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.