My wife, Debbie and I were in Greenville, South Carolina on August 17th 2024…meeting with some grandchildren at a mutual easy location. While driving by Roper Mountain, via I-85, I thought about the famous 23-inch (1882) refractor telescope on top of this mountain.
Now, this is not just any antique 23-inch historical refractor telescope. This is the very one that was used by (Princeton Astronomer, Richard Pierson) to see the Martians coming to Grovers Mill, New Jersey, in “The War of the Worlds” based on an 1898 novel by H.G. Wells. This radio show was thought by many to be an actual invasion of the earth by Martians, with many thousands of listeners throughout the country being frightened to death!
Orson Welles (with his booming and dynamic voice) narrated the famous broadcast. Welles played the character of the Princeton Astronomer. This event brought world-wide fame to then 23-year-old Orson Welles.
Roger Ivester
Photo credit and information as following, of the 23-inch refractor telescope and observatory: Roper Mountain Science Center, And Charles E. Daniel Observatory.
The Daniel Observatory, Roper Mountain, South Carolina:
As a Greenville County Schools facility, the Daniel Observatory is open to the public only during special events.
The Charles E. Daniel Observatory features a very historic 23-inch refractor telescope, the eighth largest of its kind in the nation. The Great Refractor was completed in 1882 for Princeton University and was the main instrument in their Halsted Observatory. The lens was figured by Alvan Clark and Sons of Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1933, the telescope was entirely rebuilt by J. W. Fecker Company. The U.S. Naval Observatory owned the telescope from 1964 until 1978, when it was offered to the School District of Greenville County.
Funds provided by the Charles E. Daniel Family Foundation were used in renovating the telescope and in constructing the observatory building to house the telescope. The telescope is used to educate, to inspire, and to entertain visitors. On select Friday evenings, the observatory is open for limited public observation, in conjunction with programs shown in the planetarium.
As following: Commemorative Plaque in Grovers Mill, New Jersey.
Famous landing site of the Martians to commemorate “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast on October 30th 1938.
An abreviated story of British Airways Flight 009, callsign Speedbird 9, that departed from London Heathrow to Auckland. I’ve compiled the following information from Wikipedia and other sources. The plane was a Boeing 747-236B. Roger Ivester
Actual plane photo as following also from Wikipedia
On 24 June 1982, the aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic dust by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, SE of Jakarta, Indonesia. A catastrophic event occurred….all four engines shutdown.
Selected information as following from Wikipedia and other sources…
On 24 June 1982, the route was flown by the City of Edinburgh, a Boeing 747-236B registered as G-BDXH. The aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung around 110 miles (180 km) south-east of Jakarta, Indonesia, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
Incident or event:
At the time of the incident, the flight crew consisted of 32-year-old Senior First Officer Roger Greaves, 40-year-old Senior Engineer Officer Barry Townley-Freeman, and 41-year-old Captain Eric Henry Moody. The flight crew members had boarded the aircraft at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Kuala Lumpur and were due to pilot the 747-200 for the Malaysia to Perth Airport leg.[4]
As the flight progressed, smoke began to accumulate in the passenger cabin of the aircraft. Passengers who had a view of the aircraft’s engines through the window noted that they were unusually bright blue, with light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect.
Around 13:42 UTC (20:42 Jakarta time), the number-four Rolls-Royce RB211 engine began surging and soon flamed out. The flight crew immediately performed the engine shutdown drill, quickly cutting off fuel supply and arming the fire extinguishers. Less than a minute later, at 13:43 UTC (20:43 Jakarta time), engine two surged and flamed out.
Within seconds, and almost simultaneously, engines one and three flamed out, prompting the flight engineer to exclaim, “I don’t believe it—all four engines have failed!”
The flight crew quickly determined that the aircraft was capable of gliding for 23 minutes and covering 91 nautical miles from its flight level of 37,000 feet.
At 13:44 UTC (20:44 Jakarta time), Greaves broadcast a Mayday to the local air traffic control authority, stating that all four engines had failed. However, Jakarta Area Control misunderstood the message, interpreting the call as meaning that only engine number four had shut down.
