy but happy group got to enjoy Arunah Hill Day. (Click on images to view full size)

Friday afternoon brought a fierce thunderstorm, with lightning strikes not far from the clearing. The rain settled down to a mere drizzle, and we were treated to a fine talk by Kevin Renfro, space suit engineer from Hamilton Sunstrand.

Somehow, despite a horrible forecast and a full day of rain ranging from torrents to drizzle, the skies cleared out, and Barry Hervieux and his crew reported excellent transparency and good seeing between 11 PM and 1 AM.

Saturday morning dawn with high humidity (dew points in the 70's made for some uncomfortable camp sleeping). Late morning activities included making cardboard telescopes (celebration of Galileo's 400's anniversary of the first use of the astronomical telescope) and rocket making for kids of all ages.

Unfortunately, fog and steady rains moved in before we could launch the rockets. The raffle was held in a steady rain, but no one seemed to be deterred, and fortunately the names and numbers on the tickets we still readable despite the soaking.

John Briggs delivered a fascinating talk about the history of the great Yerkes 36" refractor, and even managed to work in a connection to our own 6" Gaertner telescope. After the talk, a few "sucker holes" appeared in the sky, but lightning (and fireworks) could still be seen off in the distance.

Thanks to all those how attended and made such an enjoyable event despite challenging weather.

Now thanks to all that worked hard to put the event together... Steve Pielock and Kevin Collins for providing the A/V (and Tom Whitney for making a projector available on short notice), Bruce Blanchard, Joe Zuraw, Scott Massey, and the Hadley Boy Scouts for running an excellent kitchen, Peter Scherff for all his work with the raffle, getting the telescope kits, and putting together the "retail clothing" tent, Jonathan Klinkowski for providing the weather alerts and forecasts, Glenn Benscoter for help out in the merchandise tent, Ranger Gary Cislak for his work on the rockets, John Davis for coordinating speakers, Barlow Bob for bringing his solar gear, Al Rifkin for organized the telescope build and providing popcorn and lime seltzer, Tom Walker and Barry Hervieux for doing whatever else needs to be done, and Rich Volant for his infusion of dark humor and/or electrical repair as needed, and to everyone else who's contributions to AH Days I'm overlooking at the moment.

Special thanks to DeeDee Pielock and Deb Volant for supplying me with snacks and tasty liquid refreshments.

And remember, "we are not an angry mob"

-Ed

Ready for Arunah Hill Days!

With the tractor now operational, the 17 1/2" telescope is all set, the 10" is rebuilt, we're ready for AH Days! Now just hope for weather like this weekend!

Thanks to Steve and Will Pielock, Ray Burk, Jonathon K, Dan Carnevale, Kevin Collins, and Tom Walker for all the work today.

Exquisite Skies!

While many of you were enjoying good skies at Stellafane or Northfield, my son Tyler and I went up to the hill of Friday, August 14 to do a little publicity for the hill with a reporter from the Hampshire Gazette. I'm happy to report that my son is much more eloquent than I and ended up getting the lion's share of the interview time, and he's a terrific spokesperson for Arunah Hill. Thanks Tyler!

After the interview, we showed the reporter Jupiter ascending over the trees in twilight, and the Gaertner delivered! Amazing that after 100 years this telescope can still deliver. After the reporter left, Tyler and I went up to the top of the hill and sat and watched the summer stars slowly emerge. Once the milky way popped out, after a summer of haze and humidity, we we stunned at how transparent the night became.

Once fully dark, the rifts and knows in the Milky Way were vivid, and a binocular tour revealed structure and detail beyond comprehension. We went back to the Gaertner, and hit all the summer show pieces: the wild duck, the trifid and lagoon, M-13 & M-22, then the double cluster and Andromeda galaxy filling the eyepiece.

Before we knew it, it was approaching midnight and moonrise. Had Jupiter really moved THAT far before our eyes? It seemed like no time had past.

We got back in the car, turned on the radio, and were distressed to hear the Red Sox down to their last strike... but then a double, and a flurry of hits, a Sox victory! A nice way to cap a great night with my son before he hads back to college.

-ED

Mower Deck Back Together

Steve Pielock, Ray Burk and I assembled the shaft back to the mower deck tonight... almost ready to go. Thanks to Steve, Bruce Blanchard, and Barry Hervieux for taking the lead on getting this fixed, and to the Volants for the welding job to hold it all together.

