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.

That's right, my freudian id, Little Ian, had an excellent monday. Aside from relaxing and getting work done, DA took Justin, Coty Eric and I to another state park (can't remember which) for an easier hike. We soaked up the scenery much more than on past hikes, taking some fun pictures and such. While coming down, I took a silly step on a loose rock and almost pierced my face on a cactus. This picture is immediately after I stood up from the near disaster:

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.

Day 7

Today was R and R day, and I loved it.  The day started at 11:00 o'clock waking and then driving down the mountain.  As we arrived back into town, checked into the hotel, and got settled back into our rooms.  I was really tired from the lack of sleep and three days of crazy sleep patterns, so I decided to take a nap before dinner.  That night we were treated to an amazing dinner at a Mexican seafood restaurant by Mrs. Stalbits.  She is the wife of the late Mr. Stalbits.  She is kind enough to pay for our observing time out here in Arizona, so we can continue our observational physics studies.  The dinner was absolutely amazing.  I had a steak that was covered in a red sauce and covered in melted cheese.  We also had a pizza like appetizer that was delicious as well. The night ended early for me that night due to the sole fact that I was in a food coma and felt slightly sick. 

Zach & Nick's Excellent Adventure

Around noon today, while Melissa and Jenny went off to go horseback riding, and some of the guys set off on another hiking adventure, Zach and I decided to head off to an area just outside of Oracle,AZ, that is the home of the incredible Biosphere 2. For those of you that don't know, Biosphere 2 is a self-contained closed ecosystem capable of sustaining several independent environments (or biomes), that was built in the mid '80s to the early '90s. Originally, Biosphere 2 was used in a long-term experiment from 1991-1993 in which several participants were sealed in the facility for two entire years, and had to live and work in the Biosphere, while helping to maintain its various biomes. The experiment was considered to be a failure, but it has since been used to help conduct research about our own world by studying the organisms living in Biosphere 2 through the management of the University of Arizona.

While on the guided tour, we were brought through the different biomes such as the savannah, wetlands, swamps, (fog) desert, rainforest, and ocean, each with a different climate/temperature that is controlled through a vast network of air conditioning systems in the basement of Biosphere 2, after which we were brought to the inside of the south "lung", which is a structure that expands/contracts in order to prevent the complex's air pressure from becoming too low or high, which could result in structural failure.

After the tour, Zach & I got a few things from the gift shop & headed back to the hotel, and after telling the others about Biosphere 2, they regretted their other plans and wished that they had gone with us. After dinner, we all watched an amazing movie about George Hale, who was responsible for getting the support and funds to build the biggest and famous observatories ever built (Yerkes,Mt.Wilson,Mt.Palomar,etc.) which all made groundbreaking discoveries in the advancement of modern astronomy through their ability to see deeper and deeper into the vast unknown reaches of the universe.

God's True Face

Stars in the Night Sky
Strewn on black velvet abyss
Wonders to my eye

I must never miss
Any crucial, one detail
Of the Awesomeness

Of the Universe
No poem, song, or a rhyme
Can capture in verse

The glory of Time
The wonders of Space and Stars
We humans must climb

The cliff face of Space
We humans must know our place
Upon God's True Face


Other than my haiku series, today was great. Nick and I ventured to the Biosphere where we visited the Amazon,
a fog desert, the ocean, and a forest. It was a great experience and although not worth twenty dollars I learned much about our planet. Also apparently Bees only sense UV light... And then can evolve to sense visual spectrums within a generation. Fascinating and conclusive to evolution.

After the biosphere, I continued to have a fair day with the group and consumed delicious chicken wings. Immediately following the meal I watched, courtesy of DA and Jenny's computer, a PBS production on the achievements of a new idol of mine: The astronomer Hale, who apparently wanted to compensate for something with big, no gigantic marvels of engineering. I must thank him though, as these achievements revolutionized the view of the universe and gave us the insight necessary to achieve our current understanding.

I can hardly contain my excitement for the tour of Mt Hopkins observatory tomorrow. Perhaps I can write a poem on that as well

A horse is a horse, of course, of course!

Today began slowly because many of our various activities not beginning until later. Thus, many of us spent the morning crunching through the collected data. Later, Jenn and I were dropped off by the group of hikers at a ranch where we took a quick, two hour tour. Although the saddle left a permanent imprint in my posterior region, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride as well as taking a chance to gather some scrambled thoughts from the past few days. I'm pretty sure the ride left menrather dehydrated and I'm thus feeling a touch under-the-weather. I am drinking ample amounts of water and, to further recover, am heading to bed immediately following the posting of this blog.

