Jenny
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Stacked Saturn Images
The previous post really was my final one, but I realized that I never uploaded any of my stacked Saturn images and didn't want to end the blog without posting some of the results of all of our hard work. Between the power outage and poor seeing they aren't as good as I had hoped for, but here are my best Saturn images. Thanks for reading our blog, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures!
Jenny
Jenny
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Day 11
Today started with a long drive up the road and mountain to Kitt Peak. The peak has 27 telescopes on it including the solar telescope. The day at Kitt Peak included touring multiple telescopes and learning a lot about each one. My favorite would have to be the Solar Telescope. The reason for this was because of the shear size of the telescope building. After touring this telescope we went to look at the 90 inch telescope. We were given a private tour of the facility. This telescope dome was designed to deflect the wind and seemed to work, considering the fact that wind speeds can reach up to 100 mph up on the peak. We were talking to the engineer and he told us about how he fell from 30 feet and landed on concrete and obviously survived. This was really amazing, however the height of the dome was more amazing. I then bought a coffee mug in the gift shop and we headed down the mountain. On the way down when we left the Indian reservation we got stopped by boarder patrol, wanting the dogs to sniff the car and van. This was fun but scary at the same time.
Day 10
Our day here starts with a trip to Mt. Hopkins to see the 6.5 meter telescope. This telescope was absolutely amazing. The trip to the telescope started with a curvy trip up the mountain and then a short walk from the cars to the door. Once inside the dome, my mind was blown at how big the telescope was compared to the dome. The engineers were moving the telescope and it lacked inches from hitting the wall. Also, the effort to move the telescope was minimal. This amazed me as well that this huge telescope was so balanced and moved so well. We then headed down the elevator and to the floor again. The engineer moved the cover off the mirror and this revealed the mirror in all its glory. I was again amazed at the massive size of the mirror.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thirteenth Day: The Trip Home
I wasn't planning on writing a blog for today, but DA hinted on the way home that we might want to. Other than Don having his cactus jellies confiscated by the TSA in Tucson (which I'm rather surprised he hasn't already fumed about here), the trip home was uneventful. He did get them put in the mail, though, and should be receiving them in the next few days. We played luggage tetris to get all of us, our souvenirs, and our suitcases in the two vehicles for the ride to the airport, but managed to get everything to fit. Our flight left Tucson on time and it even stopped snowing in Chicago so we could safely land at O'Hare. As soon as we stepped off the plane and I saw my breath I was ready to go back (it had been pushing 80 degrees the last few days in Tucson), but I am re-adjusting to the freezing cold, 10 degree weather that greeted us.
The ride home from the airport (thanks again Erin and Amber for picking us up!) involved a not-so-short detour (we missed a turn while distracted by a limo) and a lot of hilariously stupid, crazy conversations. I was surprised to discover that in the first ten minutes we outdid the conversations held at 4am on the mountain in terms of pure pointlessness, and I'm pretty sure that after that ride DA thinks we're all babbling morons if he didn't already. We eventually made it back to campus, and the new security system actually didn't lock me out of Tarble this time so I got back to my room without freezing to death. I got dinner, unpacked the important stuff and crashed early, and that was the end of my day. Sorry I don't have any pictures from today, but here are two more from Kitt Peak yesterday. These and all 250 or so of my best shots are also now on my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30291127@N02/sets/72157625810941730/.
Jenny
The ride home from the airport (thanks again Erin and Amber for picking us up!) involved a not-so-short detour (we missed a turn while distracted by a limo) and a lot of hilariously stupid, crazy conversations. I was surprised to discover that in the first ten minutes we outdid the conversations held at 4am on the mountain in terms of pure pointlessness, and I'm pretty sure that after that ride DA thinks we're all babbling morons if he didn't already. We eventually made it back to campus, and the new security system actually didn't lock me out of Tarble this time so I got back to my room without freezing to death. I got dinner, unpacked the important stuff and crashed early, and that was the end of my day. Sorry I don't have any pictures from today, but here are two more from Kitt Peak yesterday. These and all 250 or so of my best shots are also now on my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30291127@N02/sets/72157625810941730/.
Jenny
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Twelfth Day: Kitt Peak
I almost forgot to post this today, but thankfully it crossed my mind sometime between finishing packing and getting ready for bed. We toured Kitt Peak today, my second visit, and got to see all the regular visitor-accessible telescopes as well as a couple that are normally closed to the public. Our morning started with the McMath-Pierce solar telescope, and one of the people who work there was nice enough to delay his lunch break to show us around the control room that most people only get to glimpse through the window. From there we walked up to the .9 meter WIYN telescope that Melissa and I worked on in October. We weren't able to go inside, but everyone enjoyed the view from the shorter peak of the mountain. After that we visited one more telescope and went back to the vehicles to have lunch.
Shortly after lunch we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Dr. Arion had called someone at Steward and arranged for us to see their 90-inch telescope. The guy showing us around let us in the dome and their control room, and also let us go outside on the deck. The birds-eye view of basically the whole mountain was awesome, and I included a picture of it below. It was extremely windy today and there was a strong updraft coming up one side of the building that seemed strong enough to blow us away, and we had fun playing in it (see picture below). We also had an interesting conversation about whether a metal water bottle dropped from the deck 90 feet up would survive the fall, but it was left undecided. From the 90-inch we walked to the top of the mountain and the Mayall 4-meter telescope (picture below). It is a huge telescope, but we weren't able to see anything but the normal visitor areas which I saw in October and it pales in comparison to the MMT we saw yesterday.
The Mayall was our last stop at Kitt Peak, and we got back to the hotel sometime after 5. A few of us went to Sweet Tomato for dinner again, and the rest of my evening was spent packing and briefly looking through my pictures from today. Even though I had all my stuff organized already, I bought a few fragile souvenirs and it took me several tries before I reached what I hope will be the safest arrangement. We are heading home tomorrow, so this will probably be my last blog post. As usual, I included a few pictures from today below, this time with captions.
Jenny
The Mayall 4-meter telescope dome, situated on the highest point of Kitt Peak.
This cement slab was used as a counterweight when the 4-meter mirror was installed, and Justin and Ryan decided it would be fun to climb.
This was the side of the 90-inch dome that had a very strong updraft.
The view from the deck of the 90-inch dome was incredible.
As soon as we arrived we took the traditional Carthage group photo in front of the Kitt Peak sign.
