Up to the Mountain

Today, we began our venture up to our place of residence for the next few nights. After we got our things organized, we went to a grocery store to pick up food. The view on the way up the mountain was equally breathtaking as much of this journey has been. Upon arrival, we were introduced to our telescope and observed as our equipment was assembled. Soon, we began our first trial sky flats and in a few short hours were able to start taking pictures of Jupiter. Without the correct lens attached, we realized that the pictures we achieved were sub-par. Don and I spent several hours observing the beauty that is the night sky unobstructed by city lights as we strategically stayed out of the way of the group working and made ourselves available if we were needed. We also realized that this plan was well-engineered as there were way too many people in the control room much of the time. We both began our projects with the planetary nebula. As soon as I realized I was beginning to get really tired, I asked Don, Zach, and Ryan to join me on the catwalk once again to play with the smaller telescope to see what we could see. Shortly after our return, the power went out and we were forced to end our night of observations early. I'm not a huge fan of the dark, so I joined the group that headed back to the dorm and sat in the nearly dark living room and enjoyed the conversation of the others to calm me down before the power came back on with the help of the generators. It was a hard bed and a flat pillow, but I slept all the same!