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.
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