A Day Visiting Observatories

I drove an hour out to Riverhead this morning, for a small gathering of Antique Telescope Society members.  We toured two observatories and a machine shop from the 1940's.  For telescope geeks this was a virtual heaven!  This is a photograph of an observatory at Riverhead High School, that contains a one-of-a-kind telescope built by a Riverhead machinist many years ago.  It was beautifully designed and still works

This is the telescope inside the observatory, on its equatorial mount.  The Tube of the telescope is made from aluminum and magnesium which was really unusual fort the time.  Then we were off to see an old machine shop that is a museum and contains heavy machinery from the 1930's and 1940's.

Then after lunch we headed out to Custer Institute in Southhold where I have been a member for 30 years.  This is where I drive to in order to do my observing under skies darker than any other place on Long Island.  This is another portrait of both ATS members, and Custer members who were there this evening.