After a nearbyIndonesia flight relayed the message to them, air traffic control correctly understood the urgent message. Despite the crew emergency transponder setting of 7700, air traffic control could not locate the 747 on their radar screens.
Many passengers, fearing for their lives, wrote notes to relatives.
Reports from another source say passengers were in awe of an electrical light storm outside the plane, as the engines glowed white and then stopped.
Owing to the high Indonesian mountains on the south coast of the island of Java, an altitude of at least 11,500 feet was required to cross the coast safely.
The crew decided that if the aircraft was unable to maintain altitude by the time they reached 12,000 feet they would turn back out to sea and attempt to ditch into the Indian Ocean.
The crew began engine restart drills, despite being well outside the recommended maximum engine in-flight start envelope altitude of 28,000 feet. The restart attempts failed.
Despite the lack of time, Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as “a masterpiece of understatement.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.”
At 13,500 feet (4,100 m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. Although the crew had guidelines for the water landing procedure, no one had ever tried it in a Boeing 747.
As they performed the engine restart procedure, engine number four finally started, and at 13:56 UTC (20:56 Jakarta time), Moody used its power to reduce the rate of descent. Shortly thereafter, engine three restarted, allowing him to climb slowly. Shortly after that, engines one and two successfully restarted, as well.The crew subsequently requested and expedited an increase in altitude to clear the high mountains of Indonesia.
As the aircraft approached its target altitude, the St. Elmo’s fire effect on the windscreen returned. Moody throttled back, but engine number two surged again and was shut down. The crew immediately descended and held 12,000 feet.
As Flight 009 approached Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, the crew found seeing anything through the windscreen difficult, and made the approach almost entirely on instruments, despite reports of good visibility.
The crew decided to fly the instrument landing system, but the vertical guidance system was inoperative, so they were forced to fly with only the lateral guidance as the first officer monitored the airport’s distance-measuring equipment (DME). He then called out how high they should be at each DME step along the final approach to the runway, creating a virtual glide slope for them to follow.
Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights on the aircraft seemed to be inoperable. After landing, the flight crew found taxiing impossible, due to glare from apron floodlights, which made the already sandblasted windscreen opaque.
Other information as following:
It must have been quite a feeling for the captain, flight crew and all passengers to be able to plant their feet on the ground, and think how close they came to dying.
Captain Moody who was credited with saving the lives of 263 people on that fateful day, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 19th 2024 at the age of 82. Roger Ivester
This was my first time to attend the “Spruce Pine Alien Festival” and so glad I was able to go. What a day it was! I was probably passed by many “Real Space Aliens” but was just unaware at the time.
So here are some photos from the day:
26,000 people attended this one day event last year, and I feel sure there were more or at least as many this year. I had to park at least 1/2 mile away and walk to the downtown area, however, I didn’t mind this at all.
The finest Quartz in the world comes from Spruce Pine. Computer chips for cars, computers and anything where they are used are made from Spruce Pine quartz.
And also the first mirror that was manufactured for the 200-inch Hale Telescope was made from this quartz. Unfortunately the mirror cracked during the process before completion and another one was made from a new process or material at that time, known as Pyrex. This glass was better able to handle the incredibly heat needed during the manufacturing process.
Spruce Pine, North Carolina: How It became a part of astronomy history via The Chestnut Flats Mine, due to the incredibly pure Quartz which was used in the manufacture of the first 200-Inch Hale Telescope mirror. As mentioned previously (above) unfortunately that first mirror cracked during the manufacturing process.
Historic photo from days past of the Chestnut Flats mine as following: Photo credit: Mitchell County Historical Society
I found the following article by David Biddix, a Spruce Pine native, who shares some very interesting information. This is not the complete article.
Alex Glover…is the Director of Mining and Environment for Active Minerals International, LLC. He is a licensed professional geologist in nine southeastern states in the United States and has lived in the Spruce Pine area since 1997. He is interested both in the geology of the Spruce Pine Mining District and in its history, which goes back some 170 years.
