The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Studying the stars in New Milford
NEW MILFORD — Monty Robson peered at the computer screen at the John J. McCarthy Observatory, examining a streak in the bottom of the image of a recent night sky.
“That’s the moon and that might be something,” Robson, the observatory’s director, said clicking to play the video the night event. “Yeah, that’s a meteor.”
Observing meteors is one of three areas of focus at the observatory and the topic of this Saturday’s program, which lasts from 7 to 9 p.m. The observatory also specializes in asteroid confirmation and meteorite studies.
The observatory, which is funded only by donations and grants, began observing meteors with the Leonid Meteor Storm of November 2001, drawing a crowd of about 1,000 people just less than a year after opening. In 2002, Robson determined the altitude of the meteor and in 2013 the observatory installed its first all-sky camera. It became part of the Sky Sentinel Meteor Network this spring and hopes to soon create its own network for the northeastern states.
“What we found with the camera is there’s a heck of a lot more meteor activity than we thought,” Robson said.
About two meteors are observed each clear night and sometimes the camera will register four. Each one is broken out into a picture, video, spreadsheet and text file with time stamps.
By using photos taken of the same portion of sky at the correct time, then factoring in the distance between the observatories, astronomers are able to determine the trajectory, orbit and rate of meteors and confirm asteroids through various networks. This can also determine where the meteorite hits so pieces can be recovered. The McCarthy Observatory is known for being very accurate with determining the sky positions.
The observatory is able to capture 600 kilometers of night sky, covering most of New England, a portion of Canada, out to the Pennsylvania, Ohio border and down to Virginia. Robson said the Czechs have the best meteor and asteroid programs, determining accuracy within meters.
“I know we don’t have the resources to be as good as the Czechs but we want to be as close as we can,” Robson said. “We’re a near sea level, amateur observatory that’s open to the public and tops in the world in nearly everything we do.”
But the McCarthy Observatory is only one of three locations in the North East in the Sky Sentinel Meteor Network. The other two are in Pennsylvania, leaving a large area uncovered.
Robson is hoping to change that. A high-resolution digital camera and video camera are expected to be operational this year to improve the accuracy and quality of the observation programs. Once they get the bugs out he hopes to encourage other observatories in the area to join a network so that they could monitor this part of the country, which both the Sky Sentinel and NASA acknowledge are under covered.
It’s not surprising the observatory is so involved in monitoring meteors, considering New Milford’s history with the fireballs.
A meteor was seen coming down from Albany, N.Y. in December 1807, exploding right over New Milford. Pieces fell and landed in Weston, dubbing it the Weston meteorite. This was North America’s first recorded fall, which means it was seen in the sky and then the meteorite was recovered on the ground.
“It shook the houses for 50 miles, especially to the north,” Robson said. “If there was a seismograph, it would have registered.”
A piece of that meteorite is at the observatory, just one of a robust collection that includes samples from 230 different locations.
Robson said it’s important to learn about the meteors, asteroids and meteorites because it’s inevitable something large will hit the Earth. These are always monitored and NASA tracts them out in 100 year increments to determine the possibility and danger of something hitting the Earth.
“The more we know about it, the better prepared we’ll be and the more we can predict,” he said.
He also views the observatory as an important tool to get students interested in science. The observatory itself is located at the high school and volunteers will hold programs at the schools. Field trips from area schools and scouting troops also come to the site to learn or students will team up with the observatory to do projects.
“Underlying all of that, our main goal is to excite students to the value of learning and to promote science literacy — that’s our mission,” Robson said.