NULL 2011-08-15 17:08:09.000 - Kevin Cronin,  Summit Intern NULL This is my first week at the summit as an intern and it's been a great experience so far. Tom has made this week easy for me by showing me the ropes. Pete, Steve, Rick, and Erin have always been there to answer questions if I had them. Everyone has made it easy to adjust to this lifestyle and I love it so far. I hope all the volunteers are as kind as Hillary and Tor. They have cooked some incredible meals the past few nights. The weather so far has

NULL 2011-08-14 18:00:57.000 - Peter Strand,  Summit Intern 'Thanks to my awesome interns'. Thanks Erin! Looks like it's time for yet another farewell intern comment. Time really does fly by on the rock pile. It seems like only a short time ago that I arrived on the summit, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Not knowing quite what to expect, I attempted to learn everything I could as fast as possible. I would first like to thank the folks on my shift: Mike, Steve, Rick, Tom, Erin and Stacey. I learned so much from them during my time here. Not a

Marty's Vaccination Today 2011-08-14 11:47:15.000 - Rick Giard,  Observer / Educational Specialist Marty Confined to Quarters As the only permanent full-time resident on the Summit, our Observatory cat Marty generally has freedom to come and go as he pleases. I say 'our' loosely, because he characteristically seems to think that he owns the place - King of the Mountain, as it were. Especially in summer, he generally roams and explores at will, inside and out. He is also very territorial and protective when other animals 'invade' his turf, and has often been observed standing off with domesticated and wild animals

NULL 2011-08-12 15:03:11.000 - Tom Padham,  Summit Intern My favorite photo of the Summer It's been an amazing experience living and working on top of Mt Washington this summer. After this week I'll be heading back to Penn State University for one more semester before graduating with a degree in Meteorology. I haven't had much time to reminisce about being up here this week, since I've been busy training the new fall intern Kevin as well keeping up with what's turned out to be a busy week so far. I'd like to thank everyone who supports the observatory. We really

Volunteer Comment 2011-08-11 22:25:25.000 - Christy Keefe,  Summit Volunteer NULL A week ago today, I was getting ready to start my volunteer shift on the summit. My first concern was 'Be on time!' for the shuttle for shift change. Then, though I knew generally what I was supposed to do, my thoughts went to the specific unknowns - what was the 'usual' day like, what was life up here 'really' going to be like, would my co-volunteer partner be easy to get along with? Was I really worried? No. I figured that I'd take things as they came, roll with

NULL 2011-08-10 11:08:32.000 - Julie Rodriguez,  Summit Volunteer NULL A week on the summit, and I felt like a celebrity. The idea of cooking what, for me, amounted to a Thanksgiving dinner every night for a week was a little bit daunting, and I thought I might be cooped up in the Observatory ('Obs' for the initiated) kitchen for most of each day. Not so much. My partner, Christy, and I got a pretty decent partnership going right away that helped us get dinner on the table efficiently and allowed for plenty of hiking and down time, which is how

NULL 2011-08-09 22:59:35.000 - Jaclyn Ritzman,  Summit Intern Well I lied; this will be my last comment! Since I last posted a comment on Thursday we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis on Saturday! This has always been a dream of mine and I cannot believe I actually got an opportunity to witness this breathtaking phenomenon! Today, the summit has been packed with visitors and we had a busy day with tours up in the Observatory, which is great! It is always great seeing children who are interested in what we do up here on

Martys Mewsings 2011-08-08 17:38:12.000 - Marty,  Summit Cat Catching up on my Fur-ty Winks w/ a buddy of mine. Hello, Marty here. I figure it is the purr-fect time to write a comment since it's been a while since you heard from me. Life has been purr-ty nice up here. About 80 purr-cent of my day is spent cat napping and catching up on my fur-ty winks but every once and a while, I make appearances around the summit. One place I like to visit is the mew-seum since it is warm and inviting and very active as all the

Wishing for Fog 2011-08-07 18:28:43.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer / Educational Specialist NULL I can honestly say that it's not very often that I wish for a day that we are completely socked in the fog. However, given the weather pattern we have seen for the majority of my last couple of shifts, and especially leading up to today on this shift, I found myself really longing for a foggy day.See, while on the surface (no pun intended), taking weather observations seems like it should be a simple task, it isn't always in reality. First of all, we have to

Aurora Borealis - A site to see 2011-08-06 16:07:02.000 - Roger Pushor,  Observer / IT Specialist Aurora Borealis-Just below 6 mile on the Auto Road Yesterday's highlight didn't come until late evening when six of us decided to hike down the Auto Road to find a point where we could get a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. We ended up finding a clear spot in the Northern sky at around 5000 feet where we setup our tripod and camera to take a few pictures, one of which is attached to this Observer Comment. Unfortunately the camera just couldn't capture the