Busy "Opening Weekend" for Arunah Events!

March 25-25 didn't exactly bring Spring weather to Western Massachusetts, but that didn't stop us from kicking off the 2011 Calendar of Events in fine fashion.

On Saturday night, Ray Burk and I hosted a small star party at the Bullitt Reservation in Ashfield, MA. The Bullitt farm is one of the newest properties managed by the Trustees of Reservations, and is a beautiful location. The large hay field had great horizons and good dark skies, and Layla Hazen and the staff at Bullitt did a nice job organizing the event, and about 30 people turned out on a very chilly evening for a celebration of Earth Hour. Ray put his trusty old Coulter dob to good use showing of galaxies in Leo, the great Orion Nebula, and the Gemini-Auriga clusters. We had good views of Saturn rising and a few double stars in my Gen.

It was nice to be able to retreat to a warm classroom from time to time to thaw out. Thanks to the Trustees, and we look forward to doing more events at the Bullit.

On Sunday, Peter Scherff, Dan Carnvale, and I staffed a booth at the New England Air Museum's Annual Space Expo. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio was signing autographs at the booth across the way from us, and we had steady traffic all day.

Pete's 120 pound Campo del Cielo meteorite was a big draw. Everyone that stopped by got a free piece of Camo meteroite, to the joy of many junior scientiests.

Arunah Hill member Jim Zebrowski was also at the museum in his roll as NASA Solar System Ambassador, and as always had great stories and neat "toys", including a kid sized space suit.