Instagram story viewer> @whitememorialcc> Tagged

White Memorial

@whitememorialcc

undefined

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Whether you are leaf-peeping or just trying to get your steps in, it is the perfect time of year to explore the many hiking trails that the nutmeg state (and all of our New England neighbors) have to offer!🍂🌄

If you are looking for a hike local to our shop, here are just a few of the spots you can explore:
🍁 Steep Rock Preserve - Washington Depot
🍁 Hidden Valley Preserve - Washington Depot
🍁 Mt. Tom State Park - Litchfield
🍁 Mine Hill Preserve - Roxbury
🍁 White Memorial Conservation Center - Litchfield

#fallactivities #newengland #hiking #walkingtrails #connecticutwalkingtrails #connecticuthikes #newenglandhikes #washingtonbusinessassociation #explorewashingtonct #hikingguide #unlockingconnecticut #connecticut

10

0

👻🦇 Science is getting spooky in SciStarter’s latest newsletter! 🎃🔬

Bats flying at dusk, creepy-crawly roommates, ghostly forests, and mysterious sounds… Halloween is full of science!

Our latest newsletter features citizen science projects that turn spooky encounters into real discoveries. Here’s how to get involved:

🦇 Bats Count! Watch a live bat camera and help researchers track bats emerging at sunset.
🔊 Horrible and Heavenly Sounds: Listen to eerie and delightful recordings to help scientists understand how sounds make us feel.
🦅 Who Eats Whom? Photograph animals eating in the wild to help scientists understand food webs.
🕷️ Never Home Alone: Discover the tiny creatures living alongside us and contribute to research on indoor biodiversity.
🌲 Ghosts of the Coast: Document eerie ghost forests and help researchers understand how rising seas are changing coastal landscapes.

Plus, learn how to earn a free citizen science training badge, watch a SciStarter Classic about cemetery history, and register for an upcoming NASA science event!

No tricks, just treats (and real science)! 🍬

👻 Explore SciStarter’s latest newsletter (link in bio)

3

0

From an early October hike through pure magic. ✨

62

1

The teardrop-shaped access road at White Memorial's Point Folly Campground on Bantam Lake is once again the glorious domain of walkers and hikers after camping season ended on Columbus Day earlier this week.

🍂 The fall foliage is heading toward its peak, framing a quiet loop path of approximately .75 miles that's blanketed with fallen leaves and offers beautiful lake views all the way around the Point Folly peninsula. There's also a viewing platform looking over Kilbourne Cove where the Bantam River exits the lake, a prime spot for great waterfowl viewing. 🦆

📍 Point Folly is located along North Shore Road and there's a dirt parking area right off the road, or additional parking across the way at the @whitememorialcc Point Folly marina and camp store lot. 🅿️

🔗 More Info: Head to whitememorialcc.org

#VisitLitchfieldCT #LitchfieldCT #WhiteMemorial #PointFolly #BantamLake #LitchfieldHills #CTOutdoors #CTFoliage #AutumnInNewEngland #CTVisit #Connecticuter #FallFoliage #SceneInCT #CTHikes

93

1

🦉🍂 A day of discovery at White Memorial!

Our kindergarten students enjoyed a fun-filled field trip to White Memorial on Friday! They got an up-close look at a live owl, explored the indoor exhibits, and enjoyed spending time together outdoors. 🌿

A fun day of learning and adventure for our kindergarten class! 🙌

#tcact #Kindergarten #LearningBeyondTheClassroom #WhiteMemorial #fieldtrip

34

0

Jess and Steve had such an amazing day at @whitememorialcc in September. It was the prettiest setting, perfect weather, two of the most down to earth people, surrounded by a ton of love, and a super cool live band to end the night 🥰

66

7

𝐇𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐞 🍂🥾

The White Memorial Apple Hill Trail is the perfect Autumn destination for a moderate-level hike that rewards the effort with stunning views of the fall foliage, Bantam Lake, and CT's western hills from a wooden viewing platform.

