Day 3729

I'm starting to feel like I live here. Life has settled into a routine. You don't miss meals at the Astronomer's Lodge. The food is excellent and it's the one time during the day where you can relax and chat with people. Today was Taco Tuesday. Need I say more? This afternoon was my first work day at the 107" telescope. I did three tours today. Usually there are about twenty to thirty people per tour. The tours are interesting and everyone seems to enjoy them. An observatory staff member gives a presentation describing the telescope and demonstrating how it moves. My duties as his assistant are mostly insuring that people don't get into trouble or hurt themselves. I escort visitors to the restrooms and make sure the children don't try to climb dangerous ladders or venture into restricted areas. The observatory can be a very dangerous place with lots of places to fall and buttons that could do a lot of damage if pressed at the wrong time. I make sure that nobody has a heart attack going up the long flight of stairs leading to the telescope on the fifth floor of the building. Since the observatory is at a fairly high altitude, people have passed out climbing these stairs.

Between tours I stay at the observatory until the next tour arrives. It's kind of a weird feeling to be alone in this huge building at the top of a remote mounting. Inside the building you hear the rumble of air conditioning and filtration equipment. Outside all you hear is the wind. It is absolutely silent. You are on your feet a lot during tour duty and at the end of the day all you want to do is soak your feet in some warm water. If I do this again I definitely need to find some more comfortable shoes.

The skies were clear for tonight's star party. It was absolutely beautiful. As the sky grew dark you could see the faint triangular glow of the zodiacal light. This light is caused by sunlight hitting interplanetary dust and is hard to see unless the sky is clear and dark. The Winter Milky Way was clearly visible as well, along with thousands of stars that are never visible in a city like Dallas. I was assigned M-41, the same telescope target I was looking at last night.  This time, thanks to a quick Google search in my room before breakfast,  I knew more about it. I told people that they were looking at something 2300 light years away that was probably discovered by Aristotle. Open star clusters can be quite beautiful. All my telescope visitors seemed to enjoy what they saw tonight.

After the star party was over the staff and volunteers had a meeting about the coronavirus. It may rain tomorrow and when  this happens the star party usually moves indoors and staff members give presentations in the visitor center theater instead. Since Spring Break star parties are large and the theater is small, the observatory decided that it was too risky to pack the theater with people during a coronavirus pandemic. If it rains everything will be canceled. This was probably a wise precaution, but I think the cat is already out of the bag. We've already had close proximity to hundreds of strangers ever since the Spring Break festivities began.

I'm glad my tour guide duties don't start until afternoon. Writing the blog after star parties have concluded and I've had time to drive up the mountain without my lights on keeps me up very late. I set the blog to post just before midnight on Tuesday, but I'm really writing this in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Luckily I can sleep late tomorrow. I'm not going to set an alarm and will just try to sleep as long as I can. The room is certainly dark enough to get a good night's sleep.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3727

I made it to McDonald Observatory. but it is a very It's a long drive to West Texas. I purposely made the trip on a Sunday because traffic is much lighter. I got started later than I'd planned, but I still made it in time for dinner at the Astronomer's Lodge. I guess you could call the Astronomer's Lodge a hotel, but it is not what you would expect. The place is located at the top of Mount Locke, right next to the big telescopes. The windows all have black out curtains to prevent extraneous light from reaching the telescopes. The hallways are dark, illuminated only by dim red bulbs. Astronomers come and go throughout the night and they don't want to ruin their night vision. You are encouraged to be quiet during the day, since that's when most of the astronomers sleep. There are no radios and televisions at the Astronomer's Lodge. I think this the first hotel I've ever stayed in that didn't have a television.

This place is very quiet. I walked around the mountain a bit before it got dark and there was no noise at all. There was no traffic noise. No airplanes overhead. No police sirens. Nothing at all. The Astronomer's Lodge is silent as well. I talked to a few people during dinner, but after the kitchen crew went home, silence returned. The strangest thing is the place feels like you are on a boat. The building was built on piers on the side of a cliff and in a strong wind, you can feel the entire building move. This feels a little unsettling, but the building has been here a long time and it hasn't blown away yet. The mountain is almost always windy and sometimes the winds can become quite strong. I've heard stories that winds have become so strong that once the dome of the huge 107" telescope was blown completely off its tracks.

Room rates for the Astronomer's Lodge include three meals a day. Breakfast is serve yourself and they will pack a lunch for you if you are busy. Dinner was excellent tonight. Once you're here, there's not much reason to leave. When I checked in, I was given two keys. One was my room key but I couldn't figure out what the second key was for. I asked the manager and she said, "Oh, the second key is for the telescopes. Jeez. I've got a key that opