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.
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