A Message from the President

October 2003

Even though the weather was not that cooperative, Skyscrapers had another very successful Astro Assembly. The event started with seven talks on Friday evening under the tent and included a wide range of topics from historical to building your own telescope. Approximately 50 people were in attendance on Friday evening, the most we’ve ever had. Saturday also featured some exceptional talks and a display of antique telescopes in the meeting hall presented by members of the Antique Telescope Society. Some of the highlights were a 4 ½” Brashear refractor from the turn of the century that I was lucky enough to observe Mars through on Friday evening; a 4” nickel plated Alvan Clark refract from the late 1800’s; and my favorite, the Russell Porter Garden Telescope from 1923. These instruments were really a treat and added a lot to the Astro Assembly experience this year! Our annual banquet and keynote speaker, Dr. John Mustard from Brown University who spoke on the recent and upcoming unmanned probes exploring Mars, capped off Saturday. I have received many positive comments about Astro Assembly this year including one that claimed “it was the best Astro Assembly in decades.” I would like to thank all of those Skyscrapers, too numerous to name here, that contributed their time and sweat to make this years event so successful. And special thanks to Bob Horton for his vision, making Astro Assembly a little different and a little more memorable than most!

Looking forward, Seagrave Memorial Observatory will be open on Saturday November 8th to observe the total lunar eclipse. Partial eclipse starts around 6:30 pm with totality beginning around 8:00 pm and lasting for 25 minutes. Weather permitting; this will be the second total eclipse that we’ve been able to observe from the observatory this year.

Sometime this winter we will be making the trek again to Van Vleck Observatory to observe the Planet Saturn through the 20” Alvan Clark refractor. Over 20 members went down last time to view Mars and we all had a great time (see photos on the web site).

Skyscrapers is in the process of coordinating a joint trip with the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford to the Museum of Natural History in New York City to visit the Hayden Planetarium and the newly renovated and only recently opened Hall of Meteorites, which boasts the largest display of its type in the world. We will charter a bus and the cost (assuming 50 people go from both clubs) will be around $25 plus admission to the museum and planetarium. We’re targeting February or early March for this trip.

A few other trips that may be of interest to you that are now in the planning stages is a weekend trip to the Hartness House Inn in Springfield Vermont (see www.hartnesshouse.com). The Hartness House is the former governor's mansion and now a full service, historic country inn offering 42 rooms, all with private bath, modern amenities, and a fine dining restaurant in a beautifully restored 1903 country estate. The Hartness House also has a very unique 10” Brashear refractor where observations are made from a fully enclosed and heated viewing station that is accessed from the main building through an underground tunnel. Springfield Vermont is where the amateur telescope movement was spawned, spearheaded by Russell W. Porter and Albert Ingalls of Scientific American. The Inn also has a very nice telescope museum that features some really great artifacts from this period in time, including a Porter Garden Telescope. If you think you may be interested, please see Bobby Horton.

And for July of 2004 Skyscrapers return to White Mountain in California for 3 or 4 nights of astronomical observations approximately 10,000+ feet above sea level. The last group of intrepid Skyscrapers that went said that these were the best skies they’ve ever seen.

More to come … please check the web site for more details as they become available!