GMARS Site Development Activities - 2007 & 2008

GMARS Activities 2006

GMARS Activities 2005

GMARS Activities 2004

Light Shield Report
December 1, 2007

Link to pdf File

February 10, 2007

A small but intrepid group of GMARS volunteers poured a telescope pad today, and also took advantage of an unexpected “gift” of concrete.

Charlie Knapke, Rick Debus, Dan Coley and Barry Sorensen (great to have you back, Barry!) completed the last of the “east” telescope pads this morning. Charlie handled the concrete floating and finishing duties and did a wonderful job. The only really scary part was having me control the flow of concrete from the truck — I have nothing but admiration for all those times Larry did it.

When we were done, the driver explained that he had two extra yards of mix in the truck and was just going to dump them if we didn’t use them. So... we sent the truck out to the west entry off of Botkin and poured a thick layer of concrete — in some places, more than four inches deep — to create a driveway where loose sand had really started to become a problem (Al Fink got his truck stuck in it a couple weeks ago). Fortunately, Dan, Rick and Barry had removed the worst of the sand before the truck arrived, creating a shallow depression where the concrete could go. Dan also did an admirable job of smoothing the concrete with a float after it was spread. This is what it looks like (excuse the cameraphone picture).

Thanks again to Charlie, Rick, Dan and Barry for their efforts. With today’s work party, all of the currently approved projects at GMARS are completed. The Board of Trustees will convene at GMARS next Saturday afternoon to review plans for possible future activities at our dark sky site.

Ralph Megna
GMARS Station Master