Quintessential Appalachia

Or, more precisely, what I think must be a quintessential view of Appalachia: hills, shacks and beautiful white houses that stand firm yet lonely in the wide landscape. (I know this particular picture shows a blue house, but trust me: it's probably the only non-white house for miles around. Not that there are many houses within miles (an average of 3 houses per km² according to Wikipedia), but you know what I mean.

This blog is inspired by the yearly trek of the WVU astro group to their summer hideout at the Green Bank Observatory. Escaping the heat of the plains, this peculiar breed of scientist withdraws to the mountains to abstain from cell phones, microwave ovens and anything wireless. Throughout the few hours drive straight down the heart of the state, the ever decreasing population makes for a clear break from the city we normally inhabit. I would never have thought of calling Morgantown a city, but officially it is and seeing some more of the state, I'm starting to put things into context.



The endpoint of our trip - in the middle of the huge (bigger than Belgium) radio quiet zone - is the Green bank telescope ('the largest fully movable dish in the world' is a 100x110 m dish, which makes it just larger than the 100m diameter Effelsberg paraboloid). Now on the one hand I find it absolutely fascinating that such a large area could be made radio quiet by law (and I'm sure you're all just as postively enthousiastic), but at the same time there is of course the harsh reality that the military doesn't necessarily need to submit to this sort of thing, so you may have a large area without television transmitters or mobile phone coverage, but that doesn't mean you haven't got RFI (radio frequency interference). I guess you can't have it all.


Sitting in the even-more-middle-of-nowhere-than-Morgantown, my silly old prejudiced self assumed I'd find the die-hard hillbilly-redneck communities one generally tries to avoid except when making a certain kind of movie. I'm happy to say I was thoroughly misguided on this front. For starters, I came across this:

a solar-powered "slow-down-school-near" sign in the very middle of the state that survives on mining coal. I'm impressed. Next I found myself sporting a T-shirt that pronounced loud and clear my support for Third World debt relief while walking the thin white line that borders the oncoming traffic from the side of the road. In a redneck backyard of a redneck state that voted Republican even in 2008 - notwithstanding the tens of astronomers who surely must have tipped the balance a bit - and which housed (as I had been told) the headquarters of the KKK, I can only blame oblivion and lack of foresight for such inappropriate clothing. As it happens, though, the easily orchestrated 'accident' didn't arrive - all that happened was that an African-American nodded approvingly from his driver's seat. Of course, it may have had nothing to do with my T-shirt, but even so. (By now I've checked the internet and for as far as I can tell WV doesn't have - and never did have - a KKK headquarters.)

The next day I went to the local shop - the kind of small, darkish shop with the squeeking door you know from your standard Western - carrying my yuppie'ish, city-folk cotton shopping bag (save on plastic - save the environment!) Or so I thought. As it turns out the city isn't nearly as far ahead of the country as I imagined: instead of denigrating looks ("what does that fancy city-boy think he's doing here"), I got an approving nod accompanied with the assurance that "many people bring their own bags these days - just think of all the plastic we're saving; ain't that great".

So in brief, I've been happily surprised about the country: my fears were ungrounded, my prejudices outdated. As a final anecdote I'll mention the walk in the woods that became slightly unpleasant and worrisome when I heard shooting in the distance. Even though I thought hunting season is in autumn, walking in camouflage (did I mention my oblivion and lack of foresight?) while people are shooting doesn't sound like a thing you would like to do - not in WV. Upon arrival at the lodge, though, it turned out there was a shooting range - well away from where I was walking, once again making me look foolish in my worry. (It's only fair to add that the only story I've ever heard of an astronomer being shot at took place in Narrabri (AUS), not in WV. On that occasion, the shooting wasn't an accident but a determined attempt at getting people of private property. I must not be the only oblivious astronomer around.)