Minor Telescope Adjustments and Some Lunar Observing

 

 

           Setting up my telescope a few evenings ago, I attempted to align the finder scope with no luck. Two of the six adjustment screws had been broken off. This scope is an eight inch Meade reflector, about 35 years old.  I bought it a few years after I joined the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh.  It has treated me quite well over the years. It has been taken to various places for occultations, eclipses and star parties.  Over the years the plastic had become brittle and once that happens, all it takes is a small bump and the bolt shears off.  Sometime during transportation between home and observing sites they had broken.

                I checked my various containers of bolts and couldn’t find anything that could be used in their place. They were made of plastic to protect the optical tube of the finder scope. It would be a shame to mar the white finish.  A visit to a local hardware store took care of the problem. I needed ¼-20 screws, 1 inch long. A fairly standard item except when you are looking for plastic hardware. Luckily, the store had just 6 of them in stock. I also bought 6 plastic nuts to lock the screws in place once it had been aligned.

                The screws and the nuts sat in their plastic bags for about a week before I had the time to tackle the project. It wasn’t difficult, believe me!

                A pair of pliers removed the two broken screws and some twisting with my fingers removed the other four. They had spread a bit near the ends because of being pressed against the tube for 3 or 4 decades but with a little elbow grease, they came right out. I gave the mount a once over with a rag, removing most of the dust. I gathered the various parts and took them outside along with the mount.

                Setting the tube level with the ground, I put the finder scope in place and roughly aligned it to the edges of the holder. Then I tipped the scope up a bit and found a telephone pole about an 1/8 mile away. Using a wide eyepiece and then narrowing it down with smaller eyepieces, I centered the scope on one of the arms of the telephone pole. A ceramic insulator provided the perfect target.

I lined up the finder by adjusting the six screws, going back and forth to make sure I was still centered on the insulator. Once I had it lined up I moved the scope and aimed through the finder at a near-by chimney. Then I checked the scope and it was pointed right where I had aimed it. Success!

                The scope then sat in the front yard waiting for dusk. I had already taken a quick look at the moon and was looking forward to seeing it in a dark sky. It is half lit and there will be lots of mountain peaks hanging above the darkness of the valleys on the terminator.

                I went out as the sky was darkening and did some lunar observing. The moon was high in the sky, half illuminated. There were a few clouds drifting by but all in all, the seeing was great.  The clouds disappeared as the night cooled down. The view of the moon was rock steady, I could see lots of details. I kept returning to the southern end of the terminator. There are lots of craters there, many more than the northern end.

                The way the sun was sitting the craters appeared to be hanging in space. It looked as if part of the moon had cracked off and had left a jagged edge. It also reminded me of lace, all those fine little craters, edged with black shadows. In places beams of sunlight illuminated the floors of the craters. It is amazing how many craters there are in this section of the moon!

                I noticed a straight line crossing one of the mares and realized that it was a feature I hadn’t seen in a long, long time. It is called the Straight Wall, an appropriate name if I say so myself. It actually isn’t a wall or a cliff, it is a slight rise in the surface and when the sun is in the right position, it looks like a shadow of a cliff. It is 68 miles long, about the same distance as between  Glenshaw and Johnstown! The crater beside it is named Brit, it is 11 miles across. (Picture was taken with a 1.25 Barlow attached to my camera. 8” f6 reflector, 1600 ISO @ 1/125 sc.)

  I lucked out and saw two passes of the International Space Station. For the first one I was inside and glanced at my clock and saw it was time for it to pass overhead. I ran (?) outside and looked up and there it was! Lucky!!  Later I happened to look at my watch and then checked the paper I had written the times of its passes on…and saw it was time once again. I went up to the street and there it was, just skimming the trees to the west. I watched as it drifted into the earth’s shadow.  It was nice and bright both times, hard to miss. Once again…lucky!

                There were a couple parties down the street from me and cars and trucks kept shining their lights on me so I came in for awhile. My community has a real light pollution problem! (Thank heavens that is its’ worst problem!)

                So, I’ll be heading out again around 3:30. Hopefully the neighbors light will be off by then. The moon should be out of the sky and Jupiter and Saturn will have taken its place. Time for a quick snooze!

                My luck ran out, I came outside and saw Jupiter and Saturn just before a large white mass of clouds covered them over. The views of the moon will have hold me until the next time. I brought the scope inside and jumped back into the nice warm bed and returned to my dreams!

Picture was hand held through the telescope 1/60 sc.

