Impromtu Workday a Big Success

With cool rain threatening and washing out any possible "Fall Star Party", a lot got accomplished on the hill on Saturday, October 17.

Dan Carnevale and I arrived late morning to find the portable dome collapsed on the pad, apparently due to a violent wind storm. We got things safely disassembled, dried out, and sent to the barn for winter storage. Dan then turned his attention to the hydraulic wood splitter.

With the able help of Glenn Benscoter and Scout Troop 93 and Ray Burk, by afternoon's end we had a huge wood pile stacked up that should make for a warm comfortable winter.

Matt Paine turned his attentions to cleaning out the warming hut. He filled two large trash bags, and had the place spotless. It really loooks great! Now it's up to all of us to keep it that way. We can't use the hut for storage.

Tom Walker, Kevin Collins, and Jonathan Klinkowski cleaned out the telescope shed, Tom and Kevin built some wonderful folding shelves, then they put it all back together. The "mouseproofing" seems to be working. Great job guys!

Barry Hervieux fired up his chain saw and opened up the Amanda trail. It's clear all the way to Land's End.

We then enjoyed a fine foil dinner, complements of Kevin.

Cold and Clear at Notchview

A cloudy afternoon gave way to mostly clear skies for a nice evening of public viewing at Notchview. About 20 people showed up for public viewing, including some very knowledgable middle schoolers from Dalton. They compared clusters (the wild duck, the great Hercules cluster, and the double cluster), and saw galaxies and marveled at the colorful double star Alberio, and they got a nice view of Jupiter.

Thanks to Dan Carevale for organizing this, and to Ray Burk, Ron Woodland, Jonathan Klinkowski and Barry Hervieux for setting up telescopes, and especially thanks to the Notchview staff for the hospitality... and the wifi!

-Ed

Astrophotography from Arunah Hill by John Kocur

M 42 Orion Nebula taken with Canon XSi and 80mm Eon refractor.
71 second, single shot, unguided, f/6.25, 1600 ISO.
Image cropped, color adjusted, filtered with Neat Image.
Taken on 9 - 20 - 09 at Arunah Hill at 2:30AM


John Kocur - New AH Member