Jan 28th
Yesterday and today have been pretty rough. We Finally got an idea of what we needed to do for our posters yesterday and people have been scrambling since to get it done today. On a better note, its Amazing seeing all the people pictures. Its not just the finished product Im impressed with, I mean Entire the processing and what they had to do! Seeing how the images Looked to what they are now...WOW!
Anywho, we are currently playing around with the printer and Not winning most of the time. We take our small victories while we can :P And now have to go....hasta luego
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Imaging the Fox Fur Nebula
Here is the final image of the Fox Fur Nebula, the object I imaged the last night at Mt. Bigelow. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, especially because we had to learn the software (MaxIm) during the process. I still think that actually controlling the telescope was much more fun than stacking / making the image! It's a lot less tedious to me!
Processed Images
Here are some processed images from the telescope run of NGC 2419 Globular Cluster in the galatic halo of the Milky Way galaxy. ENJOY!
This is a combined image from the red, blue, and visible light filters.
This is a pseudo color over of the previous image
This a RGB combine image
This is simply an inversion of the light intensity of the previous image. It helps to better see the individual stars.
Ending the trip in Arizona
Unfortunately, we had to end our stay in Arizona. Thankfully though, we had much success observing! The last few days we were in Tucson, we visited Kitt Peak which was really amazing. I think it would be a lot of fun to observe on one of those telescopes. We all went out for dinner at Delectables and the food was amazing! The last night there we all hung out and shared stories. All in all, this trip was great! We had a safe flight back home... although the weather that greeted us was horrible!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Pictures!
I went kinda crazy this weekend and processed a bunch of pretty pictures. Here are a few...
M87 our image bw w/ jet compared to hubble image
M87
NGC 4565 rgb with red toned down
IC 349 Lower Merope Nebula
NGC 1435 Upper Merope Nebula
M87 our image bw w/ jet compared to hubble image
M87
NGC 4565 rgb with red toned down
IC 349 Lower Merope Nebula
NGC 1435 Upper Merope Nebula
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Is it really over?
We totally had a perfect last night up on Mt. Bigelow. It was a very clear night which gave those of us that had crummy weather the night before to retake some images to work with and they came out beautiful. Spent a lot of the time out on the cat walk and as Joe said, solved our issue of "Waffle Butt." It was much more comfortable and enjoyable then. Isa and on her game calling out for meteors. For the last session we caught sight of at least 12. It was something you could not experience back home. We also got to talk to an astronomer working in the telescope next to us. He was searching NEO's (Near Earth Objects), asteroids and comets that might have potential to collide with Earth. He has in fact discovered 7 comets which also have been named after him, which happens to be most any Italian astronomer has ever discovered.
We're leaving today and returning to the death of winter. It was pretty wonderful and spectacular to be wearing shorts in January. But things are constantly changing and we must return home to finish what we have started. Last night in fact we were able to experience a rain shower in the desert. I have always wanted that experience and hopefully today we will get to see some color out there in the desert as we drive to the airport and fly over the desert.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
1/19 Kuiper Day 3
It's been a good evening. The sky stayed mostly clear... perhaps clearer than the first night. I got some good data in blue and red of Bernard's Merope Nebula in the Pleiades. I also got to take a shower which was phenom! Later in the evening, I had an opportunity to take more images of the reflection nebula, however; the Pleiades were too far north for the telescope to reach. If I had been able to get telescope time just a half hour earlier, I would have been able to take more data. Phooey. Oh well, DA says that he has something fun for me to take a look at (yes, yes, ending sentence w/ a preposition, my bad).
The somethings fun were two galaxies. M87, the large elliptical in Virgo with the jet, and the Needle galaxy in color. I ran the last two images of the night. It was sad to close her up for the ninth time, knowing that I may never see or use that telescope again. My trips to the Kuiper have all be memorable and exciting. I hope everyone else has been able to appreciate this experience as much as I have.
The somethings fun were two galaxies. M87, the large elliptical in Virgo with the jet, and the Needle galaxy in color. I ran the last two images of the night. It was sad to close her up for the ninth time, knowing that I may never see or use that telescope again. My trips to the Kuiper have all be memorable and exciting. I hope everyone else has been able to appreciate this experience as much as I have.
End of the Night : (
Unfortunately, we are coming to the end of our last observational night. It's flying by! I'm so happy we get to image our objects for another time. Now I have three sets of images in all three filters. The final stacked image will look amazing (hopefully!). It's been fun stargazing on the catwalk with everyone and it's kinda sad it's coming to an end.
Cuddle Bunny
Tonight is our last night using the telescope, which makes it a sad night. However, the night was very clear and we were able to see all of our objects really good. We also spent a lot of time (Isa, Erin, Adam and I) out on the catwalk looking at the stars. We noticed that every time we sit on the catwalk for a while we get WAFFLE BUTT because of the spacing in the floor up there. When WAFFLE BUTT gets too bad you have to get up and do a few laps. So this time we brought up a sleeping bag to sit on and WAFFLE BUTT stood no change against that :). We have also separated into cuddle buddies while we are looking at the stars Erin and Adam are the more lame of the cuddle buddies and like usual Isa and I are the best, which is why we are called the cuddle bunnies hahaha. Also when we were looking at stars professor Arion walked down below us and when we asked if it was a bear he replied, " RAWR!!!!". That was the closest we got to seeing a bear on the trip. We also made up a game where we could find our own constellations. We found some pretty cool stuff such as Erin's boat called the "S.S. Martin", Isa's "Deer", and the one that I found which was called "ADAM"!!!!!! The night is going by fast so now im going to image my object which is ngc2068 in a third color so i can get a better stacked image of it. It has been a very successful and exciting trip!!!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Much more like it
Tonight has turned out to be a lot better. Clear skies and so I was able to retake some exposures of my NGC 2419 globbular cluster. They turned out much much better than the previous night. I was even able to get some using the blue and red filters that then I can combine with my exposures using the visible filter. So I am pretty pysched. I nearly fell asleep out on the cat-walk alone. I ended up getting cold and having to come down and sit in the warm control room. Then later we: Joe, Isa, Erin, and myself were out on the cat-walk and Isa has been asmazing at calling out meteors. We ended getting one that lasted nearly 5 secs. We seriously thought we were going to see it hit the ground. It was pretty amazing. We'll probably head up there again and enjoy the skies.
Last Clear Night
Random part of the sky...
Orion and DomeCheck out how awesome I am with my sweet new camera. You may notice that there are some stars in this picture. They make up part of Orion. If you look low by the treeline you can see a haze...thank you city lights! (shake fist)
The Final Day
Jan 19th
Today was a Very simple day...got up, walked, observed :P
I got out of bed around 10/11. The last hour or so just lying there b.c I didnt want to get out of bed/move :P Bugged Mark/Dahl a bit b.c no one really up and didnt want to wake Brad in the living room. After I found out Brad was up, I got some food.
People were getting up slowly but no one was really paying attention. I dont remember when, but we all headed up to the observatory. We set everything up and to the control room we went. The Vomit Comet people had a meeting so myself/D.A/Mark/Adam all took a walk.
We took the same path we did the first day but went further up it. Mark and I were lagging behind but we noticed a small clearing up the hill in the woods. We seperated and headed up that hill. We had to fight a bit of the sliding snow but made it up there. WOW! What a View it had! Now, this is where it gets fun :D There was only about 2 ways down, 1) Go down the Really steep hill straight down to path Or 2) Back track and go the easier/safer way. Well, Mark decided to go Straight down...Ok...lets do it. I went first but I controlled myself by digging my heels into the snow...he just slid down, Almost falling on his face into a pile of snow :P We trudged a bit more down the road until about the towers.
I was arguing they went down the road, he argued they went to towers ssoo we went to towers *cough*, was wrong :P That was a good thing though b.c it was the same idea as last time, easy or steep. Took steep again, I wanted to this time :D Oh, it was a Blast! I put down my coat, I was Roasting, and it was somehow bumped. I watched it slide Perfectly down the hill and I thought, that looks like Fun :D So I started to slide down snow board style. That got old so tried going straight down/toes pointing foreward, Much Better :D I dont know How many times I did this. Each time I had to climb up the hill on all fours, digging fingers/toes into the snow/hillside.
We eventually continued on and met up with D.A and Adam. We took the walk back and ate/relaxed a bit. Been observing ever since. The weather is Much better today and we were allowed to retake pictures of our images from yesterday. The clearer skies showed a Lot more than expected. That didnt last long though and now we are doing what we were intended to do. The clear skies should keep up and with about a 0.0 wind speed with about a 0 Azmuth....I Think we are good :P
Today was a Very simple day...got up, walked, observed :P
I got out of bed around 10/11. The last hour or so just lying there b.c I didnt want to get out of bed/move :P Bugged Mark/Dahl a bit b.c no one really up and didnt want to wake Brad in the living room. After I found out Brad was up, I got some food.
People were getting up slowly but no one was really paying attention. I dont remember when, but we all headed up to the observatory. We set everything up and to the control room we went. The Vomit Comet people had a meeting so myself/D.A/Mark/Adam all took a walk.
We took the same path we did the first day but went further up it. Mark and I were lagging behind but we noticed a small clearing up the hill in the woods. We seperated and headed up that hill. We had to fight a bit of the sliding snow but made it up there. WOW! What a View it had! Now, this is where it gets fun :D There was only about 2 ways down, 1) Go down the Really steep hill straight down to path Or 2) Back track and go the easier/safer way. Well, Mark decided to go Straight down...Ok...lets do it. I went first but I controlled myself by digging my heels into the snow...he just slid down, Almost falling on his face into a pile of snow :P We trudged a bit more down the road until about the towers.
I was arguing they went down the road, he argued they went to towers ssoo we went to towers *cough*, was wrong :P That was a good thing though b.c it was the same idea as last time, easy or steep. Took steep again, I wanted to this time :D Oh, it was a Blast! I put down my coat, I was Roasting, and it was somehow bumped. I watched it slide Perfectly down the hill and I thought, that looks like Fun :D So I started to slide down snow board style. That got old so tried going straight down/toes pointing foreward, Much Better :D I dont know How many times I did this. Each time I had to climb up the hill on all fours, digging fingers/toes into the snow/hillside.
We eventually continued on and met up with D.A and Adam. We took the walk back and ate/relaxed a bit. Been observing ever since. The weather is Much better today and we were allowed to retake pictures of our images from yesterday. The clearer skies showed a Lot more than expected. That didnt last long though and now we are doing what we were intended to do. The clear skies should keep up and with about a 0.0 wind speed with about a 0 Azmuth....I Think we are good :P
Round 2
Jan 18th
Today was a fairly simple day. Going to Summer Haven and observing.
Getting up around 12/1 :D, we got food and relaxed a bit waiting for the others to wake up. Once everyone up, we took a trip to Summer Haven. We made a few stops along the way, enjoying the sites. We were going to take a quick detour to see more sites but we lost the other truck and had to turn around. Later we tried to go back and they were closed down :(
Once at Summer Haven we made a stop to a small gift shop with Fresh Fudge :D There were scorpion/worm/chile lolley-pops and prickley pare candies. It was a nice little shop with some Good fugde. I wasnt going to get any first buut yeah :D :D Changed my mind. I only got a quarter of Butter Pecan and Rocky Road...both Very Good!
