The November meeting of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh was held at the Allegheny Observatory, perched on a hill in Riverview Park. We haven’t had a meeting there in quite awhile. There were about 18 members that braved the downpours outside. The early darkness of Standard Time along with the pounding rain made the drive difficult. The other club members attended via the wonder of Zoom.
The original observatory was built in 1859, on a hill overlooking Allegheny City, now Pittsburgh’s Northside.
This month’s meeting was devoted to the club's annual photography contest. It was extremely hard to pick your favorites out of the submitted shots. The members have a lot of skills, and the photo contest shows it!
As the pictures were being shown, I noticed someone in the shadows, in the back of the auditorium, I thought I recognized him. It looked like Albert Einstein, could that be…maybe it was just one of the ghosts of the observatory!
After the meeting, a few of us stayed behind and got a quick view of the new telescope in the Keeler Dome. Behind a locked door, we climbed a narrow set of stairs to another locked door which led us up a smaller set of stairs into the dome. The telescope towered above us as we climbed up the steps. A 24” PlaneWave telescope, it is the 4th scope to take residence in this dome.
Since it was still raining outside, we didn’t get to see anything through the scope but we did get to see how quickly it can slew from one side of the sky to another! While looking at the telescope and the 100 year old dome it is under, I was reminded of all the ghosts that roamed these halls. John Brashear served as the Acting Director of The Allegheny Observatory when it was located closer to the city. He and his wife Phoebe’s ashes are interred beneath the Thaw Telescope at this location. The halls here have been walked by hundreds of famous and learned scientists and astronomers, I’m happy to say that I know a couple of them!
The ghosts are also memories of times spent here. The time I viewed Saturn through one of the big scopes, club meetings that were held here and the Christmas/Holiday parties held in the basement. Being taken on tours and seeing the multi-storied library and wishing that someday I’d have one just like it. Seeing the offices and workrooms, the machine shop and of course, being able to see the telescopes and the equipment used to do the research, soaking in the history that exists in the building!
John Brashear’s statue sits in the hallway, greeting visitors as they enter the building. Like many before me, I rubbed his foot for luck as I passed the statue. John Brashear is a man that the people of Pittsburgh looked up to, the same way as many of the members of the AAAP do!
Before we left, we squeezed through a small wooden door and a narrow unfinished corridor and went out onto the roof of the observatory. The biggest dome of the three, the Thaw dome was in front of us. The rain had slowed down a bit and we went out and looked around and then hurried back inside.
After that, I returned to the main floor, got my hat and jacket and went out to the car, leaving the history and the ghosts behind.
1 comment:
Sounds like an interesting and fun evening. I would like to visit and tour there one day
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