Seagrave Public Open Night
by Dave Huestis
It had been cloudy all day, but several weather websites showed that the skies would clear between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm. Despite the cloudy skies, Alex Bergemann, Tom Thibault, Steve Siok, Jim Hendrickson and yours truly arrived at the observatory in case that forecast proved accurate. It didn’t.
However, nine guests showed up anyway. Instead of turning them away and asking them to come back on a clear evening, we opened up the Clark building and proceeded to provide them a tour. We started in the anteroom and talked about most of the items in the display case, including the old cannon ball that was once used as one of the ball bearings on which the dome rotated. We also reviewed all the images that are hung on the walls, and also talked about the Mogey refractor.
Then we climbed the stairs to the dome and the Alvan Clark refractor. You always hear a bunch of ooohs and aahs once the canvas cover is removed from the telescope tube. Steve Siok and I took turns talking about the scopes history and how Skyscrapers acquired it. We noted the hurricane hooks and how they and their smaller predecessors had protected the observatory over the years. We also provided more details about the problem with the cannon balls used as ball bearings and how they could jam up and pop out of the track on which they rode. And of course we recounted how Steve Siok was inspired by the 1976 Summer Olympics and the track and field shot-put competition to solve the problem. The dome now rotates on 16 pound shot-puts.
Despite the continuing cloudy skies, our guests stayed for quite a while, asking many questions. We know they will be back on a clear night to observe through our magnificent Clark refractor.
When everyone left it was still cloudy and no further guests had arrived, so we began our shut down procedures. Stepping outside the anteroom we could see Jupiter peeking through some breaks in the clouds. It was still quite cloudy throughout the rest of the sky, and it was now perhaps 8:30 pm or thereabouts. So we all headed for home.
By the time I arrived home in Burrillville there was not a cloud in the sky. That’s the life of an amateur astronomer in Rhode Island!