After the store we took another small hike. It was more of a walk through the town but it was still a decent haul. It was great too b.c once at the "end" of the road we were at....we just started throwing snowballs. Joe and Adam were far behind us and they started to lob snowballs over our heads so, naturally, we retailated. We threw some snowballs back till they got up to us. Then, Way behind us, was D.A and Erin. We got the evil idea to start lobbing snowballs at them. We made sure they were out of range but all of us threw a snowball at them. The snowballs pelted all over the place :P
From there, we headed back to the observatory, prepped everything, and hoped that the skies cleared. Well, they didnt really ever clear. Although it never Really got clear, there were a few clear spots here and there so we each got to chose an object to image :D It was great b.c you could just See how excited people were about it. We all got to image something and, I Think but dont quote me, everyone got a decent picture of theirs. I managed to luck out b.c there were only 2 of ours still left in the clear sky area once everyone was done. I went first and managed to get my NGC 1931 in both red and blue :D I CANT Wait to put it together and see what I got:D
Although we all got to image what we wanted, it was a sad day with a hazy sky almost all night :( I dont think anyone really cared....we enjoyed taking our images too much ;D :P
Today was a fairly simple day. Going to Summer Haven and observing.
Getting up around 12/1 :D, we got food and relaxed a bit waiting for the others to wake up. Once everyone up, we took a trip to Summer Haven. We made a few stops along the way, enjoying the sites. We were going to take a quick detour to see more sites but we lost the other truck and had to turn around. Later we tried to go back and they were closed down :(
Once at Summer Haven we made a stop to a small gift shop with Fresh Fudge :D There were scorpion/worm/chile lolley-pops and prickley pare candies. It was a nice little shop with some Good fugde. I wasnt going to get any first buut yeah :D :D Changed my mind. I only got a quarter of Butter Pecan and Rocky Road...both Very Good!
After the store we took another small hike. It was more of a walk through the town but it was still a decent haul. It was great too b.c once at the "end" of the road we were at....we just started throwing snowballs. Joe and Adam were far behind us and they started to lob snowballs over our heads so, naturally, we retailated. We threw some snowballs back till they got up to us. Then, Way behind us, was D.A and Erin. We got the evil idea to start lobbing snowballs at them. We made sure they were out of range but all of us threw a snowball at them. The snowballs pelted all over the place :P
From there, we headed back to the observatory, prepped everything, and hoped that the skies cleared. Well, they didnt really ever clear. Although it never Really got clear, there were a few clear spots here and there so we each got to chose an object to image :D It was great b.c you could just See how excited people were about it. We all got to image something and, I Think but dont quote me, everyone got a decent picture of theirs. I managed to luck out b.c there were only 2 of ours still left in the clear sky area once everyone was done. I went first and managed to get my NGC 1931 in both red and blue :D I CANT Wait to put it together and see what I got:D
Although we all got to image what we wanted, it was a sad day with a hazy sky almost all night :( I dont think anyone really cared....we enjoyed taking our images too much ;D :P
Long Hike
The trip to the Suguaro Desert was pretty cool. While most of the group decided to take a hike up to the highest point there was another group consisting of Brad, Isa, Erin, and I. We decided to go on the "easier" route. For the first hour this route ended up being up a wash that wasn't even part of any trail. By the time we got back we found the trail we were looking for and took off. Out of four different trails we somehow picked the longest one that would take us to the other end of the park. That was a fun hike. While resting at what was left of a building Brad took a burr off of his shoe and tossed it away. This ended up sticking into my shoulder. Those spines are sharper than one would think. We reached what we think was the top of the trail and decided to back track to meet up with the other group. The rest of the day was spent getting packed up and resting.
NGC 2371
I created this image by stacking the red filter images then the blue filter and then the green filter images. Once these were all stacked I then color combined the three images. Since I did not process the images by using flats, darks or biases I kind of cheated and photoshopped some very very red stars to look white. Pretty awesome...I know.
The last two nights
01/18/09
For our second night of observing, we didn't have the greatest of skies. It was clear when we opened at around 6:00 but as the evening went on, it got more and more hazy. Eventually we had too much haze and clouds that observing became impossible. Although we had less than great skies, a bunch of us were able to image objects in the sky. I imaged the small globular cluster NGC2158 which is next to a very large cluster M35. The images look really neat and I can't wait to stack all of them! Everyone else had great images too. I really liked the objects Joe and Dave imaged, although I don't remember their specific catalog numbers! When we closed up the dome, we went down to the dormitory and watch "Grandma's Boy" which was really funny.
01/19/09
Sadly, today is our final day imaging. In the beginning we had a lot of clouds and haze but it seems like the sky is definitely clearing up. Just like last night we get to image objects again due to the sky. I changed my object and tonight I took 6 one minute exposures (three in blue and three in red) of a portion of the Fox Fur Nebula. I'm even more excited to stack these images! Hopefully the skies stay decent like they have been so far tonight so that everyone gets to take great images!
For our second night of observing, we didn't have the greatest of skies. It was clear when we opened at around 6:00 but as the evening went on, it got more and more hazy. Eventually we had too much haze and clouds that observing became impossible. Although we had less than great skies, a bunch of us were able to image objects in the sky. I imaged the small globular cluster NGC2158 which is next to a very large cluster M35. The images look really neat and I can't wait to stack all of them! Everyone else had great images too. I really liked the objects Joe and Dave imaged, although I don't remember their specific catalog numbers! When we closed up the dome, we went down to the dormitory and watch "Grandma's Boy" which was really funny.
01/19/09
Sadly, today is our final day imaging. In the beginning we had a lot of clouds and haze but it seems like the sky is definitely clearing up. Just like last night we get to image objects again due to the sky. I changed my object and tonight I took 6 one minute exposures (three in blue and three in red) of a portion of the Fox Fur Nebula. I'm even more excited to stack these images! Hopefully the skies stay decent like they have been so far tonight so that everyone gets to take great images!
1-16
On Friday the main deal was hiking in Saguaro National Park. It's fun going on the crazy road that we already travelled on Monday. I like looking at the saguaros, but they're not freaky 10 armed ones like at the archaeological site. At the visitor center, we watched a short video that ended dramatically by showing us a window to the outside. I was impressed. We walked around randomly to prepare for the hike, and then we drove out to the start of the trail. There were two different paths, one facile and one difficile. Erin, Mark, and biffy took the easy one, but oh man it wasn't really easy. The first challenge was finding the trail. We failed this by going up a wash instead. Eventually we turned around and found the actual trail: the Huge Norris. We picniced for a bit then continued. I climbed on a bunch of things because it's fun. I picked up a small cactus on my shoe, and later I accidentally deposited upon the shoulder of Mark. Sorry. After standing on a cactus, I got spines in my shoe for some reason. My friend Erin consoled me as I removed them. Mark got some butt spines, and Isa rolled her ankle. We easiers believed the wash to be a more fun walk than the Norris. We stopped at a gas station, and I got a vault energy soda (it's pretty good.) We went home and showered, and I played a bit of pinball. My hi score of 10.9 million made Adam and Dave jealous. Later we decided to go out for dinner and pool, but sadly we couldn't find parking. We mostly didn't know where the hell we were, and Joe is a crazy driver. I screamed once during the trip. We went and got aloe for Caitlin and Subway for everyone. Erin wanted to go to Sonic, but nobody cared. Back at the hotel we ate sandwiches, then we all meditated. I had very little sleep last night, mostly due to a guitar playing child upstairs. He had no style.
7 MILES!!
Jan 16th
Today was a simple yet rough day. We went up to the Seguaro National Park and got ready for our hike.
We drove up to a small area, past the Desert Museum, and went to the parks main area. We stretched, looked at the small exhibits, and watched a short video on AZ plant/wild life. Not too long after that we started to get ready for the hike.
We filled up our water bottles and drove up to a small parking area for hikers only. We walked up a little path and then had 2 choices...we could take the advanced Or the easier route. For Whatever reason, idk, I took the advanced. The walk was Difficult, a total of 7 miles, and the not stopping part didnt help. The only good thing about it was we got to see some Really nice views/sites. And once we were up at the top of Mnt Wesson (¿sp?), there was All of what you saw coming up but pieced together for one Amazing view.
At the top, we caught up on food and drinks. During the time up there, 2 men came up and joined us. Before they left the top they asked if they could have a picture..sure and Joe took their picture. It was great b.c Right after that, the one guy said "You know we are not gay or anything. He is my guide...we arent really together." We didnt really care either way but it was funny the way he twinked out.
The walk down didnt seem as bad and we were also able to catch up with Dahl. He didnt make it to the top but should be Very proud of himself for making it as far as he did :)
The actual hike didnt seem that bad till we got back to the beginning strip of the hike...That seemed longer this time, Significantly longer.
The other group took a bit to get back to the cars, it was Ok with me b.c I was able to relax :P Once all back we headed to a gas station to get some Cold drinks and a bathroom break. Unfortunately, there was only one bathroom ssoo we all had to stand in line a bit :(
We all got our drinks and back to the motel where FOOD! We crapped around then all of, but Mark and I, left. We really couldnt go anyway b.c no room in the SUV...Oh well, didnt want to head out anyway. It wasnt till about 7/7:30 that D.A came back and we went out to eat. Just as we were about to head out, the other group came back. We just went to Subway and back. The rest of the night was packing/getting ready for Kuiper Peak.
Today was a simple yet rough day. We went up to the Seguaro National Park and got ready for our hike.
We drove up to a small area, past the Desert Museum, and went to the parks main area. We stretched, looked at the small exhibits, and watched a short video on AZ plant/wild life. Not too long after that we started to get ready for the hike.
We filled up our water bottles and drove up to a small parking area for hikers only. We walked up a little path and then had 2 choices...we could take the advanced Or the easier route. For Whatever reason, idk, I took the advanced. The walk was Difficult, a total of 7 miles, and the not stopping part didnt help. The only good thing about it was we got to see some Really nice views/sites. And once we were up at the top of Mnt Wesson (¿sp?), there was All of what you saw coming up but pieced together for one Amazing view.
At the top, we caught up on food and drinks. During the time up there, 2 men came up and joined us. Before they left the top they asked if they could have a picture..sure and Joe took their picture. It was great b.c Right after that, the one guy said "You know we are not gay or anything. He is my guide...we arent really together." We didnt really care either way but it was funny the way he twinked out.
The walk down didnt seem as bad and we were also able to catch up with Dahl. He didnt make it to the top but should be Very proud of himself for making it as far as he did :)
The actual hike didnt seem that bad till we got back to the beginning strip of the hike...That seemed longer this time, Significantly longer.
The other group took a bit to get back to the cars, it was Ok with me b.c I was able to relax :P Once all back we headed to a gas station to get some Cold drinks and a bathroom break. Unfortunately, there was only one bathroom ssoo we all had to stand in line a bit :(
We all got our drinks and back to the motel where FOOD! We crapped around then all of, but Mark and I, left. We really couldnt go anyway b.c no room in the SUV...Oh well, didnt want to head out anyway. It wasnt till about 7/7:30 that D.A came back and we went out to eat. Just as we were about to head out, the other group came back. We just went to Subway and back. The rest of the night was packing/getting ready for Kuiper Peak.
Ready to Go!