Shortly after lunch we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Dr. Arion had called someone at Steward and arranged for us to see their 90-inch telescope. The guy showing us around let us in the dome and their control room, and also let us go outside on the deck. The birds-eye view of basically the whole mountain was awesome, and I included a picture of it below. It was extremely windy today and there was a strong updraft coming up one side of the building that seemed strong enough to blow us away, and we had fun playing in it (see picture below). We also had an interesting conversation about whether a metal water bottle dropped from the deck 90 feet up would survive the fall, but it was left undecided. From the 90-inch we walked to the top of the mountain and the Mayall 4-meter telescope (picture below). It is a huge telescope, but we weren't able to see anything but the normal visitor areas which I saw in October and it pales in comparison to the MMT we saw yesterday.
The Mayall was our last stop at Kitt Peak, and we got back to the hotel sometime after 5. A few of us went to Sweet Tomato for dinner again, and the rest of my evening was spent packing and briefly looking through my pictures from today. Even though I had all my stuff organized already, I bought a few fragile souvenirs and it took me several tries before I reached what I hope will be the safest arrangement. We are heading home tomorrow, so this will probably be my last blog post. As usual, I included a few pictures from today below, this time with captions.
Jenny
The Mayall 4-meter telescope dome, situated on the highest point of Kitt Peak.
This cement slab was used as a counterweight when the 4-meter mirror was installed, and Justin and Ryan decided it would be fun to climb.
This was the side of the 90-inch dome that had a very strong updraft.
The view from the deck of the 90-inch dome was incredible.
As soon as we arrived we took the traditional Carthage group photo in front of the Kitt Peak sign.Wednesday, January 19, 2011
We toured the Kitt of this Peak!
Today's festivities consisted of a (re)tour of Kitt Peak. It was really awesome to revisit the dome we worked in in October as well as tackle the climb AFTER having taken my inhaler and not suffering an attack on the way up! I didn't think I would be taking pictures of any of the telescopes because I had already taken several in October, but I did anyway. The telescopes looked the same as I remembered and the sky was just as blue as I remembered. Something new this trip, however, was the visit into one of the telescopes run by the Steward Observatory that was closed off to the public. We are so cool that we got a special tour of the facility! After our return to the hotel, Don, Justin, Jen, and I made one last trip to sweet tomatoes for dinner where Eric joined us not too long after our arrival. Don and I went for a short walk afterwards before heading back to the hotel. I hung out by the hot tub with a few people for a while until about 10 and headed back to my room to pack for tomorrow's venture home. I had every intention of rejoining everyone once I finished packing... But that didn't really happen, the bed was just so comfy that I decided to lay down, write this blog and snuggle in for bed. It's been a wonderful trip for which I thank everyone as it is back to the tundra in the evening.
Day 11 - A somewhat stunning conclusion, with a hint of lackluster.
Today should have started at 6 am. Today should have greeted me with a chilly sunrise and some chocolate chip muffins, before the whole class sheepily shuffled into the cars for a lovely trip to the mirror lab. Today should have been a full itinerary, complete to the point where I just wanted to pass out at the end of the day. But, due to an unforseen event, the Mirror lab was closed. I didn't hear the specifics from DA, but it sounds like they are either calibrating or testing equipment, and the mirror lab is closed to the public - even the elite public, like us.
Instead, the day started at 8, with banana nut muffin, and a still kinda chilly morning. We shuffled into the cars all the same, and took a fairly long ride (I spent most of it in varying degrees of unconciousness, and as such do not have a good gague of how long it took) up to kitt peak. The instruments atop that mountain are remarkable. There was a huge range of telescopes, spectroscopes, and miscellanious doodads. But, with the exception of one telescope, everything was separated from us, and the whole event had a very strong feel of "Tourist trap", which I shall go into more detail shortly.
Our first visit was the sun building. An oddity; half of the building was at a wonderful tilt, aligned with true north. The other half of the building (Rounded, more like 3/4ths) was driven into the ground. Inside was a fantastic feat of engineering; at the top, 3 lenses followed the sun and focused down the excessivly long tunnel to a primary mirror (for each). This mirror in turn reflected to secondaries and tertiaries, which directed the beams down to the control room. We left the gawkerbox, as I shall refer to the enclosed, windowed rooms we spent most of our trip in, and hunted down the control room. Through sheer luck, we caught one of the operators just as he was leaving for lunch. He invited us in, and we got to see the inner workings. I shan't bore you with the specifics, but suffice to say that there were 2 experiments set up (one running), and the final beam was directed to a flat table, where with the assistance of heavy sunglasses, we were able to identify a sun spot on the sun. We thanked the hungry operator for his time, and set out for a tour of the rest of the facility.
We visited the dome that the students who visited in October got to use, although we did not explore inside it. Nearby, there was a much much larger telescope (nearly double the size) that used the same size dome, really cementing in my mind just how far we have come, both in terms of engeneering and technology. From there, we visisted a few more telescopes that held the "You are a tourest and are a danger to the equipment; stay away", and thus did little to hold my interest beyond the initial scan of the equipment / mounting system.
We broke up the telescope splunking to grab lunch and investigate the visitor center. Of the various objects there, three caught my eye; An excessivly large coffee mug (purchased), Monopoly IN SPACE (35$, thus not purchased), and a pair of boxers with the milky way on them, and an arrow that pointed to the back and wrote "Uranus is here". While the last warrented a chuckle, I sadly do not have the audacity to wear such a thing, and thus they remained unpurchased. Lunch was a simple affair, chips and pb&j's. With food and souvineers, we were greeted by one of the mechanics (maybe engeneers) of Kitt peak, who escourted us out of the visiter center to a telescope that was closed to the public.
We were ushered in past the "no admittance" point, and piled onto an elevator that had a max load of 2500 lbs. Considering there were 13 of us, and each of us (on average) is about 200 lbs (some way less, but most weigh more), it is no doubt in my mind we were over capacity. The engeneer thought the same, and expressed his concern: "If the light goes out, then that means we're over capacity. Shortly after that, the elevator will drop back to the bottom. Hopefully it won't kill all of us." So, of course, just as we were about to reach the top, the light went out, and most of us jumped / paniced. I, of course, with my incredibly mental capacity, had logic'd out that the light would turn off regardless (we were going up to the dome, and flooding it with light every time someone uses the elevator would ruin too many exposures), and as such didn't jump. He got a good laugh out of our reactions, and then we noticed that the elevator stopped a good 3 inches short of the top floor, and we realized very quickly that we were REALLY over capacity.
The telescope itself was pretty neat. I've become slightly disillusioned with them as of late, as we have been recieving a concentrated dose of telescope pretty much every day. Still, being next to them is awe-inspiring, and there were a few technical and logistical points that I asked for clarification. After we had our share of the telescope, we explored the control room, and the overhang. I gagued our height at ~3 stories, justin at 4, when in reality, we were 90 feet off the ground, proving once again that I'm terrible at gaguing distance - expecially in thin, clear air.