 

Driving To Mosgrove

 

 

The day started for me with fog. Looking out my window, the world was grey.  I stumbled into the bathroom and started working on waking up. Later, as the coffee pot surrendered its' first cup to me, I saw that the clouds were lifting. By the time I made it out to the car, I could make out bits of blue in the sky. The day was definitely shaping up.

The night before I had assembled my essential tools and had set them beside the door, ready for the morning get away. I had my camera gear, the battery was charged. I had my test kit and glucose tablets. My GPS and a list of geocaches were sitting on the pile along with my pocket knife, a bandana, a hiking staff and a backpack to carry everything. Even more important were the other essentials. I had a mask, some hand sanitizer and a pair of latex gloves, just in case.

It used to be that these weren’t needed, in fact it has only been in the last couple months of the pandemic that anyone would even think of wearing a mask. It was extremely rare to see anyone wearing one other than in a hospital or someone with health problems. Now, sadly, the tables have turned, it is the unmasked person who is the rarity. When going into a store the unmasked people are looked at as threats or as uncaring. All stores now have signs on their entrances stating that you HAVE to have a mask to enter the store.  In the good old days, the only reason to bring gloves along on a geocaching trip was to keep your fingers clean when poking around in guard rails or old stumps. They usually were made of leather, not latex. They weren’t used as a preventative method for sure!

I was on my way to meet Frank and we were going to take a ride in search of photos and geocaches.  We’ve knick-named these trips our “photo-expeditions”. We both find geocaching a fun way to spend a few hours and most of the time, the game ends up taking us to spots where pictures can be taken.  It shows us the wonders of our local geography, taking us on back roads and to places we never may have found otherwise. We were starting out a bit later than normal, we often see the sunrise as we’re driving across the state. Today the sun was high in the morning sky when I met up with Frank.

Driving north on Rt28, following the Alleghany River off to my right, I watched as the sun illuminated sections of the communities below the highway. Bits of fog were still clinging in the valleys and to the trees on the tops of the hills on either side of the river. It certainly was starting to look good!

Holy Guardian Angel Church

Our first stop was a church located off the side of Rt28. I have passed this old brick structure numerous times in the past and have always wondered about its’ history and had wanted to visit it.  It is located near Slate Lick, PA. Built in the 1870’s it was the first Roman Catholic Church in the area. It is supposedly built with bricks that were fired on site. The bell tower was once much taller but during a storm it was knocked down. The church is no longer used except on Christmas Eve. We found the cache hidden there and roamed around a bit, taking pictures and looking at the cemetery.

Our next cache provided a small problem to us. We were within a half mile, only to find orange signs and piles of asphalt blocking our way. It was no big deal, it only gave us a site to return to on another day. If these minor obstacles bothered us we would be continuously in bad spirits. There is more to this case, we had passed the road we wanted to take and took a long roundabout way of returning to it, only to find the blockade. What can you do but laugh?

We returned to the river and followed it north. The two lane road passed cottages, campsites and lots of young trees, cliffs and wildflowers. A bike trail paralleled the river and the road. Before long we could see the railroad bridge spanning the river, our destination.

The hotel, viewed from the RR bridge

What had brought us here was a picture we had seen on Facebook. Someone had asked if an old hotel in Mosgrove, The Bridgeview Hotel, was still standing. It got us thinking. It gave us something to do during our quarantine. We did some research and consulted some maps and figured out where it had been located. We were hoping to find an old abandoned building. The railroad on the bridge had been used to bring guests.  A station was located at the end of the bridge, above the hotel. The picture had been taken from the bridge. The railroad tracks seen in the bottom left corner of the picture is where the bike trail is now located.

The railroad bridge was built in 1899, 121 years ago! It is still being used by the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad. Much as I would have loved to see a train crossing it, it never happened while we were there. We visited a couple spots with railroad tracks but since it was a holiday weekend, there was no train traffic to be seen.

Frank and the “old hotel”

The hotel looked quite different than the picture. Due to a fire in 1914, the third floor and the Victorian look is now gone. If we hadn’t seen the old picture we would have never thought it as a hotel. It is now a private residence.

Our travels then took us along a dirt road with steep, high drop-offs. The road opened up into a wide valley with Pine Creek decoratively cutting through it. Private property signs were everywhere but that didn’t stop us from taking some shots from the road and the bridge. The stream here was wide and from the bridge crossing we had a nice view of McAuley Falls, a small drop in the stream caused by large rocks. I imagine it would be a great spot to fish, if you were allowed! Both this place and the location of the hotel led to disappointments since we couldn’t find the caches that had been hidden there. It’s all part of the game though, some caches are hidden better than others!

