Leo J. Scanlon

 The e-mail has just arrived. Tonight’s star party has been cancelled due to rain, clouds and muddy fields. I had an idea that this was going to happen. There is a good chance that tomorrow’s activities at the Wagman Observatory will be cancelled also. They tend to go hand in hand, plans for anything astronomical and bad weather.

    Even though it is doubtful, I am still keeping my fingers crossed for Saturday night. We can’t give up hoping!

    Along with Independent Bookstore Day, which won’t be hampered by rain, tomorrow is also Astronomy Day. This is a day when astronomers, both amateur and professional, share their knowledge, enthusiasm and love of the skies above us.

    This year’s Astronomy Day comes at a good time, it is the day before the birthday of a man who spent his life promoting astronomy. On April 30, 1903, Leo J. Scanlon joined the human race. 

    In his 20’s, he built his first telescope and not long after, he and Chester Roe formed the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh. (AAAP) The club is still thriving. He was a plumber by trade but his real love was the stars above!

    Shortly afterward, he and friends, no doubt club members, designed and built the Valley View Observatory.

Leo sitting on the dome to prove its strength

Placing the dome

Almost ready for use

    Located in his backyard in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, it was the first observatory to have an aluminum domed roof on it. His design was copied by numerous professional observatories and gave us the image we picture when we think about observatories. It was dedicated in November of 1930 and stood there until 1997, 67 years later, when it was dismantled.

Leo and Albert Einstein

    In 1934, he sent a letter to Albert Einstein inviting him to visit the AAAP display at the convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science which was being held in Pittsburgh. When Einstein arrived, he spent about 20 minutes at the display and later corresponded with Leo.

    During the same year, he was invited to watch the pouring of the glass which would form the 200” mirror for the Hale Telescope at the Corning Glass Works.

    Leo was influential in getting the city to build the Buhl Planetarium. After it was built, he and Nicholas Wagman, the director of the Allegheny Observatory were the first two speakers to give lectures at the facility.

    He also had a part in helping to create the Astronomical League in 1947.

    In 1998, a historical marker was placed on McKnight Road, not far from where his observatory sat. During the ceremony, he was told that an asteroid had been named after him!

Leo at First Light of the Brashear Telescope at Wagman, 1995

    Leo passed away in 1999. He led quite an exciting astronomical life for a plumber. He is another person who set an example for us, of what a person can accomplish.

    While we watch the rain falling outside our windows, let's give a little thought to the people like Leo and think about how we can follow in their footsteps!

    Happy Birthday Leo, thanks for all you’ve done for us!

What Can We Do This Weekend?

 Nothing planned for the upcoming weekend, are you looking for something to do? Let me give you a couple ideas…

    Foremost on my list are the two star parties being held by the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh, (AAAP) at the Wagman Observatory in Deer Lakes Park. On  Friday and Saturday nights, the 28^th and 29^th of April, the club members will have a variety of telescopes set up on the observatory grounds and the two permanently mounted scopes will be open for viewing also.

    The bright planet Venus will be one of the objects viewed along with the moon, double stars and galaxies. If you’ve never been to a star party, this is your chance! If you’ve been to one in the past, come on back! You can’t beat the price, it’s free!

    For more information about the AAAP and the star parties, go to;

3AP.ORG

    The second item on this short list is that Saturday April 28^th is Independent Bookstore Day!  While you are out and about during the day, stop into your favorite independent bookstore. Many of the store will be having special events to celebrate the day.

    Before we go up to Wagman, we will be stopping at City Books, located on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Open from 11 to 5, they will have along with their great selection of used books (and new), Haley Clancy who will be composing poems for interested customers. She types them on her typewriter as she creates them, each one an individual one-of-a-kind poem.

    For more information on City Books, go to;

CityBooksPgh.com

    Support your local bookstores, they bring both knowledge and class to our neighborhoods! If you happen to visit City Books or come up to the star parties, keep an eye out for me. I’d love to see you there!

“There are stores that enrich the streets with their presence, and the most precious of them are the shops that sells old books!”

― Mehmet Murat ildan

The Launch

 Pulling into the circular drive around the building, we were surprised to see only one other car. We were early but had envisioned many more cars and people.