After we returned to the hotel, I caught maybe 20 minutes of a nap before dinner. After dinner, we all piled into DA's room to watch a documentary of Hale's legacy. I was personally interested in the first telescope featured on the film. Please enjoy this short story: Last summer, my mom was finally able to purchase a house very near to her dream home. She, for near 25 years, has made a long drive from Janesville to Delavan each day for work. She's been wanting to move closer to work since I graduated high school. After three years of searching and waiting for her house to sell, she and my grandmother purchased a home in the gated, golf community of Geneva National. As a newly instated homeowner member, she (and my grandmother) have been invited to several "ritzy" parties, one of which introduced my grandmother to one of the people heading Yerkie's observatory. Through discussion, I was soon invited to a private tour of the observatory during my spring break this year. I was therefore rather ecstatic to finally hear the story of this revolutionary (in it's day) telescope.

Day 9: An Ominous Sense of Forboding

Last night was concluded with an equal mix of awesome and not-so-awesome. I along with two other students, hit up Sweet Tomatoes again, and while the food was good, it didn't sit with me well. Unlike the first time, when we spent hours there, this time I had to leave long before the "many" hour mark. The evening lead me face first into a series of heavy headaches with Registax and frustration with my computer, which crashed a few times. This is compounded by a now-omnipresent sense of home-sickness. But enough of filling in my Blog's gap for yesterday.

Today started early, with a 7 am alarm. Then a 7:30, 8, and 8:15 alarm before I bothered to get up and grab a continental breakfast. I wasn't terribly hungery, so I snagged a muffin and some not so good coffee. Then I proceeded to be completely anti-social, sequestering myself in the room the entire day to work on the now massive pile of Saturn data I have. And I can honestly say at this point that I have little to no hope of having a picture half as decent as Juptier team. Not only has there been time issues (one file took over 4 hours to completely analize), but focus has been consistantly bad. At this point, I've decided to analize EVERY picture, and so a little bit of wavelet correction on it. Then, I'll compare all of the photos, and the best handful, I'll super analyze, and hopefully I'll get something usable out of it.

Things I missed because I'm an anti-social stick in the mud today: An "awesome" party in Jenny's room where the entire class congregated to work on data. A trip to the Biospheres to .. uhm... do something. Horseback riding. Another hike.
Things I saw because I'm an anti-social stick in the mud: lots of housecleaners. Total count for today: 7. Nasty coffee. My 8-GB flash drive (sans' cap; for some reason I knew the cap wouldn't survive the trip)

And I fear that the anti-social mood is a byproduct of an unnamed ominous sense of forboding (That I guess I just named, hm. Fancy that.) As some may know, I'm not fond of flying. Not only does it do terrible terrible things to my stomach, but just the idea that we're sitting in a couple ton iron coffin soaring at 33,000 feet fills me with dread. As such, taking a flight is a taxing experience for me, and I just today realized that between the first flights dread, which never full faded, NEXT flights dread, which is starting to well up inside of me, and the aforementioned homesickness, I have a wonderful cardcastle of unfounded worries. While it is reassuring that I have identified why i'm being an antisocial jerk, it doesn't do much to stop me from being an antisocial jerk. So in a roundabout, self-defensy sort of way, this is an indirect, informal apology to everyone I've been [directly/indirectly] a jerk to.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've two dozen more videos to analyze. Cheerio.

Being productive!

We finally spent a few hours working on purpose today. My computer is down to 2.2 GB of free space...I cry for it daily :'(

Yesterday was THE BIG HIKE to the top of Wasson Peak in Saguaro national park. We spent less than 5 hours doing the whole 4 mile trail...No accidents, no shirts (boys only), and no frowns. The view from the very top was wild, especially after we passed the stupid false peak. Everyone was definitely appreciative of the cushy seats in the van on the way back. Everyone split up for food. Justin, Coty, DA and myself had a scrumptious dinner of sushi at a place that easily kicks Fuku sushi's tail. We planned a new class and some other activities for Spring, then came back and slept.

For all blog posts from now on, assume that every single night before bed we are relaxing in the hot tub. We do and it is AWESOME. The guard has to kick us out every night.

Today has been our first "work on purpose"day since we got down from the mountain. I got a stacking program to work, resulting in this pretty (but blurry) image of Saturn. Not bad for a first try:

We're heading out the door now for another hike, so maybe more to come later. Enjoy all that snow, Wisconsinites.