FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread: October 21, 2008

Good morning, Whitewater

In the city today, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a Common Council meeting at the municipal building. The full agenda for the meeting is available online and includes this sampling of items:

  • A City of Whitewater Common Council Member Rights in Debate Policy
  • An Ordinance Pertaining to Police and Fire Commission Membership
  • and — wait for it, Whitewater — the possible adoption of an Ordinance Prohibiting Jay Walking.

The National Weather Service predicts that today will be sunny, with a high temperature of 53 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac continues a multi-day prediction that “colder and drier weather moves in.”

Yesterday’s better prediction: NWS. We had rain.

In Wisconsin History on this date, in 1897, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Yerkes Observatory was dedicated:

Founded by astronomer George Hale and located in Williams Bay, the Yerkes Observatory houses the world’s largest refracting optical telescope, with a lens of diameter 102 cm/40 inches. It was built through the largess of the tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes, who rebuilt important parts of the Chicago transportation system after the fire. Situated in a 77-acre park on the shore of Lake Geneva, this observatory was the center for world astronomy in the early 20th century and invited a number of astronomers from around the world, including Japan, for scientific exchange.

The observatory’s webpage is available at http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/index.html

Comments are closed.