Ossipee Hill Farm and Observatory Newsletter
8/13/2023
Hello! Thank you for reading our second newsletter! The Observatory deck should be done soon! The Apex Woodworks team put most of the railing up and plan to finish up their part this coming week. Longship construction, our favourite excavator operator, will be coming in to create a level parking/walking area for handicap accessibility. Then, he will begin carving out the trail going down the hill.
Schedule
Volunteer Hours- Tuesday, Friday, Sunday 8:00am-10:00am/5:00pm-Sunset
Pastries, Coffee, and Chai for the morning. Light dinner in the evening.
Please let me know if you are coming to help so I can have enough food.
Kid Activity Hour- Tuesday and Friday 10:30-12:00. A story followed by a small activity.
In the Garden
Harvesting carrots and beets. Sowing carrots in the greenhouse. Sowing beets and lettuce outside. Combating pests on the melons and tomato horn worms in the greenhouse. Doing a lot of weeding followed by compost mulch in the orchard. Watching the thousands of sunflowers, carrots, and yams grow in the back cherry orchard. Keep an eye out for a community harvest of those in the early fall.
Astronomy
August 14- Around 3:30am, view Europa’s shadow on Jupiter with a telescope.
August 15- View Comet 103P/Hartley 2. Look to the east as Andromeda rises.
August 16- The New Moon
August 17- View the Libra constellation’s Ghost Globular after sunset in the west.
August 18- 45 minutes after sunset, look to the west directly above the the horizon to
find Mercury. Just above will be the astroid Pallas.
Space Flight News
-Russia launched a robotic mission to the Moon’s south pole to study electromagnetic
radiation and frozen water. Their first moon mission since the 70s.
-Tourist flew for the first time on Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity Rocket Plane for an up and
down suborbital flight.
-August 16/17th SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch Starlink Satellites.
Hope you enjoyed the update!
-Gwendolyn