Apple Hill is located above East Shore Road in Morris and there are two ways to get to the summit and viewing platform: Experience the longer trail and the Cat Swamp spur, or seek out a "hidden" second access area with a mini parking lot where it's a short uphill walk to the summit.

From the northern entrance off East Shore Road, the Apple Hill Trail is a 1.5-mile journey (3 miles total out and back) to the summit), per White Memorial. From the southern entrance closer to Route 109 in Morris, it is just a half-mile up to the summit (1 mile round trip).

Our hike was a hybrid favored by many Apple Hill fans::

🚶‍♂️ We parked at the northern entranced and followed the long trail on the way up, taking the spur to admire Cat Swamp.
⛰️ We lingered on the summit viewing platform to enjoy the colorful Autumn vistas.
👟 Then we took the short trail back down to East Shore Road and walked along the road back to the car to complete a loop that totaled just over 3 miles.

Apple Hill is one of many unforgettable hikes across White Memorial’s 40+ miles of trails and 4,000 acres of protected wilderness spanning Litchfield and Morris.

📍 Plan your hike on the @whitememorialcc website at whitememorialcc.org (Look for the trail maps page)

📸 𝙋𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙖𝙣 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙤𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝙊𝙘𝙩. 10.

#VisitLitchfieldCT #LitchfieldCT #WhiteMemorial #ConnecticutFoliage #CTHikes #LitchfieldHills #NewEnglandAutumn #ExploreCT #CTBucketList #OptOutside #FallInNewEngland

93

2

⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆
NGC 281 — Pac-Man Nebula

A little flashback to the beginning of the September 11th session at White Memorial. This was technically first light for the new S50 Pro. I didn't want to leave the telescope sitting idle while waiting for M33 to rise, so I gave NGC 281 a quick 44-minute run. At first, I wasn't sure this one was worth posting — by my current standards, 44 minutes is a very small dataset, and I know there is much more detail hiding here. Then I compared it with my original S50 attempt from last September, and that completely changed my mind.

Even with less total integration, the improvement is dramatic. Part of that comes from the upgraded S50 Pro, but just as important is a year of learning better acquisition, EQ tracking, longer sub-exposures, PixInsight processing, and how far I can push these small smart telescopes without pushing the data too far. Like my recent Iris Nebula comparison, this image has become a great benchmark for how much the hobby has changed for me in a year.

NGC 281 is a large emission nebula and active star-forming region in Cassiopeia, roughly 9,500–10,000 light-years away. Its young open cluster IC 1590 contains hot, massive stars whose ultraviolet radiation ionizes the surrounding hydrogen and powers the nebula's glow. The dark "mouth" cutting into the brighter gas is made from dense obscuring dust, including Bok globules — compact clouds that may become sites of future star formation.

This was only a target of opportunity, but the comparison convinced me Pac-Man belongs near the top of the list for a proper several-hour session once the replacement S50 Pro arrives.

Seestar S50 Pro EQ
Filter- Internal LP filter
09/11/26 2017 hrs.
41.721680, -73.211214
44 × 60-second exposures (44 minutes)
Stacked & processed in PixInsight, edited in Photoshop
⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

#astrophotography #pacmannebula #ngc281 #deepskyphotography #seestar

6

1

⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆
M33 Triangulum Galaxy — Wide Field

Same night, same telescope, completely different view.

While the S50 Pro's main telephoto camera was collecting the 7+ hours of M33 data from the previous post, its new wide-angle camera was working alongside it on this much larger field. This is one of the biggest changes from the original S50: the S50 Pro adds a second 8.3MP Sony IMX586 wide-angle camera with a 6mm f/1.75 lens and a huge 63° field of view. By comparison, the main telephoto system uses the 8.3MP OmniVision OS08B10 behind a 260mm f/5.2, 50mm-aperture optical system with a 2.8° field of view.

The result is two completely different perspectives captured by the same telescope. The telephoto camera isolates M33 and resolves its spiral structure; the wide-angle camera turns it into one small galaxy floating in an enormous field of stars.