Our tour of kitt peak was rounded off with a trip to the last telescope / gallery. Once again, we were funneled into a gawkerbox, although this one streched the circumfrence of the building. Again, the instruments were cool, and again I was awed by the sheer magnitude of them (expecially when I realized the motor rotating this beast of a telescope could fit in my hand), but the cold, seperated feeling that the glass panes created kind of killed the mood. On an amusing note though, there was a fire hose with the label "Firehose, for Fire use only. HANDS OFF."
We wrapped up the trip and returned to the hotel, although this time I spent it in deep conversation. Half of this deep conversation was a consistent pop-culture back and fourth with other students in the car, while the other half was an interesting question DA posed to me. Through a thereputic chain of events, the car somehow got onto the topic of transitions in musical nature. Each decade had a genre of music that "defined" it, either due to an extremely influential band (i.e. greatful dead or beatles) or through the creation of a genre (hip-hop, rap). Dane posed "What was the transition between 1830 and 1840 then?". I responded, resonably so, that I had no experience with the subtle nuances of musical transitions of the 1800's. When asked "why not?" I responded (reasonably so) with "Because knowing this isn't at all even remotely helpful to me."
Arion took offence to this, and asked me flat out "why did you go to a liberal arts college." It took me a moment, but I responded with something to the effect of "Becuase having a basic knowledge of English, Philosophy, and Religion amoung other things will make me a more rounded person. Not quite a jack of all/master of none, but more than a one trick pony." The banter went back and forth betwixt us, ultimately culminating into professor Arion stating that "I'm disappointed in students with that kind of attitude," continuing on to say (paraphrased) that students shouldn't actively avoid knowledge just because they don't think it will be useful. I took offense at this point, but unfortunately, the conversation had changed topics, and I was unable to dredge back up this particular thought path.
The reason I took offense is this; Professor Arion painted two distinct pictures of the students - one where the student actively avoids knowledge, and one where the student actively seeks knowledge. The former, clearly, is a problem. A person is only as smart as they can convince other people they are. A genious who can't share his genious is just a lunatic. Likewise, a person who is only of middling intellegence, but can convey all of their ideas completely could easily come off as being incredibly intellegent. But I've gotten off topic. The latter student is a model that all students should strive for, but has some logistical issues. Speaking from knowledge as a double-major-triple-minor, I can say that it is incredibly easy to spread oneself out too thin. A person who seeks every knowledge is one who is bound to be - at best - mediocre at everything. The reality is, of course, between the two. And while Arion took my statement as to place me smack dab in the former (the actively avoiding category), it was more of a neutral statement. My statement was not to convey my disdane of the 1830's transition from classical to romantic music, but rather that I've not been exposed to it, nor had I actively searched it out. If the class had been available, assuming adequite pitching and time allotment, I would have taken it. But, obviously, the class doesn't exist, and I've no experience with the 1830's musical purview.
The conversation wrapped up with Nick asking me "what about dances of the 1830's?", to which I responded "Not useful at all for physics, but it would be interesting to learn about." Ultimately, I decided that the dichotomy isn't "Those who scorn knowledge versus Those who sponge knowledge", but that the dichotomy is "Those who learn for the sake of learning, versus those who avoid learning for the sake of learning." The two new categories relate nicely to the original two we created, counter-respectivly, in that at a glance they appear to be the same. The student who learns for the sake of learning will go out of their way to learn miscellanious information, while the student who avoids it will shun anything they find trivial. And this distinction made itself clear when Melissa offered me some of the Romantic composers of the time, and I responded with "That would be nice, thank you". This places me, at least somewhat, in the learning for the sake of learning, although my interest in the music is purely asthetic. I don't wish to study how the violin's somber cry transitions from the rigid classical to the more free-form romantic eras. I just want to enjoy some music from the 1840's, and if I notice a difference, excellent. If not, I'll still enjoy the music. Still, someone who avoids learning would have turned down the chance to expand their horizions. But I realize now that I've divoted more than half of this post to a hypothetical ending to our short discussion on our ride home. My apologies.
We returned to La Quinta, and I repacked all of my stuff (forgot to pack my shoes). We grabbed dinner at sweet tomatos, and I took a wonderful shower to wash away what little grime I accumulated during our short walk around Kitt Peak. This time tomorrow, I will be lying back in my own* bed, cursing the sub-zero temperatures. Still, it is with no amount of regret that I say I am glad that this trip is winding down. As I have alluded to previously, I've a weakness to home-sickness, and the thought of returning to Wisconson has my heart aflutter.
*Own read as dorm-rooms. My actual bed is still a few days away, assuming I can sneak away during the weekend to head home; doubtful, as we have a paper and a poster to design in 6 days.
Instead, the day started at 8, with banana nut muffin, and a still kinda chilly morning. We shuffled into the cars all the same, and took a fairly long ride (I spent most of it in varying degrees of unconciousness, and as such do not have a good gague of how long it took) up to kitt peak. The instruments atop that mountain are remarkable. There was a huge range of telescopes, spectroscopes, and miscellanious doodads. But, with the exception of one telescope, everything was separated from us, and the whole event had a very strong feel of "Tourist trap", which I shall go into more detail shortly.
Our first visit was the sun building. An oddity; half of the building was at a wonderful tilt, aligned with true north. The other half of the building (Rounded, more like 3/4ths) was driven into the ground. Inside was a fantastic feat of engineering; at the top, 3 lenses followed the sun and focused down the excessivly long tunnel to a primary mirror (for each). This mirror in turn reflected to secondaries and tertiaries, which directed the beams down to the control room. We left the gawkerbox, as I shall refer to the enclosed, windowed rooms we spent most of our trip in, and hunted down the control room. Through sheer luck, we caught one of the operators just as he was leaving for lunch. He invited us in, and we got to see the inner workings. I shan't bore you with the specifics, but suffice to say that there were 2 experiments set up (one running), and the final beam was directed to a flat table, where with the assistance of heavy sunglasses, we were able to identify a sun spot on the sun. We thanked the hungry operator for his time, and set out for a tour of the rest of the facility.
We visited the dome that the students who visited in October got to use, although we did not explore inside it. Nearby, there was a much much larger telescope (nearly double the size) that used the same size dome, really cementing in my mind just how far we have come, both in terms of engeneering and technology. From there, we visisted a few more telescopes that held the "You are a tourest and are a danger to the equipment; stay away", and thus did little to hold my interest beyond the initial scan of the equipment / mounting system.
