Geminids Light Up The December Sky!

Last night was one of those rare nights when the New England weather cooperates with a celestial show and rewards those who brave the elements with a rare treat. With a good forecast in hand, a moonless night, and the promise of a strong Geminid meteor show, Ray, Dan, and I traveled up to Arunah Hill. Relatively mild December weather has left our road in pretty good shape. I knew it was going to be a good night when I pulled out of my driveway, clicked on the car radio, and caught a great Terri Gross musical interview with jazz legend John Pizzarelli. An hour later I arrived on the hill, where Dan already had Jupiter in the crosshairs of his wonderful refractor. Io was just beginning at transit. The Jupiter moons were little orbs under high power, not mere pinpoints. A memorable site! Soon I had a roaring fire going in the wood stove, and the hut was soon toasty. I was then able to settle in to my "Gravity Chair" for a great night of observing. By 8 PM we were seeing meteors every couple of minutes, some spectacular slow motion fireballs, many faint and fleeting. By 9 PM the rate had picked up a bit as the radiant rose well up in the northeast. The meteors often came in bursts of 2 or 3, seconds apart, in nearly the same path. Lots of dim fire specs seemed to rain out of Orion's belt, onto Lepus to its south. Many also seemed to plow westward, low through the big dipper, partly obscured by the stand of beech trees behind the telescope shed. The best ones all seemed to buzz Jupiter and pass nearly overhead, seeming to take aim at downtown Pittsfield and Albany over the horizon. As usual, during the lulls in viewing, Ray, Dan, and I covered lots of topics, from local politics to disc golf course land use to astrophysics. By 10 PM the cold seemed to be winning out, and Dan and I packed up and headed home, despite the wonderful sky show overhead. Ray was going to hang in for another hour or so, alone with the deer and the coyotes …and the dazzling fiery show overhead.

Ready for AH Days 2012

The grass is mowed, the Fitz ready to set up, the Gaertner lens is clean, and the really bad SciFi theater is in the DVD player. Ready to go!

The Fitz Telescope is Going Back to Stellafane!

The last time the giant refractor made to to Stellafane was in 1996! Wow, that long ago? We had a GREAT TIME. I'm looking forward to going back.

A Productive May Work Day

I arrived at the Hill around 11:00 with my stepson Tyler for the May work party. Joe, Kevin, Matt and Tom were just finishing attaching backhoe to tractor. After taking a few minutes to reverse the hydraulic hoses on the backhoe to their correct position, work began on the new culvert project. With Tom operating the backhoe and Joe maneuvering the tractor,the trench along the south side of the road was dug out. Matt tidied up the sides with a shovel.

Kevin, Tyler and I began work on the damaged culvert further up the road. Ray headed to top of hill for work on the weather station. Steve and DeeDee showed up and went up to help Ray and do a little mowing. Dee went out for gas and diesel as the rest of us continued with the various projects. Ray and Steve removed anemometer from clubhouse so it could be placed on pole with the other instruments. Kevin and I were working on how to repair the broken culvert. We removed part of the damaged end and after a trip to the barn to look for materials to support a concrete patch, Kevin found some steel mesh that we rolled into a tube a pushed into culvert from lower end. Tyler cleaned out end of culvert and we pushed the mesh in until Kevin was able to grab it and get it in place. We mixed up hydraulic cement and spread it over the mesh, and after waiting for it to setup, we mixed up some regular concrete and finished the patch. Tom, Joe and Matt got the new culvert in place and after several loads of gravel and a load of stone the road was passable again. Only one of the mowers was operational and that quit after a few passes. While Matt, Joe and Tom were putting the finishing touches on the road, Kevin, Tyler and I headed up to finish things up. Kevin and Ray got all the weather instruments in place, installed new batteries and after a few resets it was up and running. I did some maintenance on the clubhouse batteries, tinkered with the lawnmowers and called it a day. Tom put the 17.5" mirror back in the telescope shed and a productive work day came to a close. We left the hill just after 6:00 pm, tired but pleased with what was accomplished. Barry

Snow Flurries Give Way to Starlight

Arunah Hill hosted 3 carloads of engineering students from Olin College last night. They arrived to blustery winds and chilly temperatures and even a few snow flakes falling out of an overcast late April sky. However, persistence payed off, and by midnight they enjoyed some pristine skies as the Summer Milky Way climbed out of the valley. Here is their email: Oh yeah, it got super clear around midnight. We caught saturn and a great view of the sky! Thanks again, Andrew and SEDS

On Sunday Matt and I headed up to the Hill (he had been in town for a ride this weekend) to start the concrete pier which would provide a permanent place to setup the Hill’s incredible Coronado H-Alpha scope and AP refractor. These currently ride on a UniStar mount and tripod. To more easily facilitate their use and eliminate the need to setup the relatively heavy(er) tripod, the idea of a concrete pier in the area of the Telescope Shed had been on my mind for about a year now.

Matt and I headed up around 10 AM with a small generator and hammer drill I borrowed from work, some rebar, and concrete anchor epoxy. We located a few spots that were likely to be dry, flat, and not in high traffic areas…ultimately choosing a location just southwest of the telescope
shed near the bedrock outcrop between it and the road.

Google Earth pic of location.

