Yesterday we landed in Tuscon; it looked different from Wisconsin instantly after exiting the airport. The plants are a lot different, but maybe more noticeable is the difference in the buildings. The buildings are more eye-popping in that they are not so square, and they have contrasting color schemes, painted with two colors of completely different brightness. The first order of business, eat. To taste Tuscon cuisine we went to El Indio, a mexican restaurant; the food seemed to taste fresher than the typical midwest restaurants serving the same food. After we got settled in our hotel, we went on a short hike. The hike was pretty cool, because we all got to see mountains with cacti in 50-60 degree weather. This is not how I think of January.

Today, we left for the desert museum around 9:00 am. This was great to see, because it is like a desert zoo, but the exhibits are actual habitats actually in the desert. There is a volunteer staff spread around the musem, that was very knowledgeable about the desert and knew seemingly all the facts about all the plants and animals, which was convenient since if someone had a question, there was always someone there who could answer it. The main feature of the museum was the raptor free flight experience, where native desert birds flew around, soaring centimeters from our heads just as they might act in the wild. There was someone acting as a voice guide to the movements of the raptors, so everyone could understand their actions as a purpose, as well as some background info with history and interesting facts about the birds. All in all the museum was just a cool place to see the plants and animals of the desert.
Later at night some of us busted out our telescope. After a short bumbling start, we were able to get it set up and look at the sky. We mainly looked at Jupiter and the moon. Jupiter was a bit faint, but we were able to clearly see a band around it as well as two of its moons. The moon being closer, was much more detailed and we were able to see its craters and spots of different elevation, pretty cool. This was fascinating to me, because it isthe first time I have ever looked through a telescope; just being able to casually go outside and see the moon up close seems like a luxury. We then got a camera hooked up to Ians computer and successfully created a short recording of the moon using the telescope. Overall a cool experience, but the more important thing is maybe just that our equipment works.