Jan 17th
Today we got ready for the Kuiper observatory at Mnt Bigelow. We had our usual breakfast and went grocery shopping. Not wasting too much time, we headed up the mountain. We stopped at a few site seeing areas :D
The first one we stopped at had a small pit/opening. I was going to follow the paths but then said screw it and headed down towards the pit. I heard running water so kept going. The area was so pretty. There was a small waterfall there, trees, little sand islands between the water..Oh, it was Cool! Following me was Brad/Mark/Joe. Brad/Joe went down further than me at first but then I joined them after enjoying the scenary for a bit. Brad managed to find another waterfall off to the side. It was tucked away, squeezed between 2 rock walls. Again, we didnt stay too long and had to head back up.
We stopped at another site seeing area. This one had the rolling hills feel to it. It was sort of like what we have been seeing but still it Does NOT take away from its beauty.
Traveling up the mountain some more, we Finally made it to the Kuiper Observatory. We moved everything in, got yelled at by a Shmidt guy, ate, slept a bit, and then another hike. This one wasnt a 7 mile one though...only about 4 :P
The hike consisted of ice/snow/muddy slush stuff but, luckily, most of it was snow. There were a couple of animal tracks in the snow, some rabbit others Not so much rabbit.
There were some clear areas along the way where we all stopped to enjoy the view. Man, were there views too! You could almost see the entire snowy hillside. Unlike before, we didnt go too far into this hike.
We trudged back and spent the rest of the night scurrying around, figuring out what we are doing/what Supposed to be doing, gazing at clear skies, and trying to stay awake. Luckily, no one was killed Or injured this night.
Today we got ready for the Kuiper observatory at Mnt Bigelow. We had our usual breakfast and went grocery shopping. Not wasting too much time, we headed up the mountain. We stopped at a few site seeing areas :D
The first one we stopped at had a small pit/opening. I was going to follow the paths but then said screw it and headed down towards the pit. I heard running water so kept going. The area was so pretty. There was a small waterfall there, trees, little sand islands between the water..Oh, it was Cool! Following me was Brad/Mark/Joe. Brad/Joe went down further than me at first but then I joined them after enjoying the scenary for a bit. Brad managed to find another waterfall off to the side. It was tucked away, squeezed between 2 rock walls. Again, we didnt stay too long and had to head back up.
We stopped at another site seeing area. This one had the rolling hills feel to it. It was sort of like what we have been seeing but still it Does NOT take away from its beauty.
Traveling up the mountain some more, we Finally made it to the Kuiper Observatory. We moved everything in, got yelled at by a Shmidt guy, ate, slept a bit, and then another hike. This one wasnt a 7 mile one though...only about 4 :P
The hike consisted of ice/snow/muddy slush stuff but, luckily, most of it was snow. There were a couple of animal tracks in the snow, some rabbit others Not so much rabbit.
There were some clear areas along the way where we all stopped to enjoy the view. Man, were there views too! You could almost see the entire snowy hillside. Unlike before, we didnt go too far into this hike.
We trudged back and spent the rest of the night scurrying around, figuring out what we are doing/what Supposed to be doing, gazing at clear skies, and trying to stay awake. Luckily, no one was killed Or injured this night.
Trip up to Kuiper
Today is the last day we have up here at the Kuiper Observatory. The trip up and past two days here have been incredible. I would never have guessed that a northwoods atmosphere would exist in Arizona. Yesterday we visited the small town of Summerhaven. Go there if you want some really good fudge. The planetary nebulae we have been observing are extremely cool. Unfortunately last night had large amounts of haze at around 11 pm and that persisted throughout the night, forcing us to stop observing early. Hopefully tonight will be better and we will be able to get more images. The clear skys we had yesterday were devoted to looking at objects we wanted to see. I choose the Trapezium, a small cluster of stars that form a trapezoid shape deep in the Orion Nebula. Tonight we will be getting some time to take more images of our chosen objects and I hope to get images in the other two filters. If so I will be able to put together a full image for display. The weather reports call for clearer skies so hoping for the best.
YUMMY YUMMY!
Jan 15th
We took a tour of the mirror lab today at the U of A football stadium. We then went to an opera with the Stalbitzes.
We took the quick drive over to the U of A campus and were allowed into the mirror lab. There we saw where they did/made the honey comb "base" for the mirrors, the area where they heated/spun the glass, where the mirrors were diamond/normally grounded, the polishing station, and what not.
During the tour, we were able to see them working on the GMT mirror (Giant Magellan Telescope) And the LSST (Large Synoptic Survey, Telescope) mirror. We also watched a video on how they created the videos so saw all the steps put together.
We were back at the motel pretty early and sat around till about 4 to get ready for the opera. Around 4:30 we all headed out to meet the Stalbitzes for dinner.
The Poca Cosa, or something:P, is where we ate. It was a small/odd restaurant. There was a dark mood to it, masks hanging on the walls, plants, and candles. You could tell it was a fancier restaurant. The oddest part about it, was the menu. The menu wasnt headed to you and you decided what you want. They actually change the menu 3/4 times during the day so can never really order the samething twice in a day. Also, the menu is written down on a chalk board and read off to you. The waitor says the name of the dish andn goes into detail on what it contains. You have to pay attention to what he says though and just remeber the names of some of the better sounding ones.
I got something :P with cheese, shredded beef, some kind of sauce (SO GOOD), tortillas, and onions. Also on the plate came a bunch of little crap. There was some pieces of watermellon, a small salad, a sliced pepper, turnip strips (we Believe it was turnip :P), and some pineapple. The desert was Just as good as the man meal.
Myself, Caitlyn, and Brad split a chocolate mousse and a dark chocolate cake. They were both Very good but the chocolate cake was a little Too rich for Brad and I. We killed the mousse with a little help from Adam/Caitlyn/D.A. The mousse was SO FRICKING GOOD :D :D I didnt want the mousse to end but it did :( :'( Anywho, it was off to the opera.
The opera house wasnt too far from the restaurant so it was a quick drive. The opera house was a small yet cozy place. Earlier I felt I was under dressed but upon arriving there, I didnt feel so bad :P There were people wearing crappy clothes/nightyesk clothes and there was one women with her feet propped up on the back of a seat. Although we didnt really "need" to dress up its just, to me, respectful to. Anywho, the opera was pretty good. The name of it was The Elixar of Love. I would considerate a romantic comedy with a young icecream man falling in love with the most beautiful women in town. He loved her more than Anything aand she wanted nothing to do with him. He does everything he can to make her fall in love with him, she realizes she really loves him, aannd yeah. You can fill in the rest. Although predictable, it was still a good opera.
Back to the motel we went where we relaxed and screwed around. It was Brad/Isa/myself/Dahl/Mark/Joe/Adam outside messing around. Dahl took people on on the little "cement logs", cant for the Love of me remember the name of it :D :P We also used Adam as a target for throwing rocks at...we never really wanted/did to hit him but it was still funny :P From there, a group of them left. I just stayed back in Dahl/Marks room relaxing/watching Tv.
We took a tour of the mirror lab today at the U of A football stadium. We then went to an opera with the Stalbitzes.
We took the quick drive over to the U of A campus and were allowed into the mirror lab. There we saw where they did/made the honey comb "base" for the mirrors, the area where they heated/spun the glass, where the mirrors were diamond/normally grounded, the polishing station, and what not.
During the tour, we were able to see them working on the GMT mirror (Giant Magellan Telescope) And the LSST (Large Synoptic Survey, Telescope) mirror. We also watched a video on how they created the videos so saw all the steps put together.
We were back at the motel pretty early and sat around till about 4 to get ready for the opera. Around 4:30 we all headed out to meet the Stalbitzes for dinner.
The Poca Cosa, or something:P, is where we ate. It was a small/odd restaurant. There was a dark mood to it, masks hanging on the walls, plants, and candles. You could tell it was a fancier restaurant. The oddest part about it, was the menu. The menu wasnt headed to you and you decided what you want. They actually change the menu 3/4 times during the day so can never really order the samething twice in a day. Also, the menu is written down on a chalk board and read off to you. The waitor says the name of the dish andn goes into detail on what it contains. You have to pay attention to what he says though and just remeber the names of some of the better sounding ones.
I got something :P with cheese, shredded beef, some kind of sauce (SO GOOD), tortillas, and onions. Also on the plate came a bunch of little crap. There was some pieces of watermellon, a small salad, a sliced pepper, turnip strips (we Believe it was turnip :P), and some pineapple. The desert was Just as good as the man meal.
Myself, Caitlyn, and Brad split a chocolate mousse and a dark chocolate cake. They were both Very good but the chocolate cake was a little Too rich for Brad and I. We killed the mousse with a little help from Adam/Caitlyn/D.A. The mousse was SO FRICKING GOOD :D :D I didnt want the mousse to end but it did :( :'( Anywho, it was off to the opera.
The opera house wasnt too far from the restaurant so it was a quick drive. The opera house was a small yet cozy place. Earlier I felt I was under dressed but upon arriving there, I didnt feel so bad :P There were people wearing crappy clothes/nightyesk clothes and there was one women with her feet propped up on the back of a seat. Although we didnt really "need" to dress up its just, to me, respectful to. Anywho, the opera was pretty good. The name of it was The Elixar of Love. I would considerate a romantic comedy with a young icecream man falling in love with the most beautiful women in town. He loved her more than Anything aand she wanted nothing to do with him. He does everything he can to make her fall in love with him, she realizes she really loves him, aannd yeah. You can fill in the rest. Although predictable, it was still a good opera.
Back to the motel we went where we relaxed and screwed around. It was Brad/Isa/myself/Dahl/Mark/Joe/Adam outside messing around. Dahl took people on on the little "cement logs", cant for the Love of me remember the name of it :D :P We also used Adam as a target for throwing rocks at...we never really wanted/did to hit him but it was still funny :P From there, a group of them left. I just stayed back in Dahl/Marks room relaxing/watching Tv.
A Short Day :D
Jan 14th
Today was a simple day, really only looking at MMT.
We headed up towards MMT stopping at the Smithsonian area. There we saw 4 Gamma Ray telescopes. We were able to go inside the computer area, looked at the/into (saw ourselves Enlarged :P ) the telescopes, and was explained how everything worked. We also met the Unglaubes up at the Smithsonian place and they continued with us up to MMT. They were a Very nice couple.
Anywho, we then took the long hual up to MMT. The road was zig-zagged with sharp turns and steep inclines. But once we were there, we got a lot of information.
The tour guide lead us to the mirror area, there we met 2 gentlemen. The one gentleman was Very informative. He gave us a Lot to work with and answered almost all our questions. We kept wanting to know more and took a bit longer than what our tour guide wanted. After a while, he had to force us out of there so we could continue moving.
We looped back behind the mirror and saw all the compenents and parts to the telescope. We then continued to tour the control room and the other rooms of the building.
Once we were all out of the building, we took in some of the views. They were AMAZING, by the way. We oogled over that a bit then headed back down. We stopped at the ridge to eat, killing the rest of the Chinese :P
The trip down seemed a Lot faster but the views were still Beautiful!
We stopped again at the Smithsonian thing, watched a quick video, looked around more, and then continued back down the mountain.
We were back in town and relaxed till about 6:30ish. We all went to a small pub and got some Really Good food :D From there, we walked around a little bit then back to the trucks/motel. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and watching Tv :D
Today was a simple day, really only looking at MMT.
