Log, Apr 22, 2005
No people. A wet weather period is moving in from the West promising showers just after dark settles in and heavy cloud cover. I received several calls today from people asking if we would be open, and in truth I cannot say what will happen much before an hour prior to darkness. One easy way to find out if we are open is to look at the Observatory's main page. If the picture of the dome is wide open, we expect to open. If the dome image is partially open with a big red question mark then we are sitting on the fence to see what will happen. Come down if you like but we may end without opening. If the dome is closed with a red slashed circle (international "NO" symbol) is displayed we are definitely not opening.One way you can get a better handle on our chances to open is to look at the Clear Sky Clock that is provided to astronomers across North America by Attila Danko from data provided by the Canadian Meteorological Center. The more "grey" you see and higher the "cloud cover" and "humidity" readings, the less chance we will open. The Clear Sky Clock spans about two days of time and is calculated specifically for Charlestown RI.-Les Coleman
