Ben's School Band

Ben Feinland is in the JFK Middle School Band - the Jazz Band and the regular band. There is an impressive band program at JFK in Northhampton. We went to the spring concert at the Academy of Music last Wednesday. Here's Ben and the JFK Band

Transit of Venus

Last Tuesday, June 5th, was a special day. I went with John and Cynthia to East Hill Road in Andover, VT to a little gathering of members of the Southern Vermont Astronomy Group to view the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. John has a nice Meade telescope that he set up, and the president of the group, Claudio Veliz, had a somewhat larger scope he set up as well. My little Canon A495 camera turned out to be compatible with the telescope eyepiece, and I got some nice shots. Plus, it was a beautiful scenic spot here on earth as well, and just up the road was a very European-looking barn with some lovely Jerseys. We were lucky - when we got there, it was clear, but just before the transit was to begin, the clouds rolled in, the heavens opened, and we had to quickly pack up and scurry into our cars. We thought it was all over for viewing. But we waited - went up to the farm and came back - and wow! The skies cleared and we had a long stretch of great viewing until sunset.

 
It was memorable for sure! And it won't happen again for 117 years. First photo: Early stage of transit Second photo: Transit with clouds Third photo: John with his scope Fourth photo: The beautiful barn. REMINDER: You can click on a photo to see a larger image.