Goodbye to Goldendale Observatory

Goodbye to the observatory

The end of the month meant it was time to go. Some of our volunteer stays have been up to 90 days. Our stint at Goldendale Observatory was for the month of July so 31 days. What will I not miss? I will not miss the “swing shift” schedule of late nights and late mornings. The observatory was open until midnight because the sky is not really dark until after 11:00. So it was probably around 12:30 before we would climb into bed followed by a few minutes of the current book. My son tells me that getting up early and going to bed early is what “old people do”, but it feels right to me. I have always found myself awake about six-ish. When I was working it was necessary to “get up and get going” early in order to get things done. Now that I am retired my body is still ready to get up and get going. I feel guilty letting the morning scuttle away. The girls, Mollie and Peaches, are awake and ready for their walk about then too so that’s another reason.

I also won’t miss being in “lock up”. The park is surrounded by a chain link fence and the gate is locked except for the hours it is open 2-5 and 8-12mid Wed-Sun. That meant that every time we drove into town to go to swimming or get groceries, we had to unlock and lock the gate, swing it open, etc. Not a big deal, but, like I said, I won’t miss it.

What will I miss? A lot actually. Goldendale has much to offer; an actual downtown main street with no parking meters and no traffic signals. A general store, a couple of grocery stores, 6 or 7 churches, including a nice Methodist Church, several parks, one very active swimming pool, all compliment the small town friendliness that abounds there. I will miss the view of Mt Hood from our dining room window.

Most of all I will miss viewing and learning about our universe. Its beauty and vastness is mind boggling. When you learn more about distances and numbers involved in the heavens, you will truly say it is ………astronomical. I enjoyed getting comfortable with the big telescope. After being trained and shepherded for a short time, I was allowed to be alone in the dome shaped telescope room in the evening to open up the top and be sure that the big telescope was aimed at our first object, which was the planet Venus. Venus is the bright “star” in the western horizon at sundown right now. As of Saturday July 31, 2010 it was about 78 million miles from earth and getting closer every day. It will get as close as 40 million miles about the end of the year, but because it will be between us and the sun, it will not be easy to see. However, about the first of October it will be close enough and bright enough that if you know where to look high in the southern sky, it will be visible during the day.

I will miss looking into the stars and recognizing constellations and certain star arrangements. Looking at the Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) and I know that the second star in the handle (named Mizar) is actually a binary or double star. I know where to find the Ring Nebula (M57) which is the wallpaper on my cell phone right now. Whenever I believe that I am a “Big Deal” all I have to do look to the stars and realize that I am a single individual on one planet in a solar system revolving around a rather insignificant star among the billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Then remember that there are millions of galaxies just like ours ranging out there in all directions for virtually forever and I know what a grain of sand lying on the beach must feel like.