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.