We headed up towards MMT stopping at the Smithsonian area. There we saw 4 Gamma Ray telescopes. We were able to go inside the computer area, looked at the/into (saw ourselves Enlarged :P ) the telescopes, and was explained how everything worked. We also met the Unglaubes up at the Smithsonian place and they continued with us up to MMT. They were a Very nice couple.
Anywho, we then took the long hual up to MMT. The road was zig-zagged with sharp turns and steep inclines. But once we were there, we got a lot of information.
The tour guide lead us to the mirror area, there we met 2 gentlemen. The one gentleman was Very informative. He gave us a Lot to work with and answered almost all our questions. We kept wanting to know more and took a bit longer than what our tour guide wanted. After a while, he had to force us out of there so we could continue moving.
We looped back behind the mirror and saw all the compenents and parts to the telescope. We then continued to tour the control room and the other rooms of the building.
Once we were all out of the building, we took in some of the views. They were AMAZING, by the way. We oogled over that a bit then headed back down. We stopped at the ridge to eat, killing the rest of the Chinese :P
The trip down seemed a Lot faster but the views were still Beautiful!
We stopped again at the Smithsonian thing, watched a quick video, looked around more, and then continued back down the mountain.
We were back in town and relaxed till about 6:30ish. We all went to a small pub and got some Really Good food :D From there, we walked around a little bit then back to the trucks/motel. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and watching Tv :D
Last night at the telescope
Tonight is our last night at the telescope. Last night we were able to select objects that we wanted to and take 5 min exposures of them. Dave's and mine turned out pretty good and we were very happy with our images even thougth Erin tried to wreck mine by making the computer hate me. The night was very cloudy last night so we weren't able to get that good of images of any other objects. Even though it was cloudy Isa, Erin, Adam, and I still went out on the catwalk in hopes of viewing some shooting stars. When we got out there Adam told us we were stup[id and we wouldnt be able to see any shooting stars. So as he gazed down in disappoinmet Isa, Erin, and I kept our eyes on the prize. Sure enough us three saw a beautiful shooting star and Adam had to eat his words. It then got too cloudy to take images so we shut everything down around 1:30am and had a movie night.
Last night
It's the last night in the telescope and the weather is looking better than we expected. I'm hoping to get more coloured images of 2264 so that I can create a 3-colour image for a completed look. We just took our group pictures and are starting to realize we are coming to an end. Tomorrow, we're meeting people from NOAO and then Wed. going to Kitt Peak. I am ready to get home and see Roni again, but it'll be bittersweet, having to end this experience. I am tired of having to 'hurry up and wait' but that's this job and I'm hoping that what I can do will let me be working during recent hours, but doing the same type of processes.
Roughin It
Jan 13th
Today was a day where we were outside and doing some Real archeology. We were outside in the Real desert, not this Desert Museum stuff...the REAL desert :D It was about a 2 and a half hour drive out to the area. Even once there, we took some "roads" to go further out. These roads were just paths wide enough, Barely, for a car to fit.
We went to different excavations site that, unfortunately, were not kept up. At each site we were able to see, pick up, and collect pottery pieces left behind. One thing about going to these excavation spots was it wasnt a casual walk to it, we had to do some mini hiking/climbing to get there. For one of the sites, in particular, we had to climb up a dirt mountain, climb up a hill of rocks, and walk across the desert some more. It was By Far my favorite site to get up into :D And it wasnt just fun getting there but Better coming back down :D The rocks, since loose, made it Very interesting to get down...sometimes had to use hands/be on all fours. Even once down, we werent done roughin it.
Once on the road, maybe 10/15 mins in If Lucky, I heard a "psst psst psst". About 2 secs after that an exclammation point showed up on the dash, a tire was loosing pressure. We pulled over and sure enough, we had an Extremely Flat tire. Lol, it took a bit for D.A and Patrick to figure out what to do but they managed to get the old tire off and new tire on. Once they removed the old tire, we looked at it to see where the hole was. It took us a bit but Adam found it and it was a Decent sized hole..no Wonder why it didnt take too long for it to be completely flat. Anywho, everything was put back in place and we were back on the road again..seeing 4/5 Roadrunners along the way :D
Once back at the motel, we relaxed a bit then congregated to discuss food situations. We agreed on Chinese and some went to get it while the rest of us stayed back to relax more. From there, we watched "400 Years of the Telescope". I thought it was a decent show but the others didnt seem to care for it much.
Oh also, today while going to one of the sites, we encountered a cow. The cow wasnt sitting in the pasture, it was IN the road. We would try to go out and around it but everytime we tried, it would move. Eventually we just pulled off to the side and waited for the cow to get off the road. A car from the other way scared it off so we were good to go.
Today was a day where we were outside and doing some Real archeology. We were outside in the Real desert, not this Desert Museum stuff...the REAL desert :D It was about a 2 and a half hour drive out to the area. Even once there, we took some "roads" to go further out. These roads were just paths wide enough, Barely, for a car to fit.
We went to different excavations site that, unfortunately, were not kept up. At each site we were able to see, pick up, and collect pottery pieces left behind. One thing about going to these excavation spots was it wasnt a casual walk to it, we had to do some mini hiking/climbing to get there. For one of the sites, in particular, we had to climb up a dirt mountain, climb up a hill of rocks, and walk across the desert some more. It was By Far my favorite site to get up into :D And it wasnt just fun getting there but Better coming back down :D The rocks, since loose, made it Very interesting to get down...sometimes had to use hands/be on all fours. Even once down, we werent done roughin it.
Once on the road, maybe 10/15 mins in If Lucky, I heard a "psst psst psst". About 2 secs after that an exclammation point showed up on the dash, a tire was loosing pressure. We pulled over and sure enough, we had an Extremely Flat tire. Lol, it took a bit for D.A and Patrick to figure out what to do but they managed to get the old tire off and new tire on. Once they removed the old tire, we looked at it to see where the hole was. It took us a bit but Adam found it and it was a Decent sized hole..no Wonder why it didnt take too long for it to be completely flat. Anywho, everything was put back in place and we were back on the road again..seeing 4/5 Roadrunners along the way :D
Once back at the motel, we relaxed a bit then congregated to discuss food situations. We agreed on Chinese and some went to get it while the rest of us stayed back to relax more. From there, we watched "400 Years of the Telescope". I thought it was a decent show but the others didnt seem to care for it much.
Oh also, today while going to one of the sites, we encountered a cow. The cow wasnt sitting in the pasture, it was IN the road. We would try to go out and around it but everytime we tried, it would move. Eventually we just pulled off to the side and waited for the cow to get off the road. A car from the other way scared it off so we were good to go.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
What is this?
So today is about living the astronomer life. Went to bed at 4am and was expecting to sleep in till noon, but body hasn't adapted to it just yet, so I woke up at 10. Ended up getting the eagles cardinals game in for about a half. Headed to a place called summerhaven, which is an oxymoron since there was actually snow on the ground. Came back to the scope and prepared to take some individual images for ourselves. I took images on NGC2419 and I had the luck of going last which meant dealing with the haze and overcast conditions. Got a few ok images, but nothing special. So you could nearly say that this night is difficult to stay awake for waiting for the clouds to move along. Perhaps they might, we shall see.
1/18 Kuiper Day 2
We hiked around the little town of Summerhaven today. After two or three years, the mountain is still all burned up. Most of the dead trees have finally started to fall, and the town has rebuilt itself. There are all of these cute little cabins nestled in the hills and ridges. We got fudge.
We came up with an idea for a new SPS/astronomy t-shirt... Big letters: "Expose yourself" small letters: "in astronomy" or "Expose yourself every night" "in astronomy" with a bw picture of one of our images on this observation run. hehe.
I got to image the reflection nebula surrounding the star Merope in the Pleiades constellation (aka: the Seven Sisters or the Subaru). I can't wait to start stacking and processing my data. The nebula has a well defined pattern. It will be interesting to look at the structure after image processing.
Everyone else has chosen an object to look at tonight. I'm really impressed with all of the images so far.
I'm much more awake tonight and thus, much cheerier and excited about what we are doing.
There are some clouds to the west... I hope the weather holds out for us tonight.
We came up with an idea for a new SPS/astronomy t-shirt... Big letters: "Expose yourself" small letters: "in astronomy" or "Expose yourself every night" "in astronomy" with a bw picture of one of our images on this observation run. hehe.
I got to image the reflection nebula surrounding the star Merope in the Pleiades constellation (aka: the Seven Sisters or the Subaru). I can't wait to start stacking and processing my data. The nebula has a well defined pattern. It will be interesting to look at the structure after image processing.
Everyone else has chosen an object to look at tonight. I'm really impressed with all of the images so far.
I'm much more awake tonight and thus, much cheerier and excited about what we are doing.
There are some clouds to the west... I hope the weather holds out for us tonight.
First night at the telescope
1-18-09
Today was our first day at the telescope. When we first arrived here we sat around for a while looking around and getting comfortable with everything. After that we went on a little bit of a hike through the mountain where there was snow! When the night started Erin controlled the telescope but after she was done she taught me how to run the program. I was then able to run it and it wasnt as hard as i thought it would be. My first ever image was of ngc2440 pretty exciting i know!!!! Over the coarse of the night I was able to learn a lot of the things that were going on and got a fairly good handle on how to run most things. When there was time where i wasnt doing any thing i spent it on the catwalk looking up at the stars. I was able to see 5 or 6 shooting stars which i was really excited about. Erin, Isa, Adam, and I spent a lot of time out there looking at the stars and talking and in gald that i got a chance to get to know them all better. After we shut the telescope down for the night i went to bed n slept till 1pm whoo hooo!!!!
Today was our first day at the telescope. When we first arrived here we sat around for a while looking around and getting comfortable with everything. After that we went on a little bit of a hike through the mountain where there was snow! When the night started Erin controlled the telescope but after she was done she taught me how to run the program. I was then able to run it and it wasnt as hard as i thought it would be. My first ever image was of ngc2440 pretty exciting i know!!!! Over the coarse of the night I was able to learn a lot of the things that were going on and got a fairly good handle on how to run most things. When there was time where i wasnt doing any thing i spent it on the catwalk looking up at the stars. I was able to see 5 or 6 shooting stars which i was really excited about. Erin, Isa, Adam, and I spent a lot of time out there looking at the stars and talking and in gald that i got a chance to get to know them all better. After we shut the telescope down for the night i went to bed n slept till 1pm whoo hooo!!!!
actually posting on the right day
Actually slept til 1... there's something wrong about that... Went up to Mt Lemmon and got fudge. Don't really know why, it's ok, but I have a lot at home. But I did get my obligitory shot glass, so I feel a little more complete about this trip. The walk around the town did bother me a lot though, my back is really cramped up and tight. Tonight we might not get anything worth while, but at least we got a lot of good pics last night. I hope that if we don't get anything done we can go to bed early...
1/17 Kuiper Day 1
Was locked out of dome by Adam.
Trapped outside in cold on catwalk w/ pretty stars.
Afraid of bears.
Please send help… and food… and interwebz.
Very sleepy.
A ten hour nap would be pleasant.
Looking forward to fresh mountain pine scented air tomorrow.
Observations are going well. Telescope and systems are performing fabulously.
It is very warm in the control room, so I sat out on the catwalk for a while to take a look at the stars. I saw more than a dozen meteors... mostly quick green flashes, but one large orange fireball. It's nice and quiet up here. I'm still afraid of bears and mountain lions/cougars/pumas... and accidentally eating a spider in my sleep. I'm sure no one will be seriously mauled on the trip.