I also got a chance to spray for carpenter ants in the telescope shed. My wife Cathy sewed up a new shroud for the 18" telescope.

We're getting ready for Arunah Hill Days!

-Ed

The Arunah Hill Bandana

For just $7, (or 3 for $20!) you can be the proud owner of the new Arunah Hill bandana.

Bear Alert!

I just wanted to let you know that we have a black bear in the nearby neighborhood.

As I was leaving the Hill (around 3:30 or so), I turned left onto Trouble Street, and just about the place where Dave Bowman lives, there was a largish (180 lbs or so) black bear standing on the road, examining something on the ground. I honked, and it rambled off into the woods on Dave’s side of the street. I didn’t see any cubs, so I don’t know if it was a female or a sole male, but it was a bear, no question about it.

Since we now know we do have a bear in the woods nearby, it’s a good idea to remind everyone at Arunah Hill Days to keep their food either in their cars, or in a bear proof container so as not to attract the critters into the clearing.

-Ray

My comments:

We also need to be doing a better job getting our trash out of there ever time we use Arunah Hill. Next time I'm up on the hill, I'm going to leave a bag of heavy trash bags up by the pavilion. Please don't leave ANYTHING eatable in the blue barrels. Put everything in a trash bag, and haul the trash bag away at the end of the evening. I've been guilty of this myself in the past, after the "fried turkey" of Memorial day, raccoons got in to the leftovers.

-Ed

New Doors and a Suprising Jupiter

Saturday Aug 8 was an impromptu workday. Kevin Collins, Tom Walker, and Rich finished off the "mouse proofing" of the telescope shed by installing new doors (thanks Kevin's brother!), installing trim work, and adding vents. It was a full day's effort, but things are looking great and if a mouse can still get in to that shed, I'd love to know how. (By the way, it will now be very important to keep the doors securely closed at all times other than actively loading or unloading telescopes, or we risk re-infestation. Now our main problem seems to be ants! I treated the perimeter with Ant-B-Gone, but we still need to spray to knock out the ants already nesting in the walls.

Jonathan Klinkowski helped keep the generator running smoothly and also helped out with the shed work and some mowing, then treated us all to some great burgers. Ray Burk was a week whacking demon, and John Davis mowed between the pavilion and the telescope shed. I got the Pilated Path opened up all the way to Land's End, and started clearing back down the Klondike Trail until I ran into some blowdown that will require a chainsaw to clear.

Not a bad day's effort for a "non-workday".

After the work party, my wife and son Tyler and our friends the Markens came up to the hill. After a session picking berries at Bashan Hill, we lauched a couple of rockets, hiked out to Land's End, picnicked in the pavilion, then built a campfire and just soaking in the Arunah Hill ambiance under overcast skies with predictions of approaching rain. To my great surprise, some pretty large wholes in the clouds opened up. Tyler and I scurried to ready the Gaertner, and to my surprise we had very steady seeing and great views of Jupiter and the just-past-full moon. We caught a shadow transit on Jupiter, and lots of details in the cloud bands.

-Ed

August Workday: Getting Ready for AHDays

Today was a beautiful summer day on the hill, warming into the low 80's with only moderate humidity. The first order of business was to repair the washed out parts of the road. A few loads by hand gave we to two big tractor loads and the road is now back in good shape. The portable observatory next to the Gaertner was collapsed in a big thunderstorm last week, Barry, Matt and I put it back together, with only two pieces left over.... :)

We took advantage of the nice weather to get lots of mowing done, with Steve Pielock, Jonathan Klinkowski, Matt Paine and me pushing around mowers.

After the mowing, Steve Pielock and Barry Hervieux started the process to repair the broken shaft on the tractor mower deck. It's now dis-assembled, and Steve took the pieces home to put it all back together. We should have the tractor mower back in action before Arunah Hill Days.

Barry and Tyler cleared the Pilated Path all the way to Lands' End. Our trails are really getting back in shape after all the devastation from the December Ice Storm. It's nice to have that work behind us to be able to focus on our telescope operations.

Next weekend we'll have Kevin, Tom, and a small crew working on getting the new "mouse proof" doors installed in the telescope shed. If anyone wants to join in this as an impromptu work day the help will be appreciated. Arunah Hill Days is fast approaching. On the way home I watched the fat waxing moon rise... once it's new, AHDays will be here!

Thanks to all helped out today, and thanks to Jonathan for feeding us again! Great burgers!

-Ed