Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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.
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Oh yes! Team building, nothing quite like it is there?
ReplyDeleteI was surprised how warm it was at MMT this year, since two years ago I remember being freezing and everyone massing with the ice off the fence. But this visit almost seemed warm. When we walked into the building to see that beautiful piece of glass, I was so happy to see the entire mirror. I was also surprised as to how dirty it was but I was glad to be able to watch, at least for a little while, them clean the telescope. I was surprised how dirty the mirror looked. Ricardo, one of the men working on the telescope was very informative and very helpful. He sent me email addresses for two people to contact about becoming a telescope operator. I think it would be awesome to operate a telescope and I am really grateful I had a chance to talk to him.
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