April 4 + Easter Earthquake

Very interesting weekend!



First of all, nobody was injured nor was there any damage from the Easter quake. I'll add more after I update the observatory.



Yesterday both John and I worked at the observatory plus we had a meeting with the club contractor who just completed the other observatories that I've mentioned and shown photos of previously. No pics today - I'll have some next weekend after some more time at the observatory.



We met with Gary, the club contractor, at the observatory yesterday because we are getting a bit tired that our astronomy hobby has been transformed into a building contractor business with the completion seemingly not getting any closer. We are actually almost finished with all but two things: our telescope piers and the roof. We have almost completed all the electrical wiring including the installation of new ceiling lights in the warm room, almost completing the new wall and pocket door. We are half finished with removing the wood molds on our footings that we struggled with over the winter. Unfortunately they will not simply slide up and out of the hole, leaving behind the cement footings. What happened is that wet cement oozed under the forms and encased about three inches of the wood form in concrete. We have had to take a sawzall, squeeze it into the excavated holes, and try to saw thru the forms at an angle. Unexpectedly hard work half done. Then we finally removed the single telescope pier that's in the center of the observing area. I will be re-locating it several feet to one side for my use but we had a surprise, We expected to have one conduit coming up out of the slab to power the telescope. There were three conduits with wires coming out and simply twisted together and a nut slipped over each one - it really should have had a junction box but we finally figured out why three conduits - one came from the main circuit box as expected but the other two conduits run to the two GFI outlets on the outside of the building. Just some more unexpected electrical wring to do.

We met with Gary to see if we can have him help with the roof. After reviewing our autocad drawings and discussing his schedule versus our needs and finances, we will be getting an estimate from him with ten days. He will price it two ways: one - he will complete the entire roof assembly including all of the rail and support work on top of the walls, and two, we will complete the track and support system and Gary will quote only on the roof itself. In both cases, John and I will complete the roof motor mechanism. Hopefully, Gary will be reasonable time-wise (completion by late June) and price-wise (he usually makes nothing on club members and if he under estimates the job, he eats the difference). Meanwhile John and I will continue with the projects we have already initiated, Fortunately, despite the lack of a roof and no permanent piers, the observatory is usable.

You probably have heard about the big quake across the border in Mexico today. Phillis and I were at a friend's house in Huntington Beach sitting down for Easter dinner on his patio when it hit. There were eight of us sitting by the pool when I started to feel a slight side to side motion, minor enough to think it was just my balance. I asked Phil if she felt ti and then it got stronger and everyone felt it. Every quake feels different and this was the most different. It lasted av bout 45 seconds and the motion was a back and forth motion that got fairly strong and then tailed off and then another set of motion with a different period and less strong. When it was over I said it was at least a 7.0 at least a hundred miles away. Just like in the movie "Volcano" - all Californians get into the quick guess before they hear official word. Right now it was a 7.2 almost 140 miles away. This was the first reasonable quake we experienced when it wasn't night and we were outdoors. The pool water sloshed over onto the patio and lost a couple inches of water. It was really cool watching the utility poles swinging back and forth one at a time as each quake wave came thru. I thought the wires were going to snap because they would lose tension and then get very taut every few seconds.

The funny thing was people's reactions. Six of us have felt a number of fairly strong earthquakes so once it was over, talk switched over to talking about past quakes. The two visitors from North Carolina were on the verge of panicking unit they saw how calm we all were. The quake talk went on for about ten minutes and then switched back to other things. When we went inside the TV had a continuous bulletin about the quake but we knew it would be hours before anyone knew anything more than how strong was the quake and where was the epicenter. The visitors were glued to the TV. I was very interested to hear one of the old timers recall when he was ten years old and went thru the Long Beach quake - in 1933!

That's about it until next week.