    We parked near the front door of the Allegheny Observatory, got out and walked down the sloping lawn in front of the building. The trees were in bloom and the sky was a deep shade of blue with no clouds to be seen. It was quite a difference from the storms that passed through the area the night before.

    Ann Marie and I had come to watch the test launch of a balloon in preparation for next year’s solar eclipse. (Less than a year away!) NASA and the University of Pittsburgh are planning a couple balloon launches during the eclipse to study the thin wavering bands of shadows seen just before and after these events. 

    While talking with a neighborhood dog walker, I saw Lou Coban, the head man at the observatory, coming out from the back of the building, wheeling two large gas canisters. His team followed behind carrying more gear. (They had parked further back from where we were) 

    They pinned a tarp onto the grass and started unpacking their gear. The balloon was wrapped in a plastic bag. White cloves were donned before anything was unpacked, I’m guessing to help maintain as much sterility as possible. Checklists had been checked and still questions flew, making sure nothing was forgotten.

    This was their second test flight with a possible 8 more before the April 8, 2024 eclipse. They plan on launching their two balloons from a location in Texas.

    The payload has two cameras, one pointing up at the balloon and the other, a 360 degree camera looking down at the ground. There is also a tracking device to help them find it after it parachutes to the ground. They are guessing that the flight will last about an hour, barring any difficulties, before the balloon reaches 85000 feet and the payload is released or the balloon pops.

    The group will then mount a expedition to try and reclaim the payload. The observatories name and phone number are printed on the sides in case someone comes across it before they locate it. A past flight took the balloon over the Laurel Highlands.

    The balloon was filled, using a gauge, they tested its lifting capability as they proceeded, adding just a bit more than the payload weight.

“Don’t let go!!!”

    Once the balloon was filled, the bottom was sealed and the items going on the ride were attached, one below the other.

    Verbally they rechecked their lists and at 10:13 the cord holding it to the earth was released. The balloon, mimicking the shape of the near-by observatory quickly rose up, getting smaller and smaller to the people below.  The observers and crew took pictures and shaded their eyes, watching it as it disappeared.

    Then, the clean-up started. The tools were put back where they belonged, where they could be found for the next flight. This was when Ann Marie and I returned to the car. After enjoying the show, we were ready to search out a diner and get some breakfast!

    Later, in the afternoon, we found out that the balloon went to 95,288 feet before it ruptured. The release device didn’t work for some reason. The payload was found in the top of a tree which had to be cut down to retrieve it. This is why they do the test flights, to help eliminate these problems. Next time it will be an even better flight!

Searchin'

 Thinking about all the things that can be found in near-by areas, I came up with quite a list. The amount of “cool finds” is limited only by your own imagination.

    In our travels, we have discovered old ruins where houses used to stand along with barns and sheds barely standing. Old abandoned bridges crossing streams and rivers, ghost signs barely perceptible on the walls of buildings and stores and shops, abandoned to the elements. We’ve found religious statues covered in dirt and vines, forgotten in the backyards of empty churches. We’ve searched out and found piles of rocks which once were used as furnaces to make iron.

    Our geocaching adventures have taken us to fantastic views from the tops of cliffs and have brought us to hidden waterfalls deep in forest valleys. We once came to a spot where an airplane had crash landed and not far away was an old mill stone quarry, the stones laying in piles, some half finished, all covered with leaves, small saplings and weeds. We’ve found old cars and even trolleys sitting in the woods. Huge limestone mines and tunnels, no longer used except by explorers and graffiti artists.

    There are so many things hidden in the hills and woods and alongside the roads of the tri-state area. All you have to do is go out and look for them.

    We’ve stopped to look at old construction equipment, rusting away beside the road. I’ve photographed old tractors with trees growing through their frames, farmhouses made of logs and collapsing with the weight of time, good for nothing except a person with a camera. We never know what we might come across.

    This past Friday, Ann Marie and I took another trip. We headed to the west towards Weirton, West Virginia. There were a few geocaches I had in mind to look for and there were also ruins of old steel mills that might be photogenic. I also had the general location of an old iron furnace that we’d try to find. Anything else we came across would be an added bonus.

    The day was loosely planned, our route was open to change, it all depended on what we came across. Weirton isn’t far from Pittsburgh, less than an hour drive. We entered the town shortly after 9. Our first stop was at a restaurant where we got some breakfast. Specializing in biscuits, we both had breakfast sandwiches. Properly fueled, we headed towards our first geocache.

