Pizza and Telescopes, and an ISS Pass!

Sidewalk Stargazing at Flatbread's was a big success! We had steady traffic and a big group of middle school students. Venus was sharp right to the horizon, the near 1st quarter moon, and then Jupiter were all big hits, but the highlight was a great pass from the International Space Station. Thanks to Dan Carnevale with his Traveler and Tyler Faits with a Teleview Genesis for tirelessly showing off the sky and answering "extra credit" questions from 5th graders, and to Jonathan Klinkowski for manning the busy raffle table.

Special thanks to Cathy Faits for getting us the pizza and her painting and to Peter Scherff for donating a meteorite and putting together the Arunah display, and to Eric and the staff of Flatbread's for hosting us.

We raised a little money for Arunah, got to show off the night sky, and even might have picked up a new member or two! Not bad for a Tuesday night.

Pizza Tuesday at Flatbread's in Canton

Gather up some friends and stop by Flatbread's in Canton, in the Shoppes at Farmington Valley for dinner on Tuesday night. It's a great pizza spot, and the will be donating $3 for every pizza sold on Tuesday, September 14 to Arunah Hill!

A pretty spectacular few weeks for Arunah Hill, including our best Arunah Hill Days ever!

Thanks to the Pielocks (great choice of movies, Steve), the Volants, Peter Scherff , the Benscotters, Joe Zuraw, Scott Massey and the Boy Scouts, Kevin Collins, Tom Walker, Ray Burk, Jonathan Klinkowski, Bruce Blanchard, rocketeers Ranger Gary Cislak and Jim Downing, and our speakers Jim Zebrowski and Prof. Tim Barker, and the rest of the Arunah membership who make such and event happen. Also thanks to Paul Tuthill at WAMC and to Amanda Germain and the Springfield Republican for some great publicity.

A special thanks to my family for all that they do.

Sunday Night!

Great night on the hill last night, and a terrific forecast for tonight (Sunday). If you are still thinking of attending Arunah Hill Days, there is still plenty of time!

-Ed 9 AM Sunday Morning, Sept 5

Arunah Hilll Days Update

The latest forecast looks like Arunah will miss most of the bad effects of Hurricane Earl, just some showers around Friday night, and not even too much wind, though it's possible some of the showers will be heavy.

We should see clearing by daybreak on Saturday, with winds peaking in early afternoon. Saturday night should be mostly clear with some breezy conditions, but nothing too bad.

At this point, we're making a few changes to the schedule:

1) NASA Ambassador Jim Zebrowski's talk will move to 7 PM on Saturday. Professor Barker's talk will immediately follow Jim's.

2) On Friday night will be showing the DVD "GalaxyQuest" in the pavilion. It's a great Tim Allen-Sigourney Weaver spoof of the StarTrek franchise. If time and interest demands, this will be followed by something from Steve Pielock's collection of SciFi gems. Free popcorn!

3) The Scout kitchen will NOT open until mid-afternoon on Saturday. Please be prepared! If there is interest, I'll sell Mrs. Murphy's Donuts on Saturday morning. I'll even volunteer to make a big pot of coffee, though no guarantees on the quality!

If anyone has any questions or concerns, please call me on my cell phone 860-818-8130. I'll be on the hill by noon on Friday.

-Ed

Earl Update

Earl is tracking to the northwest, and should make a northern turn sometime tonight... then turn to the northeast. Timing is still the key to how badly Arunah Hill is affected by the storm. At the moment the best guess is some moderate wind and rain Friday afternoon and evening at the center of the storm moves off the coast of Cape Cod, with clearing on Saturday.

No changes to the Arunah Hill Days Schedule has yet been made, everything is on as planned, but stay tuned!