And M31 absolutely steals the show here. Andromeda is the bright elongated galaxy toward the upper right, while M33 is the much smaller, fainter patch closer to the center. Both are neighboring members of our Local Group, but the difference in apparent brightness makes them look dramatically different in a field this wide.

The timelapse was captured first while trees were still crossing part of the wide-angle field. Once the view cleared, I switched to long-exposure wide-field capture and let it run alongside the main M33 session for another 3 hours 38 minutes.

Seestar S50 Pro EQ — Wide-angle camera
Filter- No additional filter
09/12/26 0150 hrs.
41.721680, -73.211214
218 × 60-second exposures (3 hours 38 minutes)
Stacked & processed in PixInsight, edited in Photoshop
⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

#astrophotography #widefieldastrophotography #triangulumgalaxy #andromedagalaxy #seestar

5

1

16

1

⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆
M31 Andromeda — Wide Field

My first real attempt at using the S30 Pro's wide-angle camera for a long-exposure deep-sky image, and I love how different the perspective is.

The S30 Pro actually carries two imaging systems. Its main telephoto camera uses a Sony IMX585 behind a 160mm f/5.3, 30mm-aperture optical system with a 4.6° field of view — the camera that was spending this same night collecting the close-up M31 data from my previous post. At the same time, its second camera was recording this much wider view with a Sony IMX586, 6mm f/1.75 lens and enormous 63° field of view. Both sensors are 8.3MP, but they tell completely different stories of the same sky.

M31 is clearly visible near the center, about 2.5 million light-years away. Look below and to the left and you can just make out M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, roughly 3 million light-years distant. Everything around them is filled with foreground stars from our own Milky Way, including the broad glowing band of the galaxy stretching across the frame.

I especially like the scale this gives the scene. In the previous post Andromeda dominates the image; here it becomes one small island universe buried in an enormous field of stars, with another entire galaxy faintly visible nearby.

The timelapse was captured just before starting the long wide-field integration, while trees were still crossing part of the field. Once they cleared, I let the wide-angle camera run alongside the main M31 session for just over six hours.

Seestar S30 Pro EQ — Wide-angle camera
Filter- No additional filter
09/11/26 2259 hrs.
41.721680, -73.211214
362 × 60-second exposures (6 hours 2 minutes)
Stacked & processed in PixInsight, edited in Photoshop
⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

#astrophotography #widefieldastrophotography #andromedagalaxy #milkyway #seestar

6

1

⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆
M31 — The Andromeda Galaxy

Andromeda is finally back in season, and I took a night off work to make the most of clear, dark skies at one of my favorite Connecticut astrophotography spots.

M31 is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way, about 2.5 million light-years away. Its tilted disk stretches roughly 152,000 light-years across, with dark dust lanes wrapping around a bright central bulge and blue star-forming regions scattered through the outer disk. Two of Andromeda's satellite galaxies are visible here as well: compact M32 and the more diffuse M110.

This target has been part of the hobby almost from the beginning. M31 was one of the first deep-sky objects I photographed with the original S50 last September, so revisiting it a year later with the S30 Pro made for a pretty incredible comparison.

The new image is 8 hours 29 minutes of data from lower-Bortle-4 skies at White Memorial in Litchfield, CT. I'm also including my July S30 Pro result from Charleston, SC: 3.5 hours under Bortle 7 skies. Same telescope, same target, but a much larger dataset and darker sky made a huge difference in the faint outer structure, dust lanes, color and overall signal.

Between those comparisons and the original S50 images, this one really shows what a year of better acquisition, longer integrations and a lot of time learning PixInsight can do. I'm extremely happy with how this one turned out.

Andromeda is moving toward the Milky Way, although the once-familiar story of an inevitable future collision has become much less certain with newer research — more on that in the pinned comment.

Seestar S30 Pro EQ
Filter- Internal UV/IR Cut
09/11/26 1957 hrs.
41.721680, -73.211214
509 × 60-second exposures (8 hours 29 minutes)
Stacked & processed in PixInsight, edited in Photoshop
⋆⭒˚.⋆🔭⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

#astrophotography #andromedagalaxy #m31 #deepskyphotography #seestar

10

1