When A Weekend Goes Wrong, Make Lemonade!

Do I have your attention now?

Today's post is a joint-effort; my dear wife Lucy joins me in describing our latest weekend expedition. Her input is in normal font and I'll be chiming-in occasionally.

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What do you do when a weekend of geeky fun that you've invested not only $$, but hopes of meeting favorite Dr. Who personalities, goes totally wrong?  You make the best possible lemonade!  After news came that the Dr. Who convention in Maryland that we had planned to attend was cancelled, Tom and I planned another adventure.  Combining our two favorite hobbies, we set out for the wilds of North Carolina.  

First stop, Greenville, where there is an observatory/planetarium that Tom wanted to check out.  Since we arrived to town well before sunset, and had a few hours to spend, we took a side trip to a local nature park, and discovered a jewel of Greenville.  The North River Park is a former sand mine turned garbage pit, turned into a gorgeous nature preserve.  It is 340 acres of woodland, lakes, and marsh where people enjoy the best that Nature has to offer.  People were fishing; the students from ECU were doing community service by cleaning up trash; and walks were enjoyed by canines as well as hominids.  On closer examination of the city map, we came to realize that Greenville has what many cities lack--loads of green space for its population.  The Time for Science museum/observatory sits on 400 acres of donated land!  Go Greenville in supporting Nature spaces.

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The observatory and planetarium operated by Greenville's "A Time For Science"  educational organization are located about 11 miles south of the city in the rural community of Grifton, far enough out to allow a decent view of the southern and eastern skies but close enough that it's a quick, pleasant drive from town--perfect for school field trips and family outings. As Lucy mentions, the preserve area is quite large, containing not only the planetarium and observatory but hiking trails and a small fossil pit!

Observatory Manager Brian Baker opens up the dome

The observatory is named for Kitty and Max Joyner, local amateur astronomers and philanthropists, and equipped with a 16" Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a beautiful "Paramount" mount and drive system. Unusually for such a facility the dome is designed to rotate in unison with the movement of the telescope across the sky--most of the parts for this mechanism and control system were produced by students at ECU working with 3D printers!

The Kitty and Max Joyner Observatory and Planetarium in Grifton, NC 

Ten of us (including two children) viewed a show on space-based high energy astronomy projected on the coated interior of the planetarium's geodesic dome (when built the plan for the dome was that a portable, inflatable planetarium was to be used within, but upon consideration it was decided to use the entire interior of the geodesic structure). Following the show our host Brian Baker gave a short talk about the evening's sky, answered questions about black holes and supernovae, an then led the group out under the partly cloudy sky and to the observatory where the Orion Nebula was on view in the telescope's eyepiece.

The observatory's 16" telescope

************************************************************************************************ Following a great day/night in Greenville, we drove an hour to the next stop on our map--Aurora Fossil Museum, and its two dig pits.  The town of Aurora is tiny, on the edge of a phosphate mine, but its museum, dedicated to local fossils, is a treasure.  Our first trip there was during winter, on a cold and windy day.  This time, the sun was out, it was about 70 degrees, and the dig pits were calling!  We had come prepared with appropriate tools of every intrepid fossil hunter: scoops, sieves, baggies and buckets for treasures, hats, and raggedy jeans, and a microscope.  As time passed, more people joined us on the pit, and the kids expressed joy and entrancement by shouting "I found something!" every few minutes.  Everyone staked a small 'claim' on the pit, and the fun commenced.

With the idea of hunting for tiny fossils as well as the larger varieties I'd brought my portable microscope. The plan was to sift through the dusty debris collected by straining the pit's rubble in search of diatoms or other microscopic denizens. My results from the afternoon were mixed; I DID find some strange objects that looked organic--tiny globes of yellow-white about 50 microns in size--but I wasn't able to identify them. So I brought a baggie of the pit's "soil" home for further study!

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While Tom and I failed to score THE find, we found many treasures: sting ray barbs; bits of turtle and crocodile; vertebrae from a shark; various bits of bone; shells; sea urchin spines; crocodile teeth, and in case you're wondering, lots and lots of teeth, from several species of shark.  This material is anywhere from 3 to 16 million years old!!!!   So, not a bad haul for a few hours of playing in the dirt!

After about four hours in the dirt, we packed up our treasures, and headed for the next destination on the road, Bath, NC.  We took the ferry (free) across the Pamlico River, and after a stop for dinner reached our destination, in time to watch a gorgeous sunset settle over the inlet.  Bath is the first town to be incorporated in NC.  It was also the home town of a certain Mr. Teach, known as Blackbeard; and a local floating theater was the inspiration behind Edna Ferber's Showboat!  Beautiful place, but we agreed that it was just too close to Hurricane Alley for comfort.

The next morning we headed home, with a stop at another pretty town, Edenton.  Since it was Sunday, everything was closed, except the visitor's center and a local used book/tea shop.  Both were welcoming, and we made small purchases in each.  Lots of history here, and hoping that summer visitors don't ruin the charm of the place.

All in all, a wonderful weekend that was full of discovery and adventure.  Met lovely people along the way, and learned about a few who played roles in founding small towns.  Not a bad way to make up for a weekend that went so wrong.