A double play on today's Cam... The Ripley mining ruins by Donn de Yampert were ready to be published, when suddenly Dan Urbanski flashed this night scene over the wires (or in my case, the wireless). Both nice shots, both taken here in the U.P. (pasty capitol of North America).

Speaking of pasties, if you want some for a Memorial Day Weekend picnic, I would highly recommend that you order now, because May is quickly slipping away. This month we have been shipping via UPS, and receiving good reports of tasty, timely arrivals. Sometimes, wrapped up in presenting all the beauty and history of the U.P. here on the Pasty Cam, we forget to mention you can actually BUY pasties here :o)

P.S. If you prefer to speak to a person rather than ordering online, you are welcome to call our toll-free number during business hours (9-5): 1-877-727-8911 (877-PASTY-11) ...ch

In the astronomic display last night, Venus is Closest to the moon. My best guess is that the lower one is Mars, and the upper one is Saturn, Jupiter is just out of the picture, up and to the left, and Mercury had already set. The photo was taken at an old homestead just north of Nisula.

This was beautiful last night, and like you, I thought that the lower 'star' was Mars. Can anyone verify this? Also Jupiter was very bright. I'd like to see a photo that has Jupiter in it. I did not know that the upper one was Saturn, thank you.

I'm amazed every summer when I return home, how I 'forget' in the meantime the brillance of the stars. Living so close to a major city and the blinding city lights, beautiful sites such as these, and the amazing night sky in general in the UP are greatly missed.

hey, deja vu. My wife and I spent last weekend (May3-6) up in Houghton. Since we just passed our six month anniversary, I suprised her by springing for a deluxe lake-view room at the Franklin Square Inn. We got to wake up each morning looking at those Ripley ruins. (and got to see the Ranger III leave for what I believe was the first time this season. I'm guessing that because there was a video camera in the parking lot documenting it.) This was my wife's first trip to Houghton and she had a great time. Hopefully I can get her back up there more often because there wasnt nearly enough time to show her all that I love about that region.:)

of all the pictures ive seen here, i have yet to see one of the natural wall on traprock hill, any chance of seeing a picture of that?

http://spaceweather.com/ has a good story about the planets and moon right now.

You can see one of the old ore cars from the old Q&TL. Way back when.. the tree line was not as high as present day. The view from Hoton included these cars. I went up there last summer and found that thet are still there.

I cut a calculus class one fine spring day in 1970 and walked up to the top of Mount Ripley where I found a 6 spoked iron brake wheel loosely attached to one of those train cars. I lugged the very heavy artifact all the way back to Wadsworth Hall and hung it around the knob of our tiny room's radiator on the 5th floor where it served as a conversation starter(and steering wheel for the SS Wadsworth) until summer break arrived.
Arrrggh...my arms still ache from that little local history adventure. And I've forgotten everything I ever learned about differential equations as well.

What were these building used for in mining?

Hi here is a link from Space Weather with a map of the May 14 sky. Great shot Dan!!

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/images/relax/skymap_north_14may02.gif

Love your planet photo! It looked just like that here in Denver, Colorado last night.

The photo of Ripley is fascinating. but I have been away for a while and I wonder if it looks like that now or was that a 'shoebox memory' from the mining days?

We have the same view of planets here in Atlanta.
Actually, on May 14, Mars was so close in the
sky to Venus that Mars could not be distinguished
by the naked eye, or with my bird glasses.

Saturn, and then Mercury, were below Venus,
and of course Jupiter was higher, in the constellation Gemini. The light to the
right of Venus and higher was a star.

Two good sites for astronomy are

http://www.heavens-above.com

and

http://ntserver.ct.astro.it/cgiplan/skydraw.htm

To yooperspud, ID. I have a couple of pictures of the Natural Wall that I took in August of '98. That's the problem, it was in August and there were leaves. It would be a waste of space to share them here, it just doesn't show well. Now would be the time to photograph the wall, I was up last week but didn't have the time to go down there. To CM, Washington, the ruins are Quincy Mining Company's smelter. This was where concentrates or "mineral" from the stamp mill was refined into commercial copper. Actually, this plant operated up until about 1967 when the Quincy Reclaimation Plant finished the sands in Torch Lake. Presntly the site is targeted for stabilization and use in the National Park.

to Connie:
I woke up to that "Ripley" view every day of my childhood growing up on/near College Ave in Houghton. That view hasn't changed much. It's a very recent photo, but still the same-old, same-old. It's great. Thank you Charlie for putting it on. Brings special memories of a happy time.

I remember seeing that smelter from my gramp's home on college avenue in the early 50's and when attending Tech in '66 I recall the hot slag being dumped at night.Great memories!

I saw it last night too! Looked so pretty-- I wish I had my camera. Can't wait for the leaves to come out around here!

Here's a gallery of photos of the planetary lineups from a NASA site also:
http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/planets/gallery_may02.html

Paul from Illinois, Are you a former "Yooper"? Sounds like you grew up in Copper Country!

Yooperwannabe:once a Yooper always a Yooper. There is no such thing as a former Yooper, just misplaced Yoopers.

Well said, Misplaced Yooper!

Where is the natural wall located? I was told it's east of Laurium. If so.. which side of the Trap Rock is it on?

Ladyyoop, thanks for the link to the NASA site. Shows what a small world this is---one of the photos was taken right down the canal from my house on Portage Lake!

Yooperwanabe,

No, unfortunately I did not grow up in the Copper Country, but I am a descendant of Copper Country Yoopers. We always return "up home" for vacations. We started out in Eagle River and at the Cliff back in the 1840's.

Mad Max,

The Natural Wall is east of Laurium on the Laurium side of the Trap Rock Valley near the Old Colony Exploration. The book, "Self-guided geological field trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula" will give you very precise directions to it. It is well camophaged in summer, so the leafless seasons are the best time to visit.

Martha..you are very welcome. Keep looking around in there...it's an awesome site..along with this Astronomy Picture of the Day site:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Which is ALMOST as awesome as Pastycam!

Its so beautiful you can just fit right in. Its like
your there an you feel the wind or the sun on
you .

I've been to natural wall many times with my brother who knows where it is. I would so love one of you wonderful photographers to post a pic of it so I could give it to him!