We broke up the telescope splunking to grab lunch and investigate the visitor center. Of the various objects there, three caught my eye; An excessivly large coffee mug (purchased), Monopoly IN SPACE (35$, thus not purchased), and a pair of boxers with the milky way on them, and an arrow that pointed to the back and wrote "Uranus is here". While the last warrented a chuckle, I sadly do not have the audacity to wear such a thing, and thus they remained unpurchased. Lunch was a simple affair, chips and pb&j's. With food and souvineers, we were greeted by one of the mechanics (maybe engeneers) of Kitt peak, who escourted us out of the visiter center to a telescope that was closed to the public.
We were ushered in past the "no admittance" point, and piled onto an elevator that had a max load of 2500 lbs. Considering there were 13 of us, and each of us (on average) is about 200 lbs (some way less, but most weigh more), it is no doubt in my mind we were over capacity. The engeneer thought the same, and expressed his concern: "If the light goes out, then that means we're over capacity. Shortly after that, the elevator will drop back to the bottom. Hopefully it won't kill all of us." So, of course, just as we were about to reach the top, the light went out, and most of us jumped / paniced. I, of course, with my incredibly mental capacity, had logic'd out that the light would turn off regardless (we were going up to the dome, and flooding it with light every time someone uses the elevator would ruin too many exposures), and as such didn't jump. He got a good laugh out of our reactions, and then we noticed that the elevator stopped a good 3 inches short of the top floor, and we realized very quickly that we were REALLY over capacity.
The telescope itself was pretty neat. I've become slightly disillusioned with them as of late, as we have been recieving a concentrated dose of telescope pretty much every day. Still, being next to them is awe-inspiring, and there were a few technical and logistical points that I asked for clarification. After we had our share of the telescope, we explored the control room, and the overhang. I gagued our height at ~3 stories, justin at 4, when in reality, we were 90 feet off the ground, proving once again that I'm terrible at gaguing distance - expecially in thin, clear air.
Our tour of kitt peak was rounded off with a trip to the last telescope / gallery. Once again, we were funneled into a gawkerbox, although this one streched the circumfrence of the building. Again, the instruments were cool, and again I was awed by the sheer magnitude of them (expecially when I realized the motor rotating this beast of a telescope could fit in my hand), but the cold, seperated feeling that the glass panes created kind of killed the mood. On an amusing note though, there was a fire hose with the label "Firehose, for Fire use only. HANDS OFF."
We wrapped up the trip and returned to the hotel, although this time I spent it in deep conversation. Half of this deep conversation was a consistent pop-culture back and fourth with other students in the car, while the other half was an interesting question DA posed to me. Through a thereputic chain of events, the car somehow got onto the topic of transitions in musical nature. Each decade had a genre of music that "defined" it, either due to an extremely influential band (i.e. greatful dead or beatles) or through the creation of a genre (hip-hop, rap). Dane posed "What was the transition between 1830 and 1840 then?". I responded, resonably so, that I had no experience with the subtle nuances of musical transitions of the 1800's. When asked "why not?" I responded (reasonably so) with "Because knowing this isn't at all even remotely helpful to me."
Arion took offence to this, and asked me flat out "why did you go to a liberal arts college." It took me a moment, but I responded with something to the effect of "Becuase having a basic knowledge of English, Philosophy, and Religion amoung other things will make me a more rounded person. Not quite a jack of all/master of none, but more than a one trick pony." The banter went back and forth betwixt us, ultimately culminating into professor Arion stating that "I'm disappointed in students with that kind of attitude," continuing on to say (paraphrased) that students shouldn't actively avoid knowledge just because they don't think it will be useful. I took offense at this point, but unfortunately, the conversation had changed topics, and I was unable to dredge back up this particular thought path.
The reason I took offense is this; Professor Arion painted two distinct pictures of the students - one where the student actively avoids knowledge, and one where the student actively seeks knowledge. The former, clearly, is a problem. A person is only as smart as they can convince other people they are. A genious who can't share his genious is just a lunatic. Likewise, a person who is only of middling intellegence, but can convey all of their ideas completely could easily come off as being incredibly intellegent. But I've gotten off topic. The latter student is a model that all students should strive for, but has some logistical issues. Speaking from knowledge as a double-major-triple-minor, I can say that it is incredibly easy to spread oneself out too thin. A person who seeks every knowledge is one who is bound to be - at best - mediocre at everything. The reality is, of course, between the two. And while Arion took my statement as to place me smack dab in the former (the actively avoiding category), it was more of a neutral statement. My statement was not to convey my disdane of the 1830's transition from classical to romantic music, but rather that I've not been exposed to it, nor had I actively searched it out. If the class had been available, assuming adequite pitching and time allotment, I would have taken it. But, obviously, the class doesn't exist, and I've no experience with the 1830's musical purview.
The conversation wrapped up with Nick asking me "what about dances of the 1830's?", to which I responded "Not useful at all for physics, but it would be interesting to learn about." Ultimately, I decided that the dichotomy isn't "Those who scorn knowledge versus Those who sponge knowledge", but that the dichotomy is "Those who learn for the sake of learning, versus those who avoid learning for the sake of learning." The two new categories relate nicely to the original two we created, counter-respectivly, in that at a glance they appear to be the same. The student who learns for the sake of learning will go out of their way to learn miscellanious information, while the student who avoids it will shun anything they find trivial. And this distinction made itself clear when Melissa offered me some of the Romantic composers of the time, and I responded with "That would be nice, thank you". This places me, at least somewhat, in the learning for the sake of learning, although my interest in the music is purely asthetic. I don't wish to study how the violin's somber cry transitions from the rigid classical to the more free-form romantic eras. I just want to enjoy some music from the 1840's, and if I notice a difference, excellent. If not, I'll still enjoy the music. Still, someone who avoids learning would have turned down the chance to expand their horizions. But I realize now that I've divoted more than half of this post to a hypothetical ending to our short discussion on our ride home. My apologies.
We returned to La Quinta, and I repacked all of my stuff (forgot to pack my shoes). We grabbed dinner at sweet tomatos, and I took a wonderful shower to wash away what little grime I accumulated during our short walk around Kitt Peak. This time tomorrow, I will be lying back in my own* bed, cursing the sub-zero temperatures. Still, it is with no amount of regret that I say I am glad that this trip is winding down. As I have alluded to previously, I've a weakness to home-sickness, and the thought of returning to Wisconson has my heart aflutter.
*Own read as dorm-rooms. My actual bed is still a few days away, assuming I can sneak away during the weekend to head home; doubtful, as we have a paper and a poster to design in 6 days.