    The Veterans Memorial Bridge was opened in 1990. It is like no other bridge in the surrounding area. Suspended by cables strung from a high center tower, it was the third bridge of this type in the world when it was built! The cache was very close to it. We needed to find some numbers and they would tell us where the cache was hidden.

    We walked up a gravel road and found the numbers we needed written on the back side of a guard rail. A walk of about a ¼ mile brought us to the end of the Veterans Bridge. The cache was hidden about 10 yards away from the bridge, a view that very few of the drivers crossing the bridge ever see. 

    We returned to the car happy, we got some fresh air, a nice walk and a successful find. We then headed towards the northern end of town to see what was left of the old steel mills. Sadly, most of the buildings were gone, torn down leaving only a few unremarkable buildings, lots of pipes and wide empty fields.

    We were driving on Main Street but it didn’t look like one. Open empty lots were on one side with a wall and fences on the other. The buildings were all gone, only a couple houses remained, it was mostly scrubby lots alongside a dirty brick road. There was hardly anything that showed how industrious this area used to be. Closer to the center of town the mills are still in operation but here it is another story.

    Driving up the hill we came to another cache. Hidden on a hillside covered with weeds and jagger bushes, I scrambled up to where I found some partially covered cement steps and some yellow brick walls. This spot was once someone’s front yard. The brick walls lined their sidewalk, now they were slanted and falling down, their only purpose now was to hide a geocache. 

    Not far away was another remnant of the mills, some sort of tower. The temptation to climb it was strong but I managed to resist it!

    A short drive then took us to the Peter Tarr Furnace. Built in the late 1700’s and working until 1815, all that’s left is the stack. Finding it wasn’t as tough as we imagined. It was sitting right beside the road, looking sort of like a decoration for the housing plan beside it. Reading up on it, we found out it has been rebuilt twice. What makes it interesting is that it is round as compared to the normal (?) square pyramid shaped furnaces. 

    We were a bit disappointed when we found it; it is built around a steel corrugated pipe and held together with modern cement. The “neatness” of it sort of takes away from the historic aspect of the location.

    We’ve found piles of stones hidden by trees and weeds, stones which once were a point in history. I would feel excited after finding them, feeling as if I was the first one to find them. Perhaps I was, the first in a year or two or maybe even decades. This furnace posed no problems, its neat shape was sitting right beside the road, we rounded the curve and there it was.

    We were still happy finding it; it was another furnace to add to our list!

    Crossing the Ohio River and entering Ohio, we headed north into East Liverpool. We drove around the town looking for a spot to get some coffee and some lunch. We saw lots of ghost signs and plenty of nice buildings, built in a time where decorations were commonly added. Nice decorative woodwork over the windows and doors and inset balconies set in between windows adorned many of them. Victorian types of gingerbread and cupolas, it was enjoyable driving around the town. 

    While driving along a brick street below a highway I caught a glimpse of something behind an old, bedraggled building, it looked like a furnace. Luckily, the traffic was nonexistent, and we were able to back up to see what we nearly missed. It was a large bottle kiln sitting behind the building. Used in the pottery industry these kilns, named after their shape, were commonplace in the town. 

    Trying to find more information about them, I found that they tended to be rather dangerous. Fires were often started resulting in factories burning down. We explored around it and the building, took a few pictures and then headed across the river, back into West Virginia.

    A quick stop at “The Largest Teapot in the World” for a snapshot (Hmmm, have they ever been in Bedford??) and then we headed towards Pennsylvania and home.

    Four caches searched for and four found, 100%, can’t complain about that! We found the furnace we were looking for, even though it wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped. We also found a pottery kiln that we weren’t expecting. We saw nice views of bridges and the Ohio River and enjoyed exploring the river towns we passed through on a nice day. It turned out to be a great trip!

    Why do we search for these things? Is it our curiosity, our yearning to learn more about our history or just the enjoyment of being out on the road together, enjoying each other’s company? Perhaps it is all of these things! There is so much more out there waiting to be found and seen and we will keep looking for them as long as we are able. It is fun and exciting following the impromptu maps in our heads and finding out where they lead us!

    (I just saw an article about another iron furnace we haven’t seen yet in Clearfield County. Hmmmm…could be another road trip in the near future!)