To align a high-power telescope in daytime one needs an unobstructed sight line of several miles. The broad field at Fruitlands is ideal for this. Including setup and teardown, a two-man job for this size telescope, it took about a half hour to sight the ski towers at Mt. Wachusett. In the middle of this, a Fruitlands neighbor strides across the field to inform us, with a touch of attitude, that we have no business being there. Without a word in protest, we politely agreed to leave. We might have pointed out that he, himself, was trespassing, but why make a fuss? We wrapped up our business quickly and left. I thought that was the end of it until finding the event reported in the Harvard Press police blotter. Evidently he had summoned the police. We got away before the cops came, but I wasn’t so lucky at home. My wife reads the blotter. I believe in neighborhood watch, but wasn’t this a tad over the top?
The Stealth Astronomer
(Don Girard, Pinnacle Road)