I really do not know how much longer I can stay awake... four hours till sleepin' time.
Trapped outside in cold on catwalk w/ pretty stars.
Afraid of bears.
Please send help… and food… and interwebz.
Very sleepy.
A ten hour nap would be pleasant.
Looking forward to fresh mountain pine scented air tomorrow.
Observations are going well. Telescope and systems are performing fabulously.
It is very warm in the control room, so I sat out on the catwalk for a while to take a look at the stars. I saw more than a dozen meteors... mostly quick green flashes, but one large orange fireball. It's nice and quiet up here. I'm still afraid of bears and mountain lions/cougars/pumas... and accidentally eating a spider in my sleep. I'm sure no one will be seriously mauled on the trip.
I really do not know how much longer I can stay awake... four hours till sleepin' time.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Jan 16 & 17
01/16/09
Today is a hiking day! Whoo hoo!!! We drove out to the Saguaro National Park out in the desert. We were hiking all day and our group of four made our own trails, ha ha. We ended up going on a walk and climbing through a wash. There were downed cacti, pointy jagged rocks, and a great breeze. Erin, Mark, Brad and I had a great time just wandering around and taking in all the scenery. After returning from the wash, we took the Hugh Norris (aka HUGE Norris) that took us out really high up in the mountains. It was rather hot and all the hills and inclines wore my legs out! I rolled my ankle on the way down = not fun. We had a good time though : ) Honestly, I wasn't planning on today being of the exciting days of the trip so I can pleasantly say that the day was a success! We got home mid-afternoon and we all needed to rest up. Caitlin and I watched Transformers for a little bit and found out later the some of the guys were watching it too! For dinner we went out and got some Subway sandwiches (yum) and some soda / juice. It was fun because we all had dinner and got to chat for awhile. We shared our hiking stories, joked around and even brought up pottery a couple times! I had too much energy so I wanted to walk around some more. I wanted to do like 100 laps but we only got about 27 in ; ) Joe, Adam, Erin and I had some great group hugs to end the night. Everyone needs a group hug sometimes!
01/17/09
Today is our first day up in the mountains. We had a long drive up the mountain and after our busy day yesterday everyone felt like they needed to nap, and we totally did! The high altitude is starting to take its tole on me and I've been nauseous all day : ( Our hike didn't really help today. Hopefully it's not a bug! It's really amazing though being up here. We are imaging tonight and it is outstanding. Adam and I have found the catwalk to be a great, relaxing space. The stars cover the sky and we talked about how small it makes you feel. Lots of shooting stars, planets and galaxies that one could never imagine seeing back home, thanks light pollution. I'm really looking forward to when I get to learn how to run the telescope (hopefully tomorrow). Well, it's like 12:40 now and we still have four hours left. I think I'm going to go outside again and be amazed with all the stars.
Today is a hiking day! Whoo hoo!!! We drove out to the Saguaro National Park out in the desert. We were hiking all day and our group of four made our own trails, ha ha. We ended up going on a walk and climbing through a wash. There were downed cacti, pointy jagged rocks, and a great breeze. Erin, Mark, Brad and I had a great time just wandering around and taking in all the scenery. After returning from the wash, we took the Hugh Norris (aka HUGE Norris) that took us out really high up in the mountains. It was rather hot and all the hills and inclines wore my legs out! I rolled my ankle on the way down = not fun. We had a good time though : ) Honestly, I wasn't planning on today being of the exciting days of the trip so I can pleasantly say that the day was a success! We got home mid-afternoon and we all needed to rest up. Caitlin and I watched Transformers for a little bit and found out later the some of the guys were watching it too! For dinner we went out and got some Subway sandwiches (yum) and some soda / juice. It was fun because we all had dinner and got to chat for awhile. We shared our hiking stories, joked around and even brought up pottery a couple times! I had too much energy so I wanted to walk around some more. I wanted to do like 100 laps but we only got about 27 in ; ) Joe, Adam, Erin and I had some great group hugs to end the night. Everyone needs a group hug sometimes!
01/17/09
Today is our first day up in the mountains. We had a long drive up the mountain and after our busy day yesterday everyone felt like they needed to nap, and we totally did! The high altitude is starting to take its tole on me and I've been nauseous all day : ( Our hike didn't really help today. Hopefully it's not a bug! It's really amazing though being up here. We are imaging tonight and it is outstanding. Adam and I have found the catwalk to be a great, relaxing space. The stars cover the sky and we talked about how small it makes you feel. Lots of shooting stars, planets and galaxies that one could never imagine seeing back home, thanks light pollution. I'm really looking forward to when I get to learn how to run the telescope (hopefully tomorrow). Well, it's like 12:40 now and we still have four hours left. I think I'm going to go outside again and be amazed with all the stars.
1-15
This day was Thursday. We went on a field trip to the Steward Mirror Lab at University of Arizona. The video and our tour guide explained to us the construction of the mirrors, and it was very interesting. Our guide even had made a small wooden model of the mirror to explain the process. The tour guide for the MMT the day before also had a small model of a telescope. Apparently the profession requires craftiness skills. The threat of a molten glass leak seemed pretty terrifying. Overall a great tour. We then visited a cool astronomy store called Starizona. They had a lot of telescopes and astronomy literature. The owner (I think) showed us some awesome amateur astronomy photos, and 2 astronomy monopolies were purchased. Then we got dressed up real nice for the dinner and opera that night. "Your shirt is nice," said Isa, but Joe looked far snazzier, as usual. We were accompanied by Art and Linda Staubitz, who were very nice and interesting people. We visited an incredibly fancy Mexican restaurant, and I wasn't exactly sure what I was ordering. I was a complete stranger to the various foods on my plate as I explored the culinary environment. It was quite delicious, the white wine sauce really tied together the cod and the artichoke. After an amazing dessert, we saw L'Elixir d'Amore, a comedic opera written by Donizetti. I quite enjoyed the performance, it was funny and the music was good. The night ended with several laps around the motel.
This day was Thursday. We went on a field trip to the Steward Mirror Lab at University of Arizona. The video and our tour guide explained to us the construction of the mirrors, and it was very interesting. Our guide even had made a small wooden model of the mirror to explain the process. The tour guide for the MMT the day before also had a small model of a telescope. Apparently the profession requires craftiness skills. The threat of a molten glass leak seemed pretty terrifying. Overall a great tour. We then visited a cool astronomy store called Starizona. They had a lot of telescopes and astronomy literature. The owner (I think) showed us some awesome amateur astronomy photos, and 2 astronomy monopolies were purchased. Then we got dressed up real nice for the dinner and opera that night. "Your shirt is nice," said Isa, but Joe looked far snazzier, as usual. We were accompanied by Art and Linda Staubitz, who were very nice and interesting people. We visited an incredibly fancy Mexican restaurant, and I wasn't exactly sure what I was ordering. I was a complete stranger to the various foods on my plate as I explored the culinary environment. It was quite delicious, the white wine sauce really tied together the cod and the artichoke. After an amazing dessert, we saw L'Elixir d'Amore, a comedic opera written by Donizetti. I quite enjoyed the performance, it was funny and the music was good. The night ended with several laps around the motel.
Jan 14 & 15
01/14/09
We had a really educational day today, up in the mountains! We got tours of the MMT and the Smithsonian Astro. Observatory. The day started with another long drive up the mountain filled with cheerful songs and dancing (did I mention how fun that is!) and luckily no one had any motion sickness problems. The first thing we looked at was the VERITAS telescopes which were my favorite of the day. They each had so many hexagonal mirrors; to me it seemed like something from a science fiction movie. After checking out the visitor center for a little bit, our car piled into a different, larger truck with our tour guide Bob. We had another long drive up higher into the mountains (again with no motion sickness, yay!) all the way up to the MMT telescope. It was huge! The mirror was very impressive in size. One thing that boggled my mind was how dirty the mirror appeared. There were bubbles from the processing that were pretty big! We did get to see someone cleaning it though (probably the coolest job ever!) The last stop was to a telescope that had the same shape as the VERITAS and unfortunately I don't remember its name. We all got to take turns standing at the focal point so our faces would take up the entire area! It was neat! We came back kinda late in the afternoon and we took a short nap. Afterwards we went to a cool Irish pub "The Auld Dubliner". I'm very happy, it seems like every restaurant here offers a vegetarian alternative which makes me so happy! There are more opportunities here (food wise) than back home.
01/15/09
Hooray for sleeping in! We went to the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab at the university campus. I still think this is odd; the mirror lab is underneath the university football field! I can just imagine all the students jumping on the bleachers above a super expensive mirror! Anyway, we got a very indepth tour of how they make mirrors for some of the largest telescopes. The thing that impressed me the most was how huge and heavy each mirror actually is! I wish I could have seen someone working / building a mirror as the majority of the people there were marking things and number crunching. It was really awesome to learn about how many different steps are involved in making a mirror. Too cool.
In the evening we went out to eat with the Staubitz's to a very fancy restaurant. Again vegetarian food = amazing! Afterwards, they took us to the Arizona Opera production of L'Elisir d'Amore (Elixir of Love). It was good, though opera is not my thing. I prefer a musical if I'm going to theatrical production. That evening we all walked around the motel area which was great to let out all that extra energy! It was a fun day.
We had a really educational day today, up in the mountains! We got tours of the MMT and the Smithsonian Astro. Observatory. The day started with another long drive up the mountain filled with cheerful songs and dancing (did I mention how fun that is!) and luckily no one had any motion sickness problems. The first thing we looked at was the VERITAS telescopes which were my favorite of the day. They each had so many hexagonal mirrors; to me it seemed like something from a science fiction movie. After checking out the visitor center for a little bit, our car piled into a different, larger truck with our tour guide Bob. We had another long drive up higher into the mountains (again with no motion sickness, yay!) all the way up to the MMT telescope. It was huge! The mirror was very impressive in size. One thing that boggled my mind was how dirty the mirror appeared. There were bubbles from the processing that were pretty big! We did get to see someone cleaning it though (probably the coolest job ever!) The last stop was to a telescope that had the same shape as the VERITAS and unfortunately I don't remember its name. We all got to take turns standing at the focal point so our faces would take up the entire area! It was neat! We came back kinda late in the afternoon and we took a short nap. Afterwards we went to a cool Irish pub "The Auld Dubliner". I'm very happy, it seems like every restaurant here offers a vegetarian alternative which makes me so happy! There are more opportunities here (food wise) than back home.
01/15/09
Hooray for sleeping in! We went to the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab at the university campus. I still think this is odd; the mirror lab is underneath the university football field! I can just imagine all the students jumping on the bleachers above a super expensive mirror! Anyway, we got a very indepth tour of how they make mirrors for some of the largest telescopes. The thing that impressed me the most was how huge and heavy each mirror actually is! I wish I could have seen someone working / building a mirror as the majority of the people there were marking things and number crunching. It was really awesome to learn about how many different steps are involved in making a mirror. Too cool.
In the evening we went out to eat with the Staubitz's to a very fancy restaurant. Again vegetarian food = amazing! Afterwards, they took us to the Arizona Opera production of L'Elisir d'Amore (Elixir of Love). It was good, though opera is not my thing. I prefer a musical if I'm going to theatrical production. That evening we all walked around the motel area which was great to let out all that extra energy! It was a fun day.
WOW!