….I’ve always wondered why ore from the Chestnut Flats Mine near Spruce Pine was chosen for the telescope’s mirror. Recently, I had a discussion with Alex Glover, a local geologist and mining historian who is very familiar with what is known as the Spruce Pine Mining District, a 10 mile-long, 5 mile-wide outcropping of rock from early in earth’s history that contains some of the purest minerals in the world and is the economic lifeblood of this region. This purity was the reason Corning Glass came to this region to find materials for the mirror. Alex speaks about what types of minerals are found in the district….
David Biddix: Spruce Pine, North Carolina
Now for the complete article by David Biddix as following: Click on the following link…
I purchased the following quartz specimens, pictured on the table below from “Rocks And Things.” Possibly even from the famous Chestnut Flats Mine, or for sure from the same vein of quartz rock. Roger Ivester
Solar telescopes provided by North Carolina Amateur Astronomers, and friends of mine for many years: Steve Davis and Don Brooks.
May 24th 2024 at 7:30 AM: While Debbie and Sophie were still sleeping…I walked outside to see this amazing early morning rainbow in the west. This was my first time to see a rainbow at this time of the day, as they mostly occur in the afternoon and in the east. However, maybe more frequent than I’d think, as I’m just not looking at that time of the day. And we all know that a rainbow is always opposite the sun: When a rainbow is seen during the afternoon…the sun is in the west.
On the night of May 10th 2024, beginning at about 11:00 PM and lasting a couple or more hours. The northern lights enveloped the entire northeastern part of sky with a brilliant red color from my suburban backyard . The Aurora Borealis is rarely seen this far south at a latitude of +35 degrees 15 mins. north latitude.
However, this is not the first time I’d seen the Northern Lights from my backyard.
In February 1978, I walked outside at about 10:00 PM to see the most incredible sight. The “entire northern sky” was ablaze with reds and greens. And as described so often in astronomy and science publications, the colors were moving….similar to that of a large curtain waving in a breeze.
I thought everyone would be talking about this “absolutely incredible” aurora the next day, however, I didn’t hear of anyone else seeing it….locally or regionally.
Three nights in April 2000:
I saw the aurora again from my backyard at the same +35º 15′ N latitude. Again, very far south to see the aurora.
The following photos were made on the night of May 10th 2024, beginning at 11:30 and shortly after midnight. I was using an iPhone 14 with 3-second exposures, and being handheld.
Photos of aurora using an iPhone 14 (hand-held) on the night of October 10th 2024 as following:
The following photo of the aurora display with the Andromeda Galaxy (the tiny blur near the center of the photo) which is right of the constellation of Cassiopeia. Light pollution is severe in this area of the sky, which reduced the contrast of the aurora significantly.
Comments:Comments Off on Aurora As Seen From The Foothills Of North Carolina On The Nights of May 10th and 11th 2024: And Again On October 10th 2024 All From My Suburban Backyard At A Latitude 35º 15′
After a couple unsuccessful observing sessions during the summer of 2024, I was anxious to try again in the early morning hours of 2025, with cold temperatures and more transparent skies.
March 26th 2024:
4:15 AM: I began with a magnification of 104x and field motion…then moving the galaxy out of the field, and then letting it drift back. Increasing the magnification to 291x, but the view was no better, and the galaxy appearing as only an intermittent blur and less than 50% of the time.
I attempted two very early morning observing sessions in March and April of 2024 from my suburban backyard, but again without success.A dark site is really needed to observe any low-surface-brightness galaxy, especially one as dim and faint as NGC 6118.
However, traveling to a dark-site has been over for many years. The disassembly of a heavy equatorial mount and handling a large solid-tube Newtonian, loading, driving, unloading, reassembly, and then having to do it all again, became just too much. I will just continue to do my best from the backyard.
I just couldn’t forget about this galaxy, and wanted to give it another try.
Saturday morning: May 11th 2024 @ 1:00 AM with a 5.0 NELM overhead, but about 4.0 in the area of the galaxy.
