Lighthouse Museum welcomed RIT professor for talk on aurora borealis

Museum embraces light show that mimics Northern Lights

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Professor Michael Richmond showed this photo of an aurora borealis during his talk on auroras at the Oak Orchard Lighthouse’s annual fundraiser at Carlton United Methodist Church.

Chris Manaseri, president of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse board, welcomes guests to a dessert buffet and special program at the Carlton United Methodist Church to benefit the lighthouse.

CARLTON – The Oak Orchard Lighthouse held its annual fundraiser Saturday night at the Carlton United Methodist Church on Archbald Road.

The event featured the usual dessert buffet, as well as guest speaker, Michael Richmond, professor of physics and astronomy at RIT, who also runs the RIT observatory.

Richmond, who has taught at RIT since 1997, earned his bachelor’s degree in astrophysical sciences at Princeton and a Ph.D in astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley. His program was chosen because of the recent installation of aurora-like lights on the lighthouse.

Richmond said most of the continental United States doesn’t see auroras as clearly or often as Point Breeze does. He explained it takes gas, solar wind and a strong magnetic field to create an aurora. He also said earth is not the only planet to have auroras.

He passed out special glasses for the audience to wear to determine the color of gases in an aurora, which then determines the kind of gas it contains.

Lighthouse board president Chris Manaseri welcomed guests and introduced Dave Giacherio, who with his wife Cheryl was instrumental in acquiring a grant for the aurora-like light show recently installed at the lighthouse.

“The aurora over the lighthouse was accomplished by the cooperation of the entire community,” Giacherio said. “Chris negotiated with New York State and helped dig the holes in the stone around the lighthouse.”

He also acknowledged Peg Wiley, who was in attendance, and the late Dick Anderson for their initial efforts to build a lighthouse and for maintaining their support.

Wiley said she was particularly interested in the evening’s program, as her father-in-law Robert S. Wiley once built a spectrograph for Bausch and Lomb, where he worked for 55 years. One of the telescopes he worked on has the largest eschelle ever built up to that time and is in a stellar observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile.

Michael Richmond, professor of physics and astronomy at RIT, shows the audience a device which helps determine the type of gas in an aurora.

Manaseri shared the importance of this fundraising event.

“We still have to pay insurance and upkeep on the property,” he said.

The Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum is run by a 10-member board with the help of half a dozen docents, Manseri said. The museum is open from 6 to 8 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and from noon to 3 p.m. Sundays from May to October.

The evening’s dessert buffet prepared by board member Larry Grimes featured ambrosia, chocolate cake, carrot cake, pineapple upside down cake, peach cobbler and blueberry cobbler.

The evening concluded with drawings for centerpieces and a 50/50 drawing.