Jan 12th
This was/is my Favorite day, By Far! Today was a day of predatory birds flying a few Inches, if Lucky, away from your head, jammed fingers with a bruised knee, Pots...Lots and LOTS of pots, Adam almost dying, aand becoming gansters. It was All cool.
We started the day off at the Desert Museum. There we saw All sorts of Amazing plant and animal life. We were shown the different predatory birds found around AZ. There was the Roadrunner, Raven, 2/3 hawks, and 2/3 owls. I cant remember their names:D Unfortunately, the Otter Nor the Mountain Lion were there..our the tortoise :P Also, their bears retired...a Nice way to say, yeah...they died.... But, we did get to see an Ocilate (¿sp?), beavers, deer, humming birds (Stupid Camera! It died Just as there were 2 humming birds Right there), parrots, and what not. The cave part, however, was pretty cool.
It was Mark, D.A, and myself trailing along in the back. Mark noticed an opening and found it was a seperate path, we took that instead :D It was to give you a cave like feeling. It was Extremely dark and you had to watch Every step you took. While walking, I thought I saw a wall/obstacle, I stuck my hand out. Yep, there was something there. I jammed my finger Right into it theen I hit my knee off the wall across from it. That section of the cave won, Flat Out! Besides the cave Kicking my Butt, there was a point where you Actually got to see the inside of the cave. It was pretty cool, they had water flowing, mineral deposits hanging down, and what not. It barfed us out to an area that showed the evolution of life. It started from astroids to modern man. Unfortunately, since we took the seperate path, we had to find the rest of the group and skip most of what was there. We caught up with them and saw the rest of the museum. Once done, we all went to the store. Brad managed to find 2 hand puppet animals and was So Proud of himself :P
We ate lunch and back to town. Along the way we stopped at a landscape area. There was a small pavillion at the top of the nearest peak. I wasnt sure if we could go but was DYING to go. I saw a few people walking up so bugged :D Mark enough and we headed up. We managed to pick up a strangler along the way, Brad. The rest of the group, pansies :P, stayed below. The view was Amazing and better than at the pavillion. We didnt stay too long :(
We had 10/15 mins to relax then headed to the AZ Museum. We met scientists working on the pottery and I am just going to say, we know Lots about pottery..........
Back to town we went where shopped a bit and ate at Jonnys Rocket, a small burger place. Man, did they Ever have the Best burger! It was Covered with all this junk and cooked to be Juicy yet not mooing. MMMMMmmmm! The ride back to the hotel was the usual but I needed to get a hat, Caitlyn blister stuff, bread, and other odd little supplies. We were listening to some good classical rock music when it was changed. Lol, just to bug Erin, Joe put on some country :P We didnt listen to it too long but I felt myself getting Dumber and 2 front teeth getting bigger. Well, it wasnt over yet. We then found a rap station. We Blaired the music and rolled our windows down. We Were the nerdiest most gangster group out there :P Oh, also..while coming back from the pottery place, the other SUV almost got into an accident. There was stopped traffic but apparently this one guy wasnt paying attention. He Slammed on his brakes and Squeeled on the pavement. Joe, luckily, saw it coming and quickly got into the other lane. They would have clipped Adam. Luckily Adam And his arm, hanging out at that moment, made it out Ok.
!!!!TOO MANY POTS!!!!
This was/is my Favorite day, By Far! Today was a day of predatory birds flying a few Inches, if Lucky, away from your head, jammed fingers with a bruised knee, Pots...Lots and LOTS of pots, Adam almost dying, aand becoming gansters. It was All cool.
We started the day off at the Desert Museum. There we saw All sorts of Amazing plant and animal life. We were shown the different predatory birds found around AZ. There was the Roadrunner, Raven, 2/3 hawks, and 2/3 owls. I cant remember their names:D Unfortunately, the Otter Nor the Mountain Lion were there..our the tortoise :P Also, their bears retired...a Nice way to say, yeah...they died.... But, we did get to see an Ocilate (¿sp?), beavers, deer, humming birds (Stupid Camera! It died Just as there were 2 humming birds Right there), parrots, and what not. The cave part, however, was pretty cool.
It was Mark, D.A, and myself trailing along in the back. Mark noticed an opening and found it was a seperate path, we took that instead :D It was to give you a cave like feeling. It was Extremely dark and you had to watch Every step you took. While walking, I thought I saw a wall/obstacle, I stuck my hand out. Yep, there was something there. I jammed my finger Right into it theen I hit my knee off the wall across from it. That section of the cave won, Flat Out! Besides the cave Kicking my Butt, there was a point where you Actually got to see the inside of the cave. It was pretty cool, they had water flowing, mineral deposits hanging down, and what not. It barfed us out to an area that showed the evolution of life. It started from astroids to modern man. Unfortunately, since we took the seperate path, we had to find the rest of the group and skip most of what was there. We caught up with them and saw the rest of the museum. Once done, we all went to the store. Brad managed to find 2 hand puppet animals and was So Proud of himself :P
We ate lunch and back to town. Along the way we stopped at a landscape area. There was a small pavillion at the top of the nearest peak. I wasnt sure if we could go but was DYING to go. I saw a few people walking up so bugged :D Mark enough and we headed up. We managed to pick up a strangler along the way, Brad. The rest of the group, pansies :P, stayed below. The view was Amazing and better than at the pavillion. We didnt stay too long :(
We had 10/15 mins to relax then headed to the AZ Museum. We met scientists working on the pottery and I am just going to say, we know Lots about pottery..........
Back to town we went where shopped a bit and ate at Jonnys Rocket, a small burger place. Man, did they Ever have the Best burger! It was Covered with all this junk and cooked to be Juicy yet not mooing. MMMMMmmmm! The ride back to the hotel was the usual but I needed to get a hat, Caitlyn blister stuff, bread, and other odd little supplies. We were listening to some good classical rock music when it was changed. Lol, just to bug Erin, Joe put on some country :P We didnt listen to it too long but I felt myself getting Dumber and 2 front teeth getting bigger. Well, it wasnt over yet. We then found a rap station. We Blaired the music and rolled our windows down. We Were the nerdiest most gangster group out there :P Oh, also..while coming back from the pottery place, the other SUV almost got into an accident. There was stopped traffic but apparently this one guy wasnt paying attention. He Slammed on his brakes and Squeeled on the pavement. Joe, luckily, saw it coming and quickly got into the other lane. They would have clipped Adam. Luckily Adam And his arm, hanging out at that moment, made it out Ok.
!!!!TOO MANY POTS!!!!
Jan 12 & 13
Welcome to Arizona! After a safe flight in on the 11th, we were very excited to start our adventure in Tucson. We woke up bright and early and drove out to the Tucson Desert Museum. I don't think that I can emphasize enough how wonderful the weather is here. Just driving out to the desert was amazing in the fact that we could actually have the windows down! Anyway, the Desert Museum was really neat. I walked around with Adam, Joe and Caitlin and saw a wide variety of animals. On of the most interesting parts was the raptor show. The raven flew extremely close to our heads and I swore that it was going to hit me! My favorite bird that was featured in the show was the roadrunner. Although she is a predator, the roadrunner was very elegant and graceful. I was really upset, though, because we didn't get to see the tortoises. We were looking forward to them!
After a long day at the museum, we went over to the Arizona State Museum were we met up with a really interesting man named Patrick. He showed us a wide variety of pottery and explained a lot about the history of how different styles came into different areas. We even got to go behind the scenes and into their storage vault! It was really interesting.
01/13/09
Today was ALL about taking our pottery knowledge and applying it to real dig sites. We drove forever into the desert, tackling unpaved roads, uncivilized stretches of land, and long plumes of dust/sand coming off the car in front of us. Although we had a really long drive, our car had a great time singing and dancing. It definitely made the ride quicker! Patrick took us to some really interesting dig sites where we could actually pick up real shards of pottery. It's unfortunate that no one has categorized them and Patrick told us that many of the sites will go on to be like that for 10-15 years. He took us to some sites that required us to climb up hills and cliffs (definitely my favorite type!) and I felt like a little kid. I got called "monkey" for my climbing, ha ha. The day was really adventurous and exciting but very draining. On the way home, the front car got a flat tire and it was kinda funny to see so many physicists attempting to help fix a flat! I was kinda creeped out at some points along the drive because all I could think about was the movie "The Hills Have Eyes"... any one that has seen that movie will understand!
After a long day at the museum, we went over to the Arizona State Museum were we met up with a really interesting man named Patrick. He showed us a wide variety of pottery and explained a lot about the history of how different styles came into different areas. We even got to go behind the scenes and into their storage vault! It was really interesting.
01/13/09
Today was ALL about taking our pottery knowledge and applying it to real dig sites. We drove forever into the desert, tackling unpaved roads, uncivilized stretches of land, and long plumes of dust/sand coming off the car in front of us. Although we had a really long drive, our car had a great time singing and dancing. It definitely made the ride quicker! Patrick took us to some really interesting dig sites where we could actually pick up real shards of pottery. It's unfortunate that no one has categorized them and Patrick told us that many of the sites will go on to be like that for 10-15 years. He took us to some sites that required us to climb up hills and cliffs (definitely my favorite type!) and I felt like a little kid. I got called "monkey" for my climbing, ha ha. The day was really adventurous and exciting but very draining. On the way home, the front car got a flat tire and it was kinda funny to see so many physicists attempting to help fix a flat! I was kinda creeped out at some points along the drive because all I could think about was the movie "The Hills Have Eyes"... any one that has seen that movie will understand!
A Fricking LONG Day!
Jan 11th
Ever those days where you wanna go to bed buut you have to get up really early in the morning? Yeah, today was one of those days. I "went to bed" around 2:30am and got up around 6am. Most of that sleep, mind you, was just lying there making sure I packed everything I needed. Luckily, I was able to get up and get everything organized. It wasnt that pretty though. Walking to the DSC, we were a bunch of walking zombies...really, we didnt have a pulse.
The drive to the airport wasnt too bad but the driver was too awake for that hour :P Luckily the airport wasnt too busy, which was nice. Everything was going well till Someone got stuck at the security point...CONGRATS MARK!! He didnt take off his belt and got stopped and sent back. The thing is, he didnt just go back in line...he went ALL the way to the end of the line. Lol, we didnt know what happened to him till we all looked up and saw him coming back through...with a nice tint of red to him:D:P The Best part was, he was the one who made a joke/comment about getting stopped by security earlier. HA!
The flight seemed like a long one. I was fortunate enough that, for the last hour or so, I was too busy looking out the window to pay attention to time. I am used to flat and I was looking at anything But flat! The women next to me was telling me All this stuff about the mnts, all the geography of Az, and some goods spots to visit. She Definately knew what she was talking about.
All luggage was found once arrived and we headed to food. We made a Nice circle getting there *Cough*...D.A. The food was SO GOOD though, made the circle worth it. After that, it was relaxing :D We got a good hour/hour and a half to relax before people wanted to head out. The people in town were ODD! They were punky, gothy, hill billyesk..idk, Brad/Adam can voutch for this. There were strange stores too, touristy like to hooka bars.
Naturally, people got hungry again. We found a small little restaurant and ate there. We were Lucky enough to have a hobo come in and join us. He didnt cause any problems but just Sort of smelled. From there, we went back to the hotel, star gazed for a bit and then BED!!!! The Best part of the day!