After removing about 8 inches of topsoil and some nice free rock (great for a club house step!) we cleared off a 2x2 foot section of bedrock to drill the rebar pinning holes. The hammer-drill made quick work of the four 8” deep ¾” diameter holes….finishing each in about 7 or 8 minutes.

Next we cleaned out the holes with water, let them dry and mixed up the two part concrete epoxy. We then filled each hole 1/3 of the way and set the four bars. Lastly we propped them up close to level to let the epoxy set.


I will return to the Hill over the next week or two with additional epoxy to fill the holes to grade so the rebar is ready for final tying and pouring of the 8” pier and head mounting bolts at or around the May work party.

Stay tuned!

-Kevin.

April Work Party Review

Last Saturday turned out to be a breezy but pleasant day for a work party on the Hill. I arrived around 10 AM to find the only casualties from the "winter" to be the upturned latrines......but thankfully no blue stuff, no other stuff, and soon all was right on the Hill.

Knowing it was a holiday weekend and turnout might be light, I brought along my tools and materials to finish the installation of the weather station mast for the components of said weather station that the Faits family donated to the Hill. Last year the thermometer, hygrometer, barometer, and rain gauge had been temporarily installed on the Gaertner building, while the anemometer found a home on the 2 meter radio mast on the club house. Wind swirling around the radio mast, a wind shadow from the stove pipe, and a south rain shadow from the Gaertner building made these locations less than ideal.....although useful in observing weather on the Hill while a permanent location was developed. Being the first one to arrive I set out on finding a suitable location.....ie one where a hole could be dug to set a 5 gallon bucket full of concrete, and one away from areas where people walk or setup a scope. The spot I found was directly south of the club house across the road and west of the observing pad. This location is usually not mowed, very uneven and provided a place to dig.......and so I started. Shortly thereafter Ray arrived on the Hill and immediately started to lend a hand as I levelled the bucket in the ground and tamped dirt in around it.

As I continued to tamp Ray headed to the Gaertner to determine what was binding the roll-off. Upon inspection we found the wheels on both sides of the roll-off were, at some point during their travel, binding against the side portions of the rails. The roll-off was essentially "walking" to the northeast as it was pushed back. We decided to use my jack to raise the rear two wheels and re-center them with a lever; after another forward and back motion of the roll-off they found their uncentered position again....telling us the rails had settled out of level or similar. Back to the weather mast we went....raising the main folding post and securing it in place nice and level. Shortly thereafter Joe arrived to walk the road with me to determine the best plan of action for May. First however we all revisited the Gaertner and determined that the deck had also shifted to the east as evident by the gaps between it and the rails and noticeable contact of the wheel mounts with the deck boards. This shift will need to be corrected using the tractor at the May work party. I will be jacking up, removing, regreasing, and re-installing each wheel as this hasn't been done since their installation.

Joe and I then walked the road and determined the following for the next work party (or three!). A culvert just beyond the barn near the stone wall will need to be installed and ditching cleared along the south side of the road. Toward the lower parking lot we'll need to use hydraulic cement and a makeshift form from some extra corrugated culvert to repair the damaged concrete culvert. It will then have a load of stone layed over it to the proper depth for the right support. For maintenance purposes as the current fill has settled, a load of stone will be layed over the main culvert just past the lower lot. From there to the clearing all current culverts are clear from last season's efforts; however their approaches and existing ditches will need to be cleared and improved as best as possible. For location where bedrock prohibits culverts (where Joe installed rain berms to keep the gravel in place over the winter) we are researching trench/strip drains to help remove water from the road surface. The culvert at the clearing will be cleared and the approaching ditch near the Gaertner should be cleared and converted to a French drain for safety using materials found on the Hill. Lastly a load or so of gravel will be used to fill in any usual low spots along the road's length.

With that Joe and Ray were on their way and I decided to stay around and complete the weather station mast with the installation of all instruments but the anemometer.....as it was un-reachable safely by me on the radio mast with the ladders at hand. So until May, the anemoter post atop the mast remains vacant.

See you all in May!

Kevin.

An Early Spring

Some years the driveway isn't passable until the 1st of May... this year our driveway is in good shape by St. Patrick's Day! The berms that were put in the road in November have done their job and the spring run-off has been easy on the gravel.

You still need to use caution and avoid the ruts, but the road is open and we're ready for a Messier Marathon next weekend (first clear night of March 23 & 24). Even the port-o-potties wintered well.

One minor casualty seems to be the wheels on the Gaertner building... I managed to get the roll-away building stuck about 1/2 way open... and it took much effort to get it back to where I could safely lock up. For the time being, consider the Gaertner to be "Out of Commission" until we can repair things.

I'm looking forward to an observing night soon, with Venus and Jupiter dancing in the west, Mars near opposition, and Saturn now rising well before midnight... and will we see some dancing Northern Lights soon? The sun has been very active, and we've had several "near misses". We're due!

Beware the Icy Driveway!

Warning!!

The lower road to the back parking lot clear of snow, and but it has a solid sheet of thick ice.

Even with my 4 Wheel Drive locked, I had a fun time to keep from slipping off into the side drops.

The path to the top is still snow covered, maybe 4 inches or so, but it is iced beneath, likely not drive-able for a few weeks unless we have a major thaw again. I was alone, and so I didn't chance the walk to the top, so no info there, but it is likely snow/ice free due to the sun.

If anyone does chance it, be very careful, and try not to go off the lower ice road.

-Ray