Moving on, we crossed the countryside on a road that followed the hilltops. We had lots of views of distant rolling hills, farms and woods. I have said it before and I’ll say it again…Pennsylvania sure is a beautiful state! I love driving on roads such as these, the road twisting back and forth, disappearing as you come to a steep drop only to reappear a minute later, as you crest the dip. They remind me of roller coaster tracks, inviting you to go faster than is really safe.

We stopped at a couple more spots before we ended up in Pine Furnace, PA. There are no buildings here other than an old cement phone booth beside the railroad tracks. At one time there were plenty of buildings, when the furnace was active and producing iron. Hidden in the woods beside the road is a high stone wall that once supported a charging bridge. Workers would cross this bridge and dump the ingredients used to make iron into the top of the furnace. The furnace was built in 1845 by Mr. Brown and Mr. Mosgrove from Kittanning. Could this be the person that the community of Mosgrove, PA was named after? The furnace was re-built in 1865 when the stack was enlarged to 40 foot. It might have been then that this wall was built. In its best days the furnace produced 50 to 60 tons of iron a week. The furnace went out of blast in 1879 when the local iron ore ran out. The remains of the furnace itself consists of a pile of rubble, the wall is the only visible part of the complex that remains.

Charging wall on the hill, furnace remains behind the center tree

I find it fascinating that these stone structures are still here after over 150 years!  I have searched out lots of them and of the ones still standing, the stonework is usually still true and plumb. A lot of these old furnaces have been destroyed by roadwork, construction and scavengers using the stones for walls and barn and building foundations. Nature has also destroyed a lot of them, roots and water can be very destructive over time! I always am amazed when I find a new one!

Our last cache of the day was here, a short drive down the railroad line from the furnace. (On a road!) The cache brought us to a nice little stream flowing over some rocks. Evergreen trees stood around this small waterfall, a broad beam of sunlight broke though the foliage to illuminate it and the wildflowers.  This was a wonderful place to end our journey and to start the return trip.

During our drive, we encountered many different sights and locations. Flowers were out all over the place and often the smells of them was enchanting. I love smelling Honeysuckle, its’ sweet smell brightens everything! The weather co-operated, giving us both sunshine and dark stormy looking clouds. The only rain we encountered was a few drips on the windshield as we drove home. Hopefully we both got some nice photographs, even if we didn't, it was still a great day. The time spent with a good friend always makes for a good day! All in all, I’d have to say the day was another complete success! (Even if we didn’t find all our caches!)





Booksellers

     I was reading a book titled A Passion For Books, a collection of essays and stories about, you guessed it, Books! In a piece written by William Targ called The Collector was this paragraph. I thought it bears repeating.  It came from his 1975 memoir called Indecent Pleasures.



     William Targ was a book editor known for publishing Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. He opened his own bookstore when he was 22. After he retired from the publisher that printed the book, he opened his own publishing/printing company. It was a one man operation that was committed to fine quality printing.  He lived into his 90's.

     This paragraph describes some people I know and consider friends. I think you'll agree with his thoughts...

     "A book collector has friends everywhere. The bookseller from whom you buy books is, more frequently than not, your friend. There is a bond between you that transcends the commercial transaction. For you've established something (call it rapport) between you that is personal, almost spiritual if you will, He understands your interests and your needs and the compulsion which brings you to him. (And let it be freely admitted, his magnet is as compelling to the bibliophile as the bar is to the boozer.) The bookseller becomes inextricably identified with you, your library, your intellectual life."

     With that, I have to say, I really miss visiting my favorite bookstore and talking with my favorite bookseller! I will be so glad when the world opens up again and the stores open their doors to allow us in!

My Library

 

Spending time at home during this period of self quarantine, masks and social distancing, I have been doing a lot of reading. In fact rather than doing the jobs that need done around the house, I tend to find myself getting lost in other worlds, the various worlds inside my books.

                I have been doing a lot of reading on my Kindle. This is mostly because of the ease of getting new books. Unfortunately, the Kindle does not fulfill all of my personal reading requirements. I have a need, a desire, a craving for books that are printed on paper. Hard backs with nice covers or paperbacks with the pages bent from previous readings. I was just thinking yesterday as I read my Kindle, that I never lost my place in a printed book by accidentally swiping my finger across the page! In these trying times, Kindles can easily get on my nerves!