Ever those days where you wanna go to bed buut you have to get up really early in the morning? Yeah, today was one of those days. I "went to bed" around 2:30am and got up around 6am. Most of that sleep, mind you, was just lying there making sure I packed everything I needed. Luckily, I was able to get up and get everything organized. It wasnt that pretty though. Walking to the DSC, we were a bunch of walking zombies...really, we didnt have a pulse.
The drive to the airport wasnt too bad but the driver was too awake for that hour :P Luckily the airport wasnt too busy, which was nice. Everything was going well till Someone got stuck at the security point...CONGRATS MARK!! He didnt take off his belt and got stopped and sent back. The thing is, he didnt just go back in line...he went ALL the way to the end of the line. Lol, we didnt know what happened to him till we all looked up and saw him coming back through...with a nice tint of red to him:D:P The Best part was, he was the one who made a joke/comment about getting stopped by security earlier. HA!
The flight seemed like a long one. I was fortunate enough that, for the last hour or so, I was too busy looking out the window to pay attention to time. I am used to flat and I was looking at anything But flat! The women next to me was telling me All this stuff about the mnts, all the geography of Az, and some goods spots to visit. She Definately knew what she was talking about.
All luggage was found once arrived and we headed to food. We made a Nice circle getting there *Cough*...D.A. The food was SO GOOD though, made the circle worth it. After that, it was relaxing :D We got a good hour/hour and a half to relax before people wanted to head out. The people in town were ODD! They were punky, gothy, hill billyesk..idk, Brad/Adam can voutch for this. There were strange stores too, touristy like to hooka bars.
Naturally, people got hungry again. We found a small little restaurant and ate there. We were Lucky enough to have a hobo come in and join us. He didnt cause any problems but just Sort of smelled. From there, we went back to the hotel, star gazed for a bit and then BED!!!! The Best part of the day!
1-14
Today we went to tour MMT. It was remarkable how large the telescopes actually were. What was even more remarkable is how they managed to get the 8.5m mirror up the steep winding mountain roads. In the visitor center the coolest display by far was the pop can display. It showed what a pop can will weigh on each of the planets. When we were looking at the MMT telescopes we had a change to stand on a platform behind it and see ourself projected on the 10m telescope. After we got back for the evening we decided to go an Irish pub for dinner. We learned a couple things while we were there. We learned how to play the YOUR TEAM game and that Erin loves french fries hahaha.
1-15
Today we went to the mirror lab at the University of Arizona. Before we even got in to the mirror lab I notiiced that it was underneath the football stadium which I thouhgt was pretty cool. We got to the the whole process for making the mirrors which was remarkable. The oven for the mirrors were huge and it was just crazy how much the big mirrors weighed and how they were moved from place to place. I really underestimed the time it took for the mirrors to be completed. It takes around 8 years to fully finish a mirror and ship it out. After the mirror lab we went out to dinner and to the opera. Dinner was fantastic but I was not sure what to expect about the opera. It turned out not to be that bad.
1-16
The big hike was today. We went to Saguaro National Park and hiked to the highest peak in the park. The trail was 3.5 miles to the top so it was a 7 mile hike in total. It started out failry flat and got a little rougher as we got higher. From the top of the mountain you could see all over the valley and it looked beautiful. On the way down Adam and I decided to book it. We took off and were going very fast. Not to long into it we discovered that certain rocks allowed you to slip and almost fall off the mountain haha. Adam did a remarkable job at catching himself before falling to his death, which we decied would suck becuase the only thing to grab onto were cacti. When I took the lead from Adam I almost got us lost. I decided that a wash was part of the trail so we hiked that for a little before Adam realized the trail was about 5feet to our right. I got extremelty sun burnt becuase i was trying to get a tan. After the hike we went to a gas station to get drinks so we didnt die. It turned out to be a great trip for Erin and Isa becuase they almost got new boyfriends. Then we came back to our motel where we showered and rested a bit. Later that night we stole a car to go out. We ended up going to Subway and got some delcious subs. When we got back to the motel we had a very long and interesting talk about the pottery we saw the other day with Indiana Patrick. After the talk we went on a walk around the motel. Isa wanted to go around 100 times, which was totally ridiculous but we ended up going around 27 times so we got pretty close. After the walk was over we went back to our rooms for bed but before we went to bed Adam Isa Erin and I had a couple of great group hugs.
Today we went to tour MMT. It was remarkable how large the telescopes actually were. What was even more remarkable is how they managed to get the 8.5m mirror up the steep winding mountain roads. In the visitor center the coolest display by far was the pop can display. It showed what a pop can will weigh on each of the planets. When we were looking at the MMT telescopes we had a change to stand on a platform behind it and see ourself projected on the 10m telescope. After we got back for the evening we decided to go an Irish pub for dinner. We learned a couple things while we were there. We learned how to play the YOUR TEAM game and that Erin loves french fries hahaha.
1-15
Today we went to the mirror lab at the University of Arizona. Before we even got in to the mirror lab I notiiced that it was underneath the football stadium which I thouhgt was pretty cool. We got to the the whole process for making the mirrors which was remarkable. The oven for the mirrors were huge and it was just crazy how much the big mirrors weighed and how they were moved from place to place. I really underestimed the time it took for the mirrors to be completed. It takes around 8 years to fully finish a mirror and ship it out. After the mirror lab we went out to dinner and to the opera. Dinner was fantastic but I was not sure what to expect about the opera. It turned out not to be that bad.
1-16
The big hike was today. We went to Saguaro National Park and hiked to the highest peak in the park. The trail was 3.5 miles to the top so it was a 7 mile hike in total. It started out failry flat and got a little rougher as we got higher. From the top of the mountain you could see all over the valley and it looked beautiful. On the way down Adam and I decided to book it. We took off and were going very fast. Not to long into it we discovered that certain rocks allowed you to slip and almost fall off the mountain haha. Adam did a remarkable job at catching himself before falling to his death, which we decied would suck becuase the only thing to grab onto were cacti. When I took the lead from Adam I almost got us lost. I decided that a wash was part of the trail so we hiked that for a little before Adam realized the trail was about 5feet to our right. I got extremelty sun burnt becuase i was trying to get a tan. After the hike we went to a gas station to get drinks so we didnt die. It turned out to be a great trip for Erin and Isa becuase they almost got new boyfriends. Then we came back to our motel where we showered and rested a bit. Later that night we stole a car to go out. We ended up going to Subway and got some delcious subs. When we got back to the motel we had a very long and interesting talk about the pottery we saw the other day with Indiana Patrick. After the talk we went on a walk around the motel. Isa wanted to go around 100 times, which was totally ridiculous but we ended up going around 27 times so we got pretty close. After the walk was over we went back to our rooms for bed but before we went to bed Adam Isa Erin and I had a couple of great group hugs.
1-13
PURPLE the Drs. jacket was purple :P
1-13 Breakfast... same place, same goodness. Meet Patrick for tour around dig-sites. Very interesting, but very exhausting. The purpose behind the trips was not clear, but the tour around the area was nice. To the cool car: "We are beautiful..." That night, saw the movie for IYA and found it interesting but not simple enough for the average PBS viewer. Horray for chinese food.
1-14 Toured MMT. Honestly surprised by size of mirror and enjoyed watching the guy clean with CO2. Learned silver paint is better than white for keeping out heat on metal. Tour guide liked to talk about trees while on the drive and showed a couple of old mines (including "2 Mines").
1-15 Went to UA for Mirror Lab. Tour was cooll, but speaker was hard to listen to. Saw big mirrors in process for GMT and LSST. Watched neat vid on LBT and was started to find no stablizers on secondary mirror. That night we met with the sponsors of our group (sp. Stoubitz?) and had a remarkable dinner. I got the chef's surprise for dinner including portions of the tamale, chicken with mustard sauce, and spicy beef. Flan for dessert filled a need that I haven't gotten for a while. The opera that night was better than I thought, but the caption people needed to get their act together.
1-16 Walked in National Park and fought to get to the top. Failed :'( but was impressed with how well I did. But now in need of major rest.
1-17 Drive to Kuiper and not really finding an issue with the thin air... yet. Telescope took a while to cooperate with DA. Night one going really well and learning the protocol quickly and hoping the result exceeds expectations. "lots of hurry up and wait"
1-13 Breakfast... same place, same goodness. Meet Patrick for tour around dig-sites. Very interesting, but very exhausting. The purpose behind the trips was not clear, but the tour around the area was nice. To the cool car: "We are beautiful..." That night, saw the movie for IYA and found it interesting but not simple enough for the average PBS viewer. Horray for chinese food.
1-14 Toured MMT. Honestly surprised by size of mirror and enjoyed watching the guy clean with CO2. Learned silver paint is better than white for keeping out heat on metal. Tour guide liked to talk about trees while on the drive and showed a couple of old mines (including "2 Mines").
1-15 Went to UA for Mirror Lab. Tour was cooll, but speaker was hard to listen to. Saw big mirrors in process for GMT and LSST. Watched neat vid on LBT and was started to find no stablizers on secondary mirror. That night we met with the sponsors of our group (sp. Stoubitz?) and had a remarkable dinner. I got the chef's surprise for dinner including portions of the tamale, chicken with mustard sauce, and spicy beef. Flan for dessert filled a need that I haven't gotten for a while. The opera that night was better than I thought, but the caption people needed to get their act together.
1-16 Walked in National Park and fought to get to the top. Failed :'( but was impressed with how well I did. But now in need of major rest.
1-17 Drive to Kuiper and not really finding an issue with the thin air... yet. Telescope took a while to cooperate with DA. Night one going really well and learning the protocol quickly and hoping the result exceeds expectations. "lots of hurry up and wait"
Hiking and more hiking
Friday was hiking day. We into the desert where a group of us triumphantly reached the top peak in the senora desert national park. It was a total hike of 7 miles, 3.5 up and 3.5 down. At the top were around 3,000ft above sea level. Before embarking on the hike my friend Joe and I thought it would be a piece of cake. However, we ended having a heavy weight bout with the inclines we were walking up. It took above 1.5 hours to reach the top. We could see all the surrounding peaks of Kitt and Mt. Bigelow. Down below we could see the valley filled with living places. It was so clear and warm, around if not above 70 degrees. The breeze though was refreshing and actually caused my body to chill. The battle took its toll causing blisters and sore muscles. Going down was fun, though being easier on the legs the looses pointy rocks could penetrate the soles of our shoes. It was good to get back to the motel and relax after hiking for 3 hours or so. There weren't many animals to see, but the scenery was worth it. We did end up sleeping well that night.
Saturday is our first day of observation. We're using a 61 inch telescope to study planetary nebulea. We started taking our first exposures at around 8 pm mountain time. As the sun has gone down the more stars have come out. We can make out the Milky Way galaxy streaming across the sky from horizon to horizon. It is magnificant. It really makes you feel incredibly small in this huge universe as Isa and I conversed about. It's wonderful and there is nothing more that I enjoy then getting away from city and looking at the stars in the night sky. The peace is a gift from heaven. Living in the city my whole life and having noise always around has worn me out. It's just good to get to hear nothing but wind. It allows me to think and really experience the created world around me. Sound distracts me, and this peace allows me to focus my eyes and concentrate on the heavens above. Beautiful!