The following cellphone photo is from that night and beside my telescope. Note the constellation Scorpius toward the right lower corner. Now see the brighter pair of stars, almost in the center of the photo, above or north of Scorpius.
The most northern star, is known as “Yed Prior” at mag. 2.7. The second star toward the south or closest to Scorpius is “Yed Posterior” at mag. 3.2. Now move your telescope slightly to the NE of “Yed Prior” and use your star atlas to dead center, where NGC 6118 should be.
If you are a visual observer and observing from a suburban backyard, I wish you luck.
Description: A tiny and subtle brighter middle, which resembles that of a planetary nebula. And like so many planetary nebulae, when using direct vision, vanishes or winks out. The galaxy has a very faint and diffuse irregular halo, which is oriented NE-SW.After my many observing sessions of NGC 6118, it’s easy to understand why its named “The Blinking Galaxy.”
It was the April 2017 Southern Star Astronomy Convention sponsored by the Charlotte Amateur Astronomers Club, when a scheduled speaker for the convention cancelled at the last minute.
I’m not a member of the Charlotte Club, but had helped them over a few years to fill speaker positions at Southern Star.
A new speaker was needed…and really quick!
The Charlotte club officer in charge of Southern Star contacted me about finding a new speaker and asked if I could help in finding “the perfect” person to fill this now vacant position.
A solution, as I already had someone in mind:
I knew that Sue and Alan French were attending NEAF at that time. So, I called Sue via cell phone, and asked if she would talk to Al Nagler and see if he was interested in being a speaker at Southern Star.
Al was indeed interested and both he and his wife graciously accepted the invitation.
Al gave a fabulous presentation concerning “everything anyone would want to know” about eyepieces. I don’t think anyone would know more about the science of eyepieces than Al Nagler. The presentation, to say the least was excellent, and so much so, I even took notes.
Al Nagler and his wife…two great people!
I was able to talk with Al and his wife for extended periods during the event, and also enjoyed having lunch with them in the Wild Acres cafeteria.
Photo as following: Al signing my “1000+ The Amateur Astronomer’s Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing” by Tom Lorenzin at the April 2017 Southern Star Astronomy Convention in Little Switzerland, North Carolina:
My signed 1000+ by Al Nagler and the late Tom Lorenzin pictured below:
Debbie and I thought it would be good to document some history concerning the building, and information about W.J. Cash
Excerpts and photo as following from Wikipedia: The information was very lengthy, so I tried to take out as much as possible, but leaving what I thought was the most important.
Wilbur Joseph “Jack” Cash (May 2, 1900 – July 1, 1941) was an American journalist known for writing The Mind of the South
Early life and education:
Cash, known as “Jack” throughout his life, was born as “Joseph Wilbur Cash” – he later reversed the order of his given names, and normally used only the initials – and grew up in the mill village of Gaffney, South Carolina. He had three brothers and a sister, of whom he was the eldest.
He was educated at the local public school until he was 12…when his family moved to Boiling Springs, North Carolina, 14 miles away across the state border – his mother’s home town – so that his father could become a partner with Cash’s maternal grandfather in a general store there.
…..In 1918 and 1919, at his father’s wish, Cash attended Wofford College, a Methodist school, but left because he objected to the school’s narrow provincialism. He then enrolled in Valparaiso University, a Lutheran college in Valparaiso, Indiana, dropping out around Christmas 1919. In 1920, again at his father’s urging, he entered the Baptist school Wake Forest College, despite it being what he considered to be a “preacher college.”
In the summer, he worked at the hosiery mill at which his father was then the superintendent. Cash graduated in 1922 with an A.B., and then attended law school there for a year, before deciding not to pursue a legal career.[2] Cash later declared that he left law school because it “required too much mendacity.”
…..Cash taught English at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, and at a high school in North Carolina, before experiencing a nervous collapse. Throughout his life, Cash suffered from manic depression or affective disorder, which manifested itself in breakdowns, periods of depression, fear of sexual impotency, and physical ailments such as not being able to swallow or choking when he spoke. He also suffered from a hyperthyroid condition, occasional alcoholism and excessive smoking. Cash usually referred to his condition as “neurasthenia.”
