Outreach Blog

This morning, just like many on the summit of Mount Washington, greeted us with clouds. Every now and then there was a hint of blue viewed from the weather room window. Some of us were caught staring out the window just waiting to see a bigger break in the clouds. Eventually the clouds cleared from our summit and anyone in the weather room looking out the window had a view of the northern Presidentials – well, sort of. Low clouds still existed they just weren't around the Observatory. The clouds from our view looked like frosting smoothly spread over the mountaintops stretching from Mount Clay to Mount Madison.
Jeff, Obs Intern, was working in the parapet while this was happening. He came in shortly after the clearing and mentioned how a rainbow can be seen around his shadow. Also known as broken spectre.

The Brocken Spectre appears when a low sun is behind a climber who is looking downwards into mist from a ridge or peak. http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/globrock.htm

As the hour passed the clouds slowly changed formation. As the formation picked up speed they looked like whales swimming in the sky.
Just beautiful.

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Well, if you made it to this page then you’ve probably read our homepage, where our observers post daily comments. You may have seen the comment posted by Stacey Kawecki on Thursday, September 4. She mentions the back-to-school butterflies as well as the back-to-school excitement. I for one am certainly excited about this coming year.

My seven-year-old niece began her first day of second grade on Wednesday. During dinner on Tuesday she was gitty with excitement. She explained to me that earlier in the day she took a walk with one of her friends and her friend’s mother and had strolled passed her school. They anxiously peered through the windows of the school from the sidewalk and could see the second grade teacher preparing for the first day of school. My niece and her friend were so thrilled that they insisted on venturing into the school to meet their new teacher. As my niece continued to explain the days happenings I was so thrilled to see how excited she was/is to begin school again.

The summer has been a fantastic one and I am certainly looking forward to returning to the school year as I prepare for on-the-road visits, school groups visiting our Weather Discovery Center and thanks to a grant from NOAA we’ll be gearing up for our new distance learning program, which will launch in January.

Interested in having your students visit the Observatory this winter, virtually of course? Keep an eye out for the launch of our new distance learning programming. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted, as we get closer to 2009.

If your school has videoconferencing equipment and you are interested in finding out how your students can participate in our new programming email Michelle Cruz at outreach@mountwashington.org.

If you are interested in booking an outreach program for your school or a visit to our Weather Discovery Center all you need to do is complete an online program request form or email outreach@mountwashington.org. It’s that simple.

Happy new school year!

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