Saturday is our first day of observation. We're using a 61 inch telescope to study planetary nebulea. We started taking our first exposures at around 8 pm mountain time. As the sun has gone down the more stars have come out. We can make out the Milky Way galaxy streaming across the sky from horizon to horizon. It is magnificant. It really makes you feel incredibly small in this huge universe as Isa and I conversed about. It's wonderful and there is nothing more that I enjoy then getting away from city and looking at the stars in the night sky. The peace is a gift from heaven. Living in the city my whole life and having noise always around has worn me out. It's just good to get to hear nothing but wind. It allows me to think and really experience the created world around me. Sound distracts me, and this peace allows me to focus my eyes and concentrate on the heavens above. Beautiful!
posts for 1-11
1-11 The flight went smooth although the driver liked to break right at the end of the runway... Lunch was at a great and I want to go again. If I'm ever in Tucson, I will not leave without a meal there. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and touring the college town area, eventually getting pretty decent pizza for dinner.
1-12 Apparently, I compete with Charlie for the amount of food I can eat. We visited the Desert Museum and saw lots of Cactii, birds... Lots of pictures taken, but now I'm tired. The AZ museum had some really interesting pottery, but I was so exhausted that I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. Dinner at Chipotle's left us wondering just how little Erin can eat.
1-12 Apparently, I compete with Charlie for the amount of food I can eat. We visited the Desert Museum and saw lots of Cactii, birds... Lots of pictures taken, but now I'm tired. The AZ museum had some really interesting pottery, but I was so exhausted that I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. Dinner at Chipotle's left us wondering just how little Erin can eat.
Friday, January 16, 2009
1/16 Saguaro National Park
We went to Saguaro National Park today. I decided to hike to the highest peak of the Tucson Mountains (about 4400 feet). It was a very long and arduous hike, but worth it for the views. At the top I could see the Catalinas, Kitt Peak, Mt. Hopkins, and the Tucson Valley. About halfway up the trail, I was tiring quickly and had to stop frequently to “take pictures” and drink some water. But I made it to the top fine and dandy. I slipped a few times coming down, sprained my left ankle, got severely sun burned (despite a generous application of sunscreen), but I mostly arrived to the vehicles in one piece. I had fun anyway.
This afternoon I vegetated in front of the tv while I tried to replenish fluids. Transformers was on the tele. Not a bad movie, though; I always get annoyed when movie plots blame aliens for our modern day technology… as if we weren’t smart or capable enough to create and invent.
Store, aloe, vitamin water, subway with friends, sleeeeeeep…
This afternoon I vegetated in front of the tv while I tried to replenish fluids. Transformers was on the tele. Not a bad movie, though; I always get annoyed when movie plots blame aliens for our modern day technology… as if we weren’t smart or capable enough to create and invent.
Store, aloe, vitamin water, subway with friends, sleeeeeeep…
Thursday, January 15, 2009
1/15 Mirror Lab and Elixir of Love
The Steward Mirror Lab was impressive. We got to see the rooms where they create large spin-cast mirrors. They were in the process of polishing a mirror for the Magellan telescope and were preparing one of the LSST mirrors for polishing. I was glad they didn’t kick me out for not having close toed shoes.
We got all dressed up and went to dinner with Art and Linda. They took us to a fabulous restaurant serving central Mexican cuisine (I think?). The restaurant changes dishes every evening, so we had a little over ten meals to choose from. I had the pollo morita y queso. It was fantastic. All of the food was fantastic… fresh… flavorful. We all shared chocolate mousse and flourless chocolate volcano cake with berries. This was the best meal I have had since I ate in Cape Town last year.
Art and Linda took us to an opera by Donizetti called Elixir of Love. The production was cheery. I thought the music had beautiful harmony and melodies. It made me feel like singing and smiling. Anything that makes me feel like that is good in my book.
Thank you again Art and Linda! :)
We got all dressed up and went to dinner with Art and Linda. They took us to a fabulous restaurant serving central Mexican cuisine (I think?). The restaurant changes dishes every evening, so we had a little over ten meals to choose from. I had the pollo morita y queso. It was fantastic. All of the food was fantastic… fresh… flavorful. We all shared chocolate mousse and flourless chocolate volcano cake with berries. This was the best meal I have had since I ate in Cape Town last year.
Art and Linda took us to an opera by Donizetti called Elixir of Love. The production was cheery. I thought the music had beautiful harmony and melodies. It made me feel like singing and smiling. Anything that makes me feel like that is good in my book.
Thank you again Art and Linda! :)
Adventurous
Well I have two days to cover in this posting. On tuesday we met up with our archaeological friend from the University of Arizona, Indiana Patrick we like to call him, to go out to a couple of Native American sites in the San Pedro Valley to a get an idea of where some of the pottery we saw the previous day have been retrieved. We had to drive 1.5 hours east of Tucson past the mountains to get to these places. It was rough drive once we got off the main roads and we put the 4-wd SUV's to good use on the off-road terrain. On SUV actually ended up blowing a tire on our way back. We had to get special permission to gain access to the land these sites are located on because of private ownership. On all the sites we anxiously searched for pieces of pottery and indeed we found many small fragments to our delight. It was the most peaceful place I have ever been. The scenery was astonishing and it was truly a blessing to have such an experience in it.
Wednesday we made a trek up over 8,000 feet to Mt. Hopkins to have a tour of Whipple Observatory. This observatory included the 4 VERITAS gamma-ray telescopes and MMT. All of which are impressive pieces of scientific equipment in both size and engineering. The telescopes in VERITAS are 12 meters in diameter and MMT is 6.5 metes in diameter. MMT which is located at the peak of Mt. Hopkins provided an incredible view of the valley below. We were even high enough to see across the border into Mexico. The drive to the top consists of cut out road in the mountain side about 3-4 meters wide. That in itself is excitement enough. I am just amazed at the tools we have been given that allows us to see such incredible things that these telescopes capture that we could otherwise not see. I am truly thankful for that.
Wednesday we made a trek up over 8,000 feet to Mt. Hopkins to have a tour of Whipple Observatory. This observatory included the 4 VERITAS gamma-ray telescopes and MMT. All of which are impressive pieces of scientific equipment in both size and engineering. The telescopes in VERITAS are 12 meters in diameter and MMT is 6.5 metes in diameter. MMT which is located at the peak of Mt. Hopkins provided an incredible view of the valley below. We were even high enough to see across the border into Mexico. The drive to the top consists of cut out road in the mountain side about 3-4 meters wide. That in itself is excitement enough. I am just amazed at the tools we have been given that allows us to see such incredible things that these telescopes capture that we could otherwise not see. I am truly thankful for that.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
1/14 MMT, Smithsonian, and Whipple
We headed south to Mt. Hopkins to visit MMT, the Smithsonian Observatory, the Veritas Array, and the Whipple Observatory. We got explore the power/computer shed for one of the Veritas gamma telescopes (four 12 meter telescopes made of about 250 hexagonal mirror sections). We also got to see the HATS looking for exoplanets.
MMT was just as impressive this time as it was when I saw it two years ago. The 6 meter mirror was completely exposed. We got to see it getting cleaned with cold CO2. I was excited to hear that they are looking for more telescope operators for MMT. It would be great to work at that telescope.
MMT was just as impressive this time as it was when I saw it two years ago. The 6 meter mirror was completely exposed. We got to see it getting cleaned with cold CO2. I was excited to hear that they are looking for more telescope operators for MMT. It would be great to work at that telescope.
wednesday is telescope day
Today we drove up to Mt. Hopkins, where we toured the MMT Observatory. First, we visited the visitor center at the base of the mountain. There we saw some gamma ray telescopes, and we got to view the complex electronics behind one of them. Then we started driving the long, scenic road up the mountain. The MMT Observatory was at an altitude of 10,000 feet, and there was a little snow and ice near the top. The telescope had a huge primary mirror, 6.5 meters in diameter, and it was housed in a rotating building. We saw the mirror start to get cleaned with a carbon dioxide wash. Later we saw two smaller telescopes and a gamma ray telescope. We all saw our faces in the gamma ray mirrors by standing at a certain position. It was interesting to learn how the MMT was built and operated, and it was really cool driving up and down the mountains. We got some time off in the afternoon, which was nice, and we ended the day with dinner at an Irish pub where we developed our team-building skills.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
1/12 and 1/13
1/12
Yesterday we visited the Desert Museum which is basically a large zoo. The museum has live flora and fauna native to the Sonoran Desert. This was my second time visiting the Desert Museum, yet I still really enjoyed it. The morning raptor flight was very entertaining and informative.
This afternoon we went to the Arizona State Museum where Dr. Patrick Lyons introduced us to ancient Native American pottery. We were able to enter an old storage area and the impressive new storage vault. It was really exciting to be able to go to these places that very few people get to go and see things up close that very few people get to see. One of my favorite pieces was a collection of blackware which was used by Ansel Adams and his family for many years. I was very interested to hear that just one small "sherd" of pottery can help date a site and place a people at the site.
Kudos to chemists and their use of chemicals to conserve and restore bones, pottery, and other pieces.
1/13
I am finally feeling better today!!!
Art and Linda Staubitz arranged for our group to travel with Dr. Lyons (aka Indiana Patrick) to the San Pedro River valley to explore ancient Native American sites. We drove for about two hours out into the desert. Very few people live in the area… ranchers mostly.
The sites were hidden among fields of cholla. The sites were just piles of rock in outlines of where ancient structures once sat. These places were falling apart, because they were never backfilled after excavation. I could still see several pieces of pottery all over the ground... nearly everywhere I walked. It was very exciting to pick up and touch something that was made hundreds of years ago.
I really enjoyed being out in the sun. It was warm and quiet and pleasant... soft breeze, peaceful, sprawling vistas, the occasional bumble of a little bee... beautiful.
We got a flat tire from a big rock. I have pictures of Dr. Arion and Dr. Lyons replacing the tire. It was comical.
Thank you Art and Linda for arranging an amazing day for us!
FLAT TIRE
Today started out with a two hour drive through the desert. The mountains were a sight to see. They were huge and beautiful to drive through. Once we got to our destination we went to different ruins and found pottery that was hundreds of years old. We learned the differences between the pottery and what group of people they belonged to. On our way out the other car got a flat tire so we had to change the tire. Once we hit the road for the two hour drive back everyone was pretty tired so we decided to sing every song that was on the radio. It was pretty fun except Erin didn't know any of the songs so she just got to listen to our beautiful voices.
Monday, January 12, 2009
What a day
After over-coming my fears of flying for the first time on Sunday to get to Tucson, today, Monday was full of wonder and excitement. The Desert Museum was amazing. There was everything you could and couldn't imagine to learn about the desert and the creatures that live in it. The raptor free flight was incredible. I myself had a hawk fly inches from the top of my head. But after that we were able to explore all of the animal exhibits, some of which were not visible. The desert is truly a beautiful place filled will animals well designed to survive its difficult climate.
Desert Museum
Jan 12, 2009
Today we went to the Desert Museum. It was very interesting to walk around and see everything that they had to offer. The raven show where the birds flew right over our heads was probably the most exciting part of the day. I was fairly upset that the tortoises were not out because I was really looking forward to seeing them. Also, seeing the hummingbirds close up and how fast they had to actually flap their wings to stay in the air was amazing. After the Desert Museum we went and saw the pottery. It was cool to see the designs and to see how good the pottery looked for being so old. Alright, well I will update this again tomorrow after we get back from the desert.
Joe Monegato
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