Escape to Mount Hopkins
1/18: Tuesday morning, after breakfast, we all headed out of town to visit the famous MMT & the Smithsonian-operated Fred Whipple Observatory near Mt. Hopkins just south of Tucson. On the way there, we noticed something very unique about the highway we were driving on (I-19), which was the fact that the highway's distance markers & signs showed the distances in metric increments (meters,kilometers) , instead of US customary measurements (miles), due to the fact that the highway eventually goes through the US/Mexico border, and so to prevent a sudden chance in increments, the entire highway was set to the metric system.
After traveling many kilometers down I-19, we finally arrived at the Observatory's visitors center at the base of Mount Hopkins. Immediately after arriving, we noticed two large mirror arrays that turned out to be special telescopes that are used for detecting gamma rays throughout space. Shortly after exploring the visitors center, we all went up the long winding mountain road to the other observatories on the mountain. During the drive, we saw a deer passing near the side of the road, which we all managed to get a picture of before it ran off. Moments later, we finally arrived at the MMT, apparently, the telescope was originally known as the Multiple Mirror Telescope from 1979-1999, during which it featured 6 1.8m mirrors that would create a single clear image. However, in 2000, the telescope was changed to feature a single 6.5 meter mirror (and renaming it the Magnum Mirror Telescope) , while the six 1.8 mirrors lie in storage, unused for the past 11 years. During our tour of the MMT, we learned about how the entire building can rotate up to 270 degrees to the left or right, how the doors were extended & widened to accommodate the space needed for the MMT, and all of the work and effort that went into the telescope's conversion to an incredibly powerful astronomical tool.
We toured the smaller observatories just below the MMT, which seemed to be similar to the 61" telescope that we used on Mt. Bigelow, so we were pretty familiar with the telescopes there. When the tours were over, we all headed back to the visitor's center, where we watched a few videos about the research that has been done at Mt. Hopkins, especially the efforts to map the visible universe, and another video that showed how the 6.5m mirror was made @ the U of AZ mirror lab and carefully shipped and installed to the observatory.
The last couple days have been a bit slower paced. I spent the better part of Monday gathering the converted video data for Jupiter as well as some from Saturn; some people went out to a couple various small activities, but I stayed behind to work more with RegiStax and stack better images of Jupiter. Later that night we all ate from an assortment of wings from a local wing place, and proceeded to watch a film for 1.5 hours about the modern history of astronomy. This gave us background knowledge for the next couple days when we would be touring different observing sites.
Yesterday we left at 07:30 to tour the observatories at Mt Hopkins. The road up the mountain was very small, long, and curvy. However, the view was awesome, and there was a lot of different vegetation growing in that area; unfortunately most people were sleepy and did not get to enjoy it as much as they might have. Speaking of good views, the one at the top of the mountain was my favorite of the trip (this is impressive because the others were hard to top). The telescopes looked similar to the one we used, but they had different mounts, sizes, ways of focusing light; basically, there were actually lots of differences. Afterword, we watched a video of the history of Mt. Hopkins, and I am amazed that they were able to get such large objects up such a unmanuverable road.
Later we went out to eat in downtown Tucson for yet another pleasing meal. A few of us walked around for a bit, but it was late enough that most of the stores had closed down. We saw a place where they were looking at the moon as well as Jupiter, which is weird to see (to me). That was fine, but our images from the Steward telescope are much better.
Yesterday we left at 07:30 to tour the observatories at Mt Hopkins. The road up the mountain was very small, long, and curvy. However, the view was awesome, and there was a lot of different vegetation growing in that area; unfortunately most people were sleepy and did not get to enjoy it as much as they might have. Speaking of good views, the one at the top of the mountain was my favorite of the trip (this is impressive because the others were hard to top). The telescopes looked similar to the one we used, but they had different mounts, sizes, ways of focusing light; basically, there were actually lots of differences. Afterword, we watched a video of the history of Mt. Hopkins, and I am amazed that they were able to get such large objects up such a unmanuverable road.
Later we went out to eat in downtown Tucson for yet another pleasing meal. A few of us walked around for a bit, but it was late enough that most of the stores had closed down. We saw a place where they were looking at the moon as well as Jupiter, which is weird to see (to me). That was fine, but our images from the Steward telescope are much better.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, 17th of January
Today we woke up and it was more or less a free for all day. I spent the morning working on Maxim and my nebula. At around 11am, my Grandma Barb and Jon came and picked me up for lunch.
We went to a local mexican restaurant. It was very good with some fish tacos. After some good conversation, I returned to the hotel and Ian, Justin, DA, Eric, and myself put on our hiking gear and headed out to another park for some more hiking. I was keepin' up for awhile but Ian and I decided to stay back and take it slow so we could get some great pictures of the Park and enjoy the scenic views. We hiked for around 4-ish hours. On our way back we saw someone blow out a tire, it was crazy. That night the whole group ordered some wings and we watched a great documentary by PBS about the 20th century and the progress of telescope making and the development about what we knew about the universe. It was very interesting!
We went to a local mexican restaurant. It was very good with some fish tacos. After some good conversation, I returned to the hotel and Ian, Justin, DA, Eric, and myself put on our hiking gear and headed out to another park for some more hiking. I was keepin' up for awhile but Ian and I decided to stay back and take it slow so we could get some great pictures of the Park and enjoy the scenic views. We hiked for around 4-ish hours. On our way back we saw someone blow out a tire, it was crazy. That night the whole group ordered some wings and we watched a great documentary by PBS about the 20th century and the progress of telescope making and the development about what we knew about the universe. It was very interesting!
Day 9
We woke up early today to start crunching data. This was pretty boring however the day was sure to brighten when we went on our short hike. This was a much easier hike however it was much more beautiful. We went up about an hour and a half, and the hike down took about an hour. The excitement really took off when we got back and decided to get wings as our takeout. The wings we got from Wing Stop and they were absolutely delicious. The night then continued with a movie the DA picked out for the trip. The video was a PBS video that talked about the road to Palemar. It talked about the 60 inch a Yerkes, then the 100 inch in California, and then the process of making the 200 inch. All in all this was a great video. It really sparked my interest in the development of telescopes over the years.
Class Turns into Zombie Horde
Today began with a long drive which nobody was awake for, sweet. We got up to Mt. Hopkins and took a quick look around the Smithsonian station at the base of the mountain before heading up to the summit to see the 6.5 meter telescope. Along the way up the twisty dirt road we had a great view of the mountainside, we also saw a mountain deer halfway up!
My anticipation grew with every pop of the ears. Upon reaching the ridge about a third of the way up we could see the telescope housing looming at the top.
Upon reaching the summit we toured the facility, it was so interesting! I learned about how they assembled the telescope and how they had to modify the observing doors for the current MMT because the new one wouldn't fit. It was interesting to me to be able to see the imperfections on the 6.5 meter mirror (burn marks, bubbles in the polymer) and that they didn't affect the quality of the image it produced. Once our tour was finished we had a quick lunch and photo session. I found it amazing to look down upon the road we just conquered.