From 1926 to 1928, Cash held several newspaper jobs: a year in Chicago writing for the now-defunct Chicago Evening Post; several months with The Charlotte News during which he wrote a wistful philosophical column titled “The Moving Row”; and a four-month stint during the fall of 1928 as the chief editor of a small semi-weekly newspaper, the Cleveland (County) Press, in Shelby, North Carolina.
…..Afterwards, Cash moved back into his parents’ house in Boiling Springs – where he lived with his extended family, including his two brothers and their pregnant wives. He contributed to H. L. Mencken‘s The American Mercury magazine, and received encouragement from Mencken. From 1929 to 1935, Cash wrote eight articles about various aspects of the South, including one in October 1929 called “The Mind of the South”, which would become the basis for the later book.
During the period of primary writing on The Mind of the South (1929 to 1937), Cash continued to live with his parents in Boiling Springs. When his contributions to The American Mercury ended, Cash supported himself with freelance weekly book reviews to The Charlotte News from 1935 to 1939, for each of which he received a payment of $3, equivalent to about $60-$65 in 2023.
Cash’s seminal article, “The Mind of the South”, was published in The American Mercury in October
In 1932, however, he began to write seriously again, using the unheated back room of the Boiling Springs Post Office, where his aunt was the postmistress.
After Cash had some success at The Charlotte News, he finally had the personal and professional confidence he had previously lacked, and his work there helped him to develop his unique style of writing. He also met and fell in love with Mary Bagley Ross Northrup (later known as Mary Maury), a divorced woman who also wrote for the paper, and who helped him to complete the book through his periods of depression, and his continued focus on events in Europe. During this period, Cash would listen to the news on the radio about the Anschluss with Austria, the invasion of Poland, or the fall of France and would pace around the room, biting his nails, hands, and wrists, leaving marks. He would become so upset that he would leave the house and walk the streets at night.
Finally, on July 27, 1940, the last pages of the manuscript were finished and sent to New York. Five months later, on Christmas Eve, Cash and Northrup were married by a justice of the peace in York, South Carolina.
On February 10, 1941, The Mind of the South was published by Knopf. The book, an intuitive socio-historical exploration of Southern culture, received wide critical acclaim at the time and garnered for Cash praise from such sources as Time, The New York Times,The Saturday Review of Literature, and most Southern newspapers of note, although criticism came from the Agrarian group out of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Cash also received the thanks of Walter White, the director of the NAACP, for the book’s liberalism in regard to race and its exposure of the bigotry of the South. Time said of The Mind of the South “Anything written about the South henceforth must start where [Cash] leaves off.”
Cash and his wife chose Mexico to spend their year on the Fellowship because it was cheap to live there, and they would have to watch every penny; they embarked on their trip to Mexico City on May 30 1941. Cash had been invited by University of Texas to provide the main commencement address to the 1941 graduating class on June 2 in Austin, Texas.
While in Mexico City, Cash came under an apparent psychotic delusion. On June 30, he told his wife that he heard Nazi assassins whispering in the next room, plotting to kill him. The next day, when he was calmer, she went to get help. On her return with a correspondent they had met earlier, Cash was not in the room.
Hours later, he was located in another hotel, the Hotel Reforma, where he had hanged himself with his tie from the bathroom door.[17][d] An autopsy failed to find evidence of a brain tumor. Cash’s remains were cremated, and a funeral service was held in the First Baptist Church in Shelby. The ashes were later envaulted in Sunset Cemetery in Shelby.
On a winter day in 2025, we visited the Sunset Cemetery to locate Cash’s grave.
1971 class reunion: October 11th 2025: And a great time was had by all! It was a breezy (windy) and really cool Saturday afternoon.
The 2023 event follows 2025….just keeping scanning down.
I missed getting a “face-on” picture of Debbie. How was that possible? So, I thought I’d just share a photo of Debbie and Sophie from May 2025.
Photos of the 2023 Burns High School class reunion are as following: Much appreciation to Charlotte Sinclaire for taking the lead in organizing this fabulous event. Everything was perfect! A memorable class reunion for sure.
