Allegheny Mountains, 2024
In the fall of 2024 Ron and Carol visited the Allegheny Mountains in WV in search of fossils, fall colors and antennas!
Yeager House in Bartow WV - Ron and Carol stayed here. The house was built in 1898 on the site of the 1861 Civil War Battle of Greenbrier River.
Germany Valley Overlook Located north of Bartow is this beautiful valley. Nice, but Ron and Carol were there for what was behind them.
Germany Valley Overlook (behind) Along the cutouts on Route 33 are some fine fossil sites. Using a book Carol bought and the internet, they hunted for fossils.
Yeager House Carol sorting through blocks of hollow-sounding shale to bring home to open with Zoe.
Cass Scenic Railroad One of their three(!) Shay locomotives. The next day Ron and Carol took the train from Cass (2452-feet) to Bald Knob (4842-feet), total distance of 22 miles.
Shay Locomotive closeup - The Shay has 3 vertical cylinders that drives all 12 wheels (4-4-4 configuration) through a complicated array of gears, universal joints and sliding shafts.
To Bald Knob Unlike last years search of fall colors in Canada, this was color beyond words.
To Bald Knob The locomotive pushed most of the way. (This eliminates a lot of soot in the face.) Note the snow on the ground.
To Bald Knob The train ran in to the snow line well before Bald Knob! It was very cold, but most people were prepared.
Bald Knob Not much to see. A white cow eating a snow ball in the fog.
Passenger car closeup - The passenger (flatbed) cars did not have air brakes, so they had real brakeman who worked his butt off on the way down.
Leaving Cass WV On the road back there were cows, a barn and 100-meter radio telescope. Previews of the next day.
GBO The Reber Radio Telescope. Built in 1937 in Illinois by the astronomer Grote Reber, it was the first purpose-built parabolic radio telescope.
GBO Science Center Ron and Carol in a whole different spectrum. (Why does Carol have such a cold nose?)
GBO The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, or GBT, is the worlds largest steerable radio telescope. It has an enormous 100-meter diameter [2.5 acre!] collecting area. It does mostly SETI work now. In the distance is snowy Bald Knob where Ron and Carol froze the day before.
Note, this is as close as you can get with a digital camera, or a car with a spark plug, or anything that emits RF energy.