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A little western Massachusetts astronomy and telescope history adventure thread, out in the woods!
Up in the woods just a comfortable hike from our house is the site of Alvan Clark's grist mill, now just stones in the forest. (Pretty brook video next, though.)
Up in the woods just a comfortable hike from our house is the site of Alvan Clark's grist mill, now just stones in the forest. (Pretty brook video next, though.)
It's a lovely brook.
And if you walk up this forest road, lined with Christmas ferns, a little way...
You come to the remains of the homestead where Alvan Clark was born.
Why is this all of special interest? Because Alvan Clark was a famous telescope mirror maker! Born and raised, and began to work, out here in the hills 200 years ago.
Percival Lowell commissioned a fancy 24-inch telescope from him, and that telescope became the Clark Refractor, which Lowell used to look for signs of life on Mars. By then, Clark had moved from this remote forest into Cambridgeport, MA. https://lowell.edu/history/the-clark-refractor/
And because I haven't photographed the beautiful Milky Way, which we can see at night here, here is a constellation of slime molds, shining from the forest floor. The end.