                Call me old fashioned, or afraid of technology, for that matter, call me anything you want. I know what I am. I am a bibliophile! I love books. I love the feel, the smell and the heft of a book.  To be able to page through it and stop at spots that interest me is important, especially when looking to buy a book! I like that I can see how far I’ve progressed by the location of my book mark. I don’t need to rely on a sliding bar or a percentage listed at the bottom of the page.

                Because of this love, I have a nice collection of books that I enjoyed reading. Being a firm believer of libraries, I make use of their marvelous collections and when I find a really good book, I’ll look to buy myself a copy. I pick up a lot of books at estate and garage sales. Bookstores also add a lot of books to my collection.

                The vast majority of my collection are pre-owned editions. They far outnumber my newly purchased books. Needless to say, there are a lot of books in my home. Some of them have been with me for over 6 decades. There are a lot of them that are older than I am, having been printed a half century or more before I arrived on this planet.

                A friend and I were discussing the order we keep our books in. He was thinking about making a list of all his books.  I don’t have a list but I can usually find a book I need within a minute or two. They are ordered in a semi-organized way.

                Let me take you on a brief tour of what I call my Personal Library. Like most libraries there is an assortment of both fiction and non-fiction. I believe the non-fiction slightly outnumbers the fiction in the collection. There is also more than one room in my library, the books are distributed around the house.

                We’ll take a look at what I like to call the reading room. There is a large table sitting in front of two windows giving me a view of the woods behind the house. They also provide light for reading during the daylight hours. The table is large enough to hold my laptop or typewriter and still have lots of space for reference materials.  The table also comes in handy when I am matting or framing pictures. Every library needs a big table.

                Sitting at the table, to the left are shelves filled with books on Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. The subjects are varied, from early iron furnaces, canals, railroads, atlas’s, travelogues to architecture and sculptures.  Beside this set of shelves is one filled with reference books. Dictionaries, (I love dictionaries!) Thesaurus’s, books on quotations, birds, word origins and other subjects that might help me properly state something or to help me understand things.

                Unlike most of the books in the collection, I can honestly say that none of the books on this shelf has been read through, cover to cover. Almost all of them have been used, many of them numerous times!

                On the other side of the room is a set of shelves holding books about writing. Below them are books on Machining, both old and new. I have books about machinery powered by belts up to modern manufacturing procedures. Below that is a shelf filled with assorted papers I wrote and photos I took. The majority of these will never be seen by anyone but me. (That and the person who cleans it all up after I pass on to the great library in the sky) Looking at these piles I think that one of the sad things about computers is that the things I write now, are hardly ever printed. It is all saved on a hard drive and memory sticks, susceptible to being wiped out or lost at any time.

                Below this shelf are a couple boxes of photographs waiting to be framed.  Beside them are an assortment of old school books and instruction manuals. From steam locomotive upkeep to geography and mathematics, they are old and interesting to page through. I love to see how things used to be and how some things never change!

                Beside this shelf is a smaller one containing mostly poetry.  These shelves I’m happy to say, are all in alphabetical order by authors name.  I can’t say that about any of the others!

                Behind me is another shelf which has on top of it, one of my “To read” piles. The height of the pile varies but recently it has been dropping since no new books are coming in. Whenever I finish a book from one of these piles, it gets put on a proper shelf or in a box for donation to a library for their book sales.

                The top shelf has books on architecture and archeology with a few books on exploring tossed in. Below them are books on maps and books that have maps in them. ( Treasure Island for example ) There are also a collection of atlas’s covering the earth, space and even the human body. Some writing materials for letters and cards populate the shelf below along with some overflow books. Below them are some oversized books.

               This is just one room. Books on books, travel, astronomy, religion, camping, hiking, cooking and fiction are spread out though other rooms.  There is a shelf of signed books and a collection of my first blog. (The only printed copy! Oh, this will be worth a fortune some day!  HA)

                The room I described to you is just a part of my library. As you can see, I live in my library! My love of books could be considered by some as an excess, but as any bibliophile knows, there can never be too many!

                I do periodically clean out the collection, passing the unwanted or unneeded volumes on to a library for them to re-sell during their book sales. I am anxiously waiting for the re-opening of the libraries and bookstores. I am not a big fan of on-line book shopping, too much of my buying experience involves touch and browsing. The act of browsing is exciting, I never know what might show up. I never know when that special book will jump out into my hands!

