Updates from the field in Wellfleet, MA. Why Wellfleet? We come here every summer to visit family and to connect with my good friends at The Provincetown Independent, where my monthly astronomy column appears. And it’s a great chance to observe under dark skies (compared to NYC).
Yesterday evening I set up at the pier next to an accordionist. I’ve never had music accompaniment for astronomy before. As I waited for Saturn to emerge from the haze on the eastern horizon, people wandered over from Mac’s with their ice cream and fried oysters to see what I was up to.
I put the children to work scouting for Saturn to appear. Their eyes are much better than ours. After what seemed like FOREVER to the kids, a girl named Cece shouted, “I see a star!” As winner of the Eagle-Eye Award, she got to look at Saturn in the telescope first, which really annoyed her older brother.
