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Gazing into SpaceHow we pass the time on cold autumn nights |
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We seem to have a fondness for staring into the night sky. It started with the Leonids meteor shower of
2002, which was predicted to be the most spectacular for many years to come. There was just one catch - it
would peak at about 5:30AM on a frightfully cold November morning. So would anyone in their right mind get
up at 4AM to catch a ride out to the middle of nowhere (aka Hubbardston, MA) to stand outside on a snow-covered
hilltop and stare into space? Amazingly, 34 of us did just that, and it still holds the record for the Outing
Club's biggest trip to date. Despite a nearly full moon and some thin clouds, we saw dozens of meteors.
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Since you can never get enough of a good thing, we were back in Hubbardston in October 2004 for the next lunar
eclipse. Skies were mostly clear and we again had a great view.
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We got back to Clark at about 11:30PM and were greeted by hundreds of students running around outside yelling and
screaming. "How nice to see everyone so excited about the lunar eclipse," we thought, but it turned out that
they were actually cheering because the Boston Red Sox had just won the World Series. So some of us followed the crowd
to President Bassett's house to join in the festivities.
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For those who managed to get close enough, the President had cider and doughnuts waiting.
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Six weeks later we were in the middle of finals, but just couldn't resist the temptation to view the Geminids
meteor shower. This time we decided to try Worcester's Green Hill Park since it was a lot closer than Hubbardston
and we needed to study.
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 Kringle, Clark's astronomy TA (the guy on the right), brought along a huge 5000 pound
telescope - so we checked out Saturn's rings instead.Can you tell we were really, really cold? |
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Fifteen of us returned
to Hubbardston a year later in November 2003 to view the lunar eclipse. This time the
sky conditions were crystal clear, and with the moon in total eclipse we had a spectaular panoramic view of
gazillions of stars in the night sky. That's something we never get to see in Worcester's city lights at Clark.
We didn't see any meteors because of the light pollution, but we did have a great view of
downtown Worcester (hence the light pollution).