After the photo op we made our way to "the ridge" which was about a quarter of the way down the mountain and housed 4 other telescopes, 3 smaller reflecting telescopes and a gamma ray telescope. I found the gamma ray telescope to be the most intriguing because of the odd look of it.
Here in this video you can see its mesmerizing powers and ability to turn my clasmates (and evenutally me) into a horde of zombies!
It was also really cool to take photos at F2 (2 times the focal length) because it gave a great reflection image which you can see here:
At night we had dinner and a show at Delectible Me while watching a jazzercise/TaeBow class. It was exquisite!
Upon reaching the summit we toured the facility, it was so interesting! I learned about how they assembled the telescope and how they had to modify the observing doors for the current MMT because the new one wouldn't fit. It was interesting to me to be able to see the imperfections on the 6.5 meter mirror (burn marks, bubbles in the polymer) and that they didn't affect the quality of the image it produced. Once our tour was finished we had a quick lunch and photo session. I found it amazing to look down upon the road we just conquered.
After the photo op we made our way to "the ridge" which was about a quarter of the way down the mountain and housed 4 other telescopes, 3 smaller reflecting telescopes and a gamma ray telescope. I found the gamma ray telescope to be the most intriguing because of the odd look of it.
Here in this video you can see its mesmerizing powers and ability to turn my clasmates (and evenutally me) into a horde of zombies!
It was also really cool to take photos at F2 (2 times the focal length) because it gave a great reflection image which you can see here:
The bright green images are my sunglasses reflecting!
Day 8
I woke up eagerly this morning, waiting patiently for the long hike of the trip. We drove over gates pass to Saguaro National Park, and parked at our trail head. DA said this would be a harder hike with some steeper uphill climbs, this was an understatement for the first part of the hike. We took a wrong turn at the start of the hike and ended walking up a creek bed. We traveled about 400 meters and stumbled upon a 20 foot high rock face. I took the liberty to try and find a way up and see if the bed continued on. I happened to find a way up and over the wall to find that the creek bed did continue. However, DA decided that it was the wrong way we should head back to find the trail head. As we headed back down the bed, we found the actual entrance to the trail head and this time we were on the right path. As we ascended up the mountain the view got better and better as we moved up. We reached the summit and had a fast delicious lunch. The walk back down was a lot faster and a little bit scarier. However I loved the hike and would go on it again and again. We got back to the hotel and it was time for dinner. I, Coty, Ian, and DA went to a fabulous sushi bar to eat. I ordered three rolls of sushi including a Vegas Roll, Philadelphia Roll, and Spicy Tuna Roll. The food was great and after eating we continued to talk to DA about pretty much everything. This was an amazing talk and I really got to know everyone much better. We got back to the hotel after eating and I was stuffed so I went to bed and got ready for the next day.
Big telescope
We were up bright and early for a long trip up the mountain to see a 6m telescope. I'll admit, I was pretty tired this morning and about half way to the base of Mt. Hopkins, I realized that I had forgotten to change my shoes from flip flops to socks and shoes. I was promptly given "the business" by DA and a few other colleagues. On a different note, the gamma ray telescopes were quite a site to see. They consisted of a large number of smaller mirror each containing a "slight pitch" (as the tour guide could not recall the precise angle of each mirror). Once we wound our way up the path to the top of the mountain, we were pleasantly greeted with a cool mountain breeze, thin air, and warm sun. I was amazed at the size of the building and the engineering allowing the whole thing to rotate along a concrete slab. Once we got inside, I was rather dumbfounded by the size, shape, and elaborate fixings of the telescope. It was a once in a life time site that may or may not come again in the future... Chances are, probably not. I was rather entertained by taking as many pictures as possible of this gargantuan piece of machinery and polished glass. Upon our return to the visitor's center, we watched a couple of informational videos about the telescope, packed up and headed back to the hotel. We had dinner at a nice restaurant where I promptly ordered a salad as I have been missing my daily veggies. Upon our return back to La Quinta, I ventured over to Don and Justin's room where the three of us played a game of phase 10. Don won. From there, each of us wrote our blogs and I headed back to my room to rest for tomorrow's festivities.
Day 10 - Oh my Gourd.
Today we woke up nice and early to visit mount hopkins. We got to see a 6 meter telescope, which is roughly 18 feet. It was flabberghastingly huge, and had the added benifit of being built in a building that swiveled! The engeneering prowress to build any componant of, nonetheless the entire complete building and telescope, are mind blowing. The trip up / down the mountain was wonderful, thanks to the wonderful powers of Bonine (tm), save for the fact that they're narrow bumpy, gravel roads. While we took it slow, it was still a somewhat slightly perilous trip, and it helped me come to the conclusion that I do not have a fear of heights, just an extreme distrust of.
On the way down, we visited a 60 inch and a 41 inch. The 60 inch's dome was nearly half the size of the 61" we used earlier this week, thanks to advances in technology and the use of cross axis mounting system. The 41 inch's dome was not much smaller, although it is 2/3eds the size of the 60". The confusing part was when we walked into the dome and I thought to myself "This thing's kinda small" in spite of the fact that it still stands 3 people tall and could crush most of us under it's weight easily. Still, compared to the 6 meter, the 41" is small. They explained HATS to us, [hungarian auto-tracking sky survey], which are (as the name suggests), autotracking telescopes that survey the sky. When the HATS find something interesting, in this case stars that 'wiggle', they send order to the 41 and the 60 inch, which take closer looks at them. If there is wiggle, then the message gets passed on to an even larger, which then passes it on to a telescope in SPACE. This method helps locate planets orbiting stars, and the HATS usually get at least one hit a day.
Scattered around the mountain were gamma radiation detectors. An array of 299+ hexigonal mirrors focus light onto a detector. They are attempting to record Charenkov radiation, which is created as the gamma particles release energy during transit through the atmosphere. A slight disagreement came up betwixt myself and Dane; he claimed that gamma radiation couldn't penetrate the atomsphere, I disagreed. His claim was that, if gamma radiaton could penetrate, we would all be irradiated and dead and stuff (his exact word's were along those lines, although replace dead with glowing, etc. etc.). I claimed that most of the radiation would pass directly through our bodies without interacting, but before I could explain that any collision would cause damage -i.e. mutations, read: evolution -, Arion popped into the conversation and explained that any impact with dna woudl cause mutations, and ultimately lead to evolution. I was slightly upset that he stole my thunder, but as my point was made, I let it drop.
