>Why is it not surprising that someone arranged for an observatory to
>be located just outside The Castle's back door? I'm assuming that
>Utena, given her apparent interest in "star gazing" or just plain
>astronomy, had a hand in that choice of location. (that, or maybe the
>Brothers already had something similar going on there?)

Actually, as far as I know, it was coincidental. That was the darkest spot on campus that was within easy access of the perimeter road. The other corners are either too close to Highway 1 or the athletic fields. (And even then it proved unsuitable for a bigger telescope, which is why they built another one out in the mountains later. Castle Hill protects the site from much of the glare from the campus lights, but it also blocks the northeastern sky, so six of one...) Utena's observatory was on the roof of the Castle. :)

>I, too, thought Hannibal Hamlin Hall would be closer to The Castle,
>but for different reasons. In Sophomore Slump Tom thinks about
>looking out the window to see if there's any activity at The Castle.
>Yeah, it's a 4th floor window, but there are several buildings (2
>dorms and the entire performing arts complex) along with Single Acre
>Wood between the two locations.

What you can't see on the map is that Castle Hill is fairly tall - tall enough that the Castle is above the trees of the Single-Acre Wood. It can be seen, at least part of it, from pretty much anywhere on the central campus. It's still quite far from Hamlin, and the auditorium doesn't exactly help, but Tom at least figured he'd be able to tell if there was anybody moving around up there.

>How convenient the garage, er, auto and transport engineering
>building, is right next to the drag strip. They're into hands-on work
>and testing, I take it?

The southern leg of the campus perimeter road wasn't intended as a drag strip (as far as anyone can verify), it became one more or less by default when the motorhead students noticed it was straight, flat, and a reasonable distance away from anything valuable one might crash into. Those runoff areas at the east and west ends were added later - and so, yeah, that corner of campus was the logical place to build the Stanley Shops (which also house the Motor Club's clubhouse). :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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