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RegionObama TransitionDaily DigestMeetings The Drury High School Council meets Tuesday, Jan 13, at 6:30 in the conference room. Agenda items include AYP, school grant, laptop initiative and PowerSchool updates. |
 Steve Decker cleans up in front of BankNorth on Wednesday.
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More Snow
The Berkshires received several inches of snow this morning, but not enough to close schools, unlike yesterday's sleety mess. Temperatures will drop into the 20s this afternoon. A few more snow showers are expected through the weekend.
We have reports that the roads are very slippery to take care in the evening commute. |
Duff'em If You've Got'em
North Adams Regional Hospital went smoke-free Monday — so did all its sister sites, from Sweet Brook to Northern Berkshire Family Practice to the Women's Exchange. No ashtrays, no smoking: No butts about it. |
 Wanted: Eagle Eyes MassWildlife's annual eagle count runs Dec. 31 to Jan. 14. Anyone sighting one of the regal birds in Massachusetts is asked to participate.
Send date, time, location and town of eagle sightings, number of birds, whether juvenile or adult and observer's contact information to Mass.wildlife@state.ma.us. |
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Like to Write?
iBerkshires accepts submissions about local events, news and opinion pieces. There are openings for freelance work, too, for qualified candidates. E-mail tdaniels@iberkshires.com to find out more. |
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Other StuffMars Rovers Mark 5 Years
Spirit and Opportunity have been trekking the red planet for half a decade. Spirit hit the 5-year mark on Sunday; Opportunity will on Jan. 24. |
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Williams College Eclipse Study Heads to Siberia - July 24, 2008
WILLIAMSTOWN - On Friday, August 1, 2008, the moon will pass in front of the sun, blocking the everyday solar surface. When that happens, it gets a million times darker outside, allowing the faint outer layers of the sun to be seen and studied.
Scientists Jay Pasachoff and Bryce Babcock of Williams College are leading an expedition to Siberia so as to station themselves and their equipment in the path of totality (the phase of an eclipse when it is total), which is only hundreds of miles wide in spite of being thousands of miles long.
Leaving Williamstown on July 21, they flew 1,750 miles east to Novosibirsk, the third largest city in Russia. Their observing site will be in collaboration with Dr. Allya Nestorenko of the State University of Novosibirsk and Dr. Igor Nestorenko of the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. The university is in Akademgorodok, a small, academic town about 20 km east of Novosibirsk.
There, scientists from Poland, Australia, and Greece will join them, and their number will swell to 29. During the pre-eclipse week in Akademgorodok, they will be very busy setting up and testing equipment, working in collaboration with Nestorenko.
Their experiments deal with the solar corona, especially how it is heated to millions of degrees. The expedition carries twin telescopes with different filters that pass only light from the hot coronal gas along with high-speed digital cameras of a special type.
The expedition includes Williams College students Katherine Dupree '10 and Marcus Freeman '10 as well as Keck Northeastern Astronomy Consortium Summer Fellow Matthew Baldwin '10. To provide vital Russian-language translation and liaison services, they will be joined by Williams College Russian history professor William Wagner. Dr. Paul Rosenthal is the expedition medical doctor.
Pasachoff is also collaborating with Glenn Schneider of the University of Arizona who will view the eclipse aloft from high above the Arctic. A platform controlled by two gyros will carry several cameras for recording eclipse images.
Pasachoff is chair of the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Eclipses. He has viewed 46 previous solar eclipses. |
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