McCarthy Observatory Receives Grant from the Meserve Memorial Fund
McCarthy Observatory receives spectacular murals from NASA as part of IYA2009 celebration
The images above are of the students of Sarah Noble school getting a tour of the
exhibit and the X-ray glass slice with the image of the supernovae remnant Cas-A
the rest of the telescope helped take. image from NASA
This IYA display is at Hill and Plain school in New Milford.
New Milford Hill and Plain School has issued a school challenge for the students: to walk thousands of miles to promote awareness of astronomy and the International Year of Astronomy 2009 along with McCarthy Observatory.
The scale:
1 mile walked by students = 246,070 miles of solar system. The total miles needed by the students to walk the Solar System would be 14,931miles which scales up to 3,674,166,723 miles to average distance of Pluto's elliptical orbit. They are getting there, see chart below, but they have a ways to go.
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The International Year of Astronomy 2009
is the 400th year celebration of Gallileo Gallilei first using his telescope in 1609. This page is dedicated to things the John J. McCarthy Observatory is doing in honor of this year long event. Please visit often for news and updates.
Officers of the John J. McCarthy Observatory Corporation of New Milford accept a check for $6,000 from the Meserve Memorial Fund for the construction of a scale solar system to be built this year as part of the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy.
From left to right are Bob Lambert, Treasurer, Suzanne Powers from the Meserve Board, Bill Quinnell, Chairman, and Monty Robson, President. The scale solar system will traverse the town, with most of the planets to be on school premises, starting with a six-foot diameter sun at the observatory.
In response to a Grant request to NASA, the McCarthy Observatory was awarded two large "museum quality" murals depicting the Pinwheel Galaxy in infrared, optical, and X-Ray wavelengths of light. One mural is 3'x3' and is a composite of all three wavelengths, and the other mural is 3' x 6' and has images taken in each wavelength by the Spitzer, the Hubble, and the Chandra telescopes. These murals are special to our region, as the mirrors for all three are products of the Danbury region, so our friends and neighbors were the ones who made all this possible.
The murals were unveiled on February 25 at Sarah Noble School and on February 28 at the New Milford Library. They will be displayed in area schools in the coming months, and will eventually reside at the McCarthy Observatory.
The Sun comes up on a cloudy day at JJMO!
On August 22, 2009 the Sun was the first to go up at the Observatory as part of the Scale Solar System project. This is just the beginning of the IYA projects we have planned for the near future. Stay Tuned!
