Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Wow
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
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
Ending the trip in Arizona
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Pictures!
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
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 : (
Cuddle Bunny
Monday, January 19, 2009
Much more like it
Last Clear Night
The Final Day
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
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
NGC 2371
The last two nights
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
7 MILES!!
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!
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
YUMMY YUMMY!
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
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
Last night
Roughin It
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?
1/18 Kuiper Day 2
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
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
1/17 Kuiper Day 1
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
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.
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
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!
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
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!
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!
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
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
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
1-12 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
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
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
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
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
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!