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.