                We just went from Red to Yellow conditions here in Alleghany County. I’ve got my fingers crossed that some of the bookstores will be re-opening. I have a strong desire to acquire some new books!

                In the meanwhile, I have recently started a new book. It is a hardback with a nice cover, titled "The Years Best Fantasy and Horror". (from 1995) Hopefully this should keep me occupied for a couple days.

                Oh yeah, I almost forget about those chores that need done…



May Morning

 

May Morning

 

Woken from deep sound sleep

By rolling thunder

Borne by fragrance laden

Breezes, from storms far away.

 

The aroma of coffee

Brewing in the kitchen

Mingles with the scents

Of fresh blooming lilacs.

 

The curtains billow

Near a wooden chair,

A book on its' seat

Lightly sprinkled with rain.

 

 

  Phil Breidenbach   (5.14.18)



The Good Old Days

The Good Old Days            

                Preparing to enter work, I tied my face mask on, positioning it to avoid fogging my glasses, picked up my lunch box and headed into the building. In the lobby, I was directed to stand on a star where I was scanned to make sure my temperature wasn’t too high. Passing that test, I was allowed to enter the plant.

                The company has always been strict when it comes to safety. You have to wear steel toed shoes and safety glasses are a necessity. Gloves are also required for the workers. So when the state mandated masks for employees, we never flinched. The temperature scans fell in right behind the masks. (Would this be next? “Ok, everyone line up to get your GPS tracker. It will only hurt a little bit.)

                There have been a lot of changes in the last month or two. I think that the biggest thing people miss is socializing. It is tough staying at home. We miss being able to talk with someone face to face, being able to hug a friend or loved one and not having to worry about any consequences.

                I just heard about a study, (I don’t know who did it or even if it’s true or not, but I tend to imagine it is.) saying that a lot of senior citizens have been going to the grocery stores a couple times a week,  even though they didn’t need any groceries. It was mostly for the human contact, seeing other people. It doesn’t matter whether you know them or not, it’s other human beings!

                There are plenty of things I miss. Remember how nice it was to sit down at a table and have a waiter take your order, place it in front of you and ask if there was anything else you’d like? How about getting a haircut, I never thought I’d miss those! Being able to leave the house on a whim, not planning or calling ahead before you leave. Going somewhere without worrying if the place is open or not, those were the days!

                I really miss sitting down with Ann Marie and playing a couple games of Scrabble. Drinking a cup of coffee together and talking about the day. Sitting outside together under the tree or watching television together…in the same house!

                One of the things we both miss is visiting bookstores and libraries. The day the libraries closed is burned in my brain. We had gone to see if our favorite vegetable stand had reopened yet and on the way back, decided to check our e-mails. We pulled into a library and the parking lot was empty. A notice was posted on the door saying all the libraries in the commonwealth were closed as of March 13^th. Friday the 13^th! We drove to a couple different libraries and they all were closed. That was the day the “virus” hit home. Not long afterwards, the stores all shut down. Our supply of paper reading materials was shut off!

                   I'm really looking forward to being able to go inside bookstores again. To roam through the shelves, scan the titles, pulling out books that look interesting and paging through them. To be able to feel the texture of the pages, thick, thin, slick or rough is something I hold dear.  Reading a paragraph or two before deciding if it should come home with me or if it should be returned to the shelf, it’s part of the bookstore experience. I know we will have to wear our masks to enter the stores. That won’t be a problem! If they really want me to, I’ll even wear gloves. (Preferably cotton ones)

                So many of the stores we frequent are smaller shops and I worry about their surviving this nasty time in our history. The public doesn’t have as much spare cash as they did a few months ago, their unessential spending will have decreased a bit. (Some of us consider books an essential need, they are vital to life!) The shops have bills which need paid, rents which need taken care of. I hope and pray that bookstores won’t become a thing of the past.  I worry about this! The thought of it sends chills down my spine.  I don’t want to do my book buying on-line! To me, so much of the experience of buying a book is tactile, smelling, feeling and paging through them prior to buying. There is also the contact with the booksellers! Discussing authors, recent reads, new books, scuttlebutt about the book industry, they are my friends and I’d miss seeing them. Bookstores are community meeting places, places where ideas and stories are passed around.

                Yes, a lot of things have changed and will be changing. Hopefully we will all be able to deal with them and to change along with them.

                I can’t help but wonder, how is it possible that “The Good Old Days” were only a couple months ago?

                                                                                                                (5.2.2020)