We returned to La Quinta, where I relaxed, snagged a shower, and shaved my face to near-perfection. The class decided on Delectibles, which it's good we agreed on that restaraunt, becuase DA had already called in the reservation. While a bit expensive, the food was enjoyable (Bree and Artichoke hearts, with a side of fruit), and the atomsphere was relaxing. The restaraunt was displaying (and selling) artwork from whom I assume is a local artist, and it was suprisingly well done. If I had 100 - 600 dollars to spend, I would have considered buying one.
The evening is winding down now, although it has been slightly productive. I've not put too much of a dent into day 3 of Saturn's imaging, as the videos are such poor quality it serves to be disheartening. Instead, while the program was optimizing, Myself, Melissa, and Justin played phase 10. I quickly formed a lead that they could not overcome, and I succeeded in winning easily, before anybody else had even reached the 10th phase. But I digress. It sounds like tomorrow we will not be visiting the mirror lab, which fills me with sadness, other than that I can sleep in later now. We will still be heading up to Kitt peak, which will hopefully be a fascinating trip. Until then, sleep beckons.
On the way down, we visited a 60 inch and a 41 inch. The 60 inch's dome was nearly half the size of the 61" we used earlier this week, thanks to advances in technology and the use of cross axis mounting system. The 41 inch's dome was not much smaller, although it is 2/3eds the size of the 60". The confusing part was when we walked into the dome and I thought to myself "This thing's kinda small" in spite of the fact that it still stands 3 people tall and could crush most of us under it's weight easily. Still, compared to the 6 meter, the 41" is small. They explained HATS to us, [hungarian auto-tracking sky survey], which are (as the name suggests), autotracking telescopes that survey the sky. When the HATS find something interesting, in this case stars that 'wiggle', they send order to the 41 and the 60 inch, which take closer looks at them. If there is wiggle, then the message gets passed on to an even larger, which then passes it on to a telescope in SPACE. This method helps locate planets orbiting stars, and the HATS usually get at least one hit a day.
Scattered around the mountain were gamma radiation detectors. An array of 299+ hexigonal mirrors focus light onto a detector. They are attempting to record Charenkov radiation, which is created as the gamma particles release energy during transit through the atmosphere. A slight disagreement came up betwixt myself and Dane; he claimed that gamma radiation couldn't penetrate the atomsphere, I disagreed. His claim was that, if gamma radiaton could penetrate, we would all be irradiated and dead and stuff (his exact word's were along those lines, although replace dead with glowing, etc. etc.). I claimed that most of the radiation would pass directly through our bodies without interacting, but before I could explain that any collision would cause damage -i.e. mutations, read: evolution -, Arion popped into the conversation and explained that any impact with dna woudl cause mutations, and ultimately lead to evolution. I was slightly upset that he stole my thunder, but as my point was made, I let it drop.
We returned to La Quinta, where I relaxed, snagged a shower, and shaved my face to near-perfection. The class decided on Delectibles, which it's good we agreed on that restaraunt, becuase DA had already called in the reservation. While a bit expensive, the food was enjoyable (Bree and Artichoke hearts, with a side of fruit), and the atomsphere was relaxing. The restaraunt was displaying (and selling) artwork from whom I assume is a local artist, and it was suprisingly well done. If I had 100 - 600 dollars to spend, I would have considered buying one.
The evening is winding down now, although it has been slightly productive. I've not put too much of a dent into day 3 of Saturn's imaging, as the videos are such poor quality it serves to be disheartening. Instead, while the program was optimizing, Myself, Melissa, and Justin played phase 10. I quickly formed a lead that they could not overcome, and I succeeded in winning easily, before anybody else had even reached the 10th phase. But I digress. It sounds like tomorrow we will not be visiting the mirror lab, which fills me with sadness, other than that I can sleep in later now. We will still be heading up to Kitt peak, which will hopefully be a fascinating trip. Until then, sleep beckons.
Eleventh Day: Mt. Hopkins
We toured Mt. Hopkins today and saw the 6.5 meter MMT telescope as well as several smaller ones that aren't usually available to the public. The MMT was awesome, bigger than any telescope I've seen before, and the whole building it's housed in rotates to track the sky instead of just the dome. We got to watch a video of how they converted the old multiple-mirror telescope into the single 6.5m telescope there today, and we were all amazed at how the semi drivers were able to haul the massive mirror up the narrow, winding, steep road to the top of the mountain. Watching the movie last night definitely helped put it in perspective for us, considering how utterly impossible they thought a 200-inch telescope was just a few decades ago.
I have been almost completely unproductive during our brief free time after we returned to the hotel and haven't worked on either the Saturn data or my own star data today. I did edit a couple pictures and will be adding them to today's and yesterday's blog, so I guess that's something. We just found out that we can't go to the mirror lab tomorrow, and I'm pretty bummed because I was excited to see where they make mirrors like those we've been using. I'm sure we'll find something else fun to do, though.
The following pictures are from the drive up/down the mountain and the MMT telescope. Since we don't have to leave at 7:30 this morning, I'm going to try to catch up with sorting my pictures before heading to bed.
Jenny
I have been almost completely unproductive during our brief free time after we returned to the hotel and haven't worked on either the Saturn data or my own star data today. I did edit a couple pictures and will be adding them to today's and yesterday's blog, so I guess that's something. We just found out that we can't go to the mirror lab tomorrow, and I'm pretty bummed because I was excited to see where they make mirrors like those we've been using. I'm sure we'll find something else fun to do, though.
The following pictures are from the drive up/down the mountain and the MMT telescope. Since we don't have to leave at 7:30 this morning, I'm going to try to catch up with sorting my pictures before heading to bed.
Jenny
Mucho telescopes.
See that big dark circle near the bottom? Primary mirror, heres a sneak peek they gave us up close. The little burn mark on the bottom left is from the last aluminum resurfacing. Diameter is 6.5 meters (21 feet):
The little crosshair structure in the center of that big square on the end of the telescope is the secondary mirror. Its 3 feet across, they were servicing it while we were there:
And the glorious underbelly where the monstrous CCD and Spectrograph imagers are mounted, cooled by liquid nitrogen:
A quasar is a VERY distant, dim object at the visible reaches of our universe. Normal household telescopes can barely detect them. This monster was discovering 60-80 of them EVERY NIGHT in the height of its use. It rarely goes a single night without being occupied.
