Observatory vols stand ready to help visitors

[The following is an open letter from the Board of Directors of the McCarthy Observatory at New Milford High School to residents of the Greater New Milford area.

Greetings from the volunteers of the McCarthy Observatory.

Due to weather, we have had many visits deferred in the last few weeks, but are optimistic that the remainder of March will allow all of these events to be held with clear skies.

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the monthly observatory newsletter that has grown into this more comprehensive calendar and almanac.

Volunteer Bill Cloutier is to be commended for originating and writing the newsletter continuously for those five years. The newsletter goes to hundreds of educators and others, and this expanded "Calendar and Almanac" goes to more than 500 Friends of the Observatory, as well as being posted on the observatory Web site.

It has proven to be an informative and useful periodical, and we hope you all enjoy receiving it, and printing out the colorful calendar for refrigerator posting.

This month also has a truly extraordinary anniversary, for it marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo courageously revealing his astounding astronomical findings in his "Starry Messenger", published in Venice on March 17, 1610.

Mankind suddenly had scientific evidence that the earth was not the center of the solar system, the moon had mountains and craters, Jupiter had moons orbiting it, the Milky Way was made of stars, and other amazing findings.

The news was so unthinkably contrary to belief, and his "scientific method" so unfamiliar to even learned people that the facts could not be grasped and accepted. The journey ahead of him and the few others who could grasp the hard evidence and the significance was an arduous one.

Fortunately for us, over the next few decades the truth became irrefutable, and modern science and modern astronomy and this new view of the earth actually moving and not being the center of anything was accepted in many (but not all) circles.

What an achievement!

The challenge lay ahead... he demonstrated what things weren't, but no one had answers on what the real story of the cosmos was. The list of unanswered questions was endless.

Mankind has grappled with that list for the ensuing 400 years and, in very recent times, a view of the origin and structure of the universe has been taking shape, and the pieces being filled in based on real observations and measurements, the way Galileo taught us to do.

It is a most exciting time, and we hope each of you endeavors to understand the flow of amazing news on today's frontiers in astronomy.

We are here to help that understanding in any way we can.

All-volunteer staff

McCarthy Observatory

New Milford