In the following photo…Five guys began 1st grade at Polkville in August 1959, and graduated together at Burns. We were the first class at the new school, and went all four years.
However, after the 5th grade, some of us parted ways for three years, some went to Casar and some went to Piedmont…but back together again at the new Burns High School in the fall of 1967.
Left to right: Charles Melton, Roger Ivester, Rob Pendleton, Bill Ledford and Don Bridges.
Comments:Comments Off on 1971 Burns High Class Reunion: Saturday October 11th 2025 At Hanna Park In Shelby, NC. The 2023 Event Is Also Included: Just Keep Scanning Down
The Bortle Dark Sky Scale was developed by John Bortle “based on nearly 50 years of observing experience,” to describe the amount of light pollution in a night sky. It was first published in a 2001 Sky & Telescope article.
Depending on the device you are using, it may be necessary to slide the chart to the right to see in its entirety.
Number Code
Map Color Code
Label
Sky Mag.
Naked Eye Limit Mag.
320mm Limit Mag.
M33 visible?
M31 visible?
Central Galaxy visible?
Zodiacal light visible?
Light Pollution
Clouds
Ground Objects
1
excellent dark sky
22.00–21.99
≥ 7.5
> 17
obvious
.
casts shadows
striking
airglow apparent
.
visible only as silhouettes
2
average dark sky
21.99–21.89
7.0–7.49
16.5
easy with direct vision
.
appears highly structured
bright, faint yellow color
airglow faint
dark everywhere
large near objects vague
3
rural sky
21.89–21.69
6.5–6.99
16.0
easy with averted vision
.
complex structure
obvious
LP on horizon
dark overhead
large distant objects vague
4
rural/suburban transition
21.69–20.49
6.0–6.49
15.5
difficult with averted vision
obvious
only large structures
halfway to zenith
low LP
lit in distance
distant large objects distinct
5
suburban
20.49–19.50
5.5–5.99
14.5–15.0
.
easy with direct vision
washed out
faint
encircling LP
brighter than sky
6
bright suburban
19.50–18.94
5.0–5.49
14.0–14.5
.
easy with averted vision
visible only near zenith
.
LP to 35°
fairly bright
small close objects distinct
7
suburban/urban transition
18.94–18.38
4.5–4.99
14.0
.
difficult with averted vision
invisible
.
LP to zenith
brilliantly lit
.
8
city sky
< 18.38
4.0–4.49
13
.
.
.
.
bright to 35°
.
headlines legible
9
inner city sky
.
≤ 4.0
.
.
.
.
bright at zenith
.
.
My view to the east (last night @ 9:15 PM, November 18, 2023 from my back deck) showing the light pollution at about 15º above the treetops.
I always try to observe deep-sky objects at least one hour or two from the meridian.
It is difficult to see the Pleiades “visually” at this low altitude. I was using an iPhone 14 “handheld” to make a photo for illustrative purposes.
The Pleiades was my first deep-sky object when I was 12 years old. I remember so well, walking out in my front yard in about mid-November and seeing this cluster rising above the treetops.
At that time, I had no clue as to what this group of stars were.
A year or so later I found out it was the Pleiades, M45 and my interest in amateur astronomy began, which continues to this day. Interesting to note: This was Leslie Peltier’s first deep-sky object also, as probably so many others.
The following photo:
Andromeda is difficult for me visually, and requires averted vision.At the meridian, it can be fairly easy, but averted vision still works best.
The following photo using my phone, presents the galaxy quite a bit brighter than naked-eye.
So, I estimate the Bortle Scale from my backyard to be ~6.5. I think we can all agree, the Bortle scale is not a definitive number, but using this criteria can describe an observing site pretty accurately. I’d say John Bortle developed an excellent, simple and objective measurement system for judging different observing sites, and for comparison with others.
Comments:Comments Off on Light Pollution Is Increasing Everywhere. What Is The Bortle Scale? Use The Following Chart To Determine How Dark Your Observing Site Is
Backyard Astronomy And Other 
Recent Comments