We saw some other smaller (similar in size to the one we used) telescopes belonging to the Smithsonian Institution while up on the mountain, all of which were just not as cool as the MMT or the Gamma Death Machine, or as they call it, the VERITAS Gamma Ray Telescope array. That was definitely the other highlight. High-energy gamma rays enter the atmosphere and bounce off air particles, emitting Cherenkov radiation which is picked up by these massive mirror arrays:
There's four of them, so they can pinpoint where the radiation comes from. This trip has cemented in my head two things:
-Technology, especially in the US, is impressive to say the least. A lot of great minds go into these projects and the outcomes are repeatedly stunning. However,
-Though I realize the value of scientific endeavor to great lengths, I can't help wishing that the same money and resources resulting in the above photographs could benefit the 1/3 of the world without electricity. Documenting high-redshift gamma sources, while revealing much about the nature of the Universe, do little to benefit starving homeless Palestinians or Ethiopians drinking ditch water just to stay alive.
This is all for tonight. Peace.
Day 10: Free Day
Due to day being Martin Luther King day, the facility we had intended to tour was closed. As we didn't have another facility immediately lined up, we had a day to do whatever we wished. While others went on trips, a worsening illness and desire to get some image processing done led me to spend the day at the hotel working.
Much to my distress, however, MaxIm didn't feel like cooperating with me. One of my first orders of business was to attempt to create Master Frames for the darks, flats, and biases. After going over the help manual in the program and checking online for how to use this unfamiliar program, I spent most of the afternoon cursing as the program continued to lock up, making it necessary to close the program and try again. In an effort to actually have something to show for the day, I eventually stopped trying to make Masters and started playing around with other settings on the images in order to familiarize myself with those aspects of the program.
That evening we had take out Wings (they were ok) and watched a movie about Hays and the developments that led to the first 200-inch telescope. It was fascinating, although it seemed at times like Hays was just obsessed with building things bigger. To me the video also highlighted the huge advances in technology over the century, both those spurred by these telescopes and in other pursuits. The telescope we used a few days ago blew away anything in existence for most of the century, and the largest telescopes today completely dwarf what we were using.
Much to my distress, however, MaxIm didn't feel like cooperating with me. One of my first orders of business was to attempt to create Master Frames for the darks, flats, and biases. After going over the help manual in the program and checking online for how to use this unfamiliar program, I spent most of the afternoon cursing as the program continued to lock up, making it necessary to close the program and try again. In an effort to actually have something to show for the day, I eventually stopped trying to make Masters and started playing around with other settings on the images in order to familiarize myself with those aspects of the program.
That evening we had take out Wings (they were ok) and watched a movie about Hays and the developments that led to the first 200-inch telescope. It was fascinating, although it seemed at times like Hays was just obsessed with building things bigger. To me the video also highlighted the huge advances in technology over the century, both those spurred by these telescopes and in other pursuits. The telescope we used a few days ago blew away anything in existence for most of the century, and the largest telescopes today completely dwarf what we were using.
Waiting for the sunrise of Io...
To put it simply, the MMT should be a world wonder... Or at least whatever is bigger than it should be. The sheer size of the telescope cannot be expressed in a single photoframe. Heck, looking at it in person requires you to look around... The mirror is something like six and a half meters across... The whole building rotates... I am in awe at the engineering feats accomplished here. I took a picture of a model for sake of getting a decent picture. The first picture shows the mirror itself, the second is a small model.
After our tours we went to eat at a fantastic restraunt appropriately titles Delicatables. Absolutely delicious.
Then, the strangest words I have ever heard were said, at a place I never imagined to exist. A bar dedicated to astronomy nerds, and a drunk man with little knowledge of astronomy was watching the amateur astronomers. In an attempt to convey what they were doing to us Observational Astrophysics students, he said "We are waiting for the sunrise of Io."… Needless to say we left shortly after.
Today I learned alot, everything from detecting gamma ray bursts to giant mirror construction to even how scientists are mapping the universe. On a side note, I learned the work schedule of a telescope operator... One week of work followed by two weeks off. That sounds like a good deal!! Everyday on this trip I am more and more convienced that I want to do something with my life related to astronomy.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunburn
Today I got the first taste of the true nuclear powers of our sun. We hiked up another mountain and it was amazing, Ian almost died but I saved his life! I was super tired but for some reason I went with the fast group, mistake. Arion was trucking along with Justin and I was dying in the back, yet I was to much of a wussy to tell them to slow down! It was cool except I was sick of staring at my feet for 2 days in a row. My ankle hurt and the persperation on my face aided in a reminder my true heritage, the lobster clan. My face went from pink to burgandy in a matter of about an hour, awesome!!! When we got to the bottom we had a great photo shoot on a rock outcropping. Pictures:
Also I rendered some great images of Jupiter in my spare time, Registax is beginning to cooperate with me!
Little Ian had a good day.
Special thanks to Eric for catching me and saving my eyes from unwanted piercings. We had takeout wingstop, watched a documentary on the Palomar Telescope and George Hale, and then spent the rest of the night working on images. What a day.
Tenth Day: Horseback Riding!
Today was both a short and a long day. We got up early ready to go, but ended up spending the whole morning with almost everyone hanging out in my room working with data (or waiting for data to copy and be reduced in my case). My computer appears to be better, so I can really start working now. Nick and Zack left for the biosphere earlier than everyone else, and Melissa and I got a ride (with the group going hiking in Saguaro National Park east of town) to a local horse stable to go on a 2 hour trail ride. We had a good ride, with a nice guide and good horses, but I thought the scenery could have been better. Our ride went along in a wash for the most part, so we could see the mountains in the distance but not much else other than sand and rocks with the occasional bush or cactus.
Everyone picked us up and we got back in time to order take out wings for dinner with our movie. We watched a really interesting movie about the history of modern astronomy that told about George Hale and how he was the person who initiated the construction of Yerkes and the 200 inch telescope in California. We're going to Mt. Hopkins and Kitt Peak the next two days and need food for lunches, so Ian, Coty and I made a late-night grocery run and now we're gathered in Ian and Eric's room to do some work before heading to bed. We're leaving at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I, at least, will probably call it a night once I'm finished with my blog. I have a couple pictures from today but I don't have my camera with me and haven't downloaded them yet, so I'll update this with them sometime tonight or tomorrow.
Jenny
Here is a picture of Melissa and I on our horses and one of the area we rode in.
Everyone picked us up and we got back in time to order take out wings for dinner with our movie. We watched a really interesting movie about the history of modern astronomy that told about George Hale and how he was the person who initiated the construction of Yerkes and the 200 inch telescope in California. We're going to Mt. Hopkins and Kitt Peak the next two days and need food for lunches, so Ian, Coty and I made a late-night grocery run and now we're gathered in Ian and Eric's room to do some work before heading to bed. We're leaving at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I, at least, will probably call it a night once I'm finished with my blog. I have a couple pictures from today but I don't have my camera with me and haven't downloaded them yet, so I'll update this with them sometime tonight or tomorrow.
Jenny
Here is a picture of Melissa and I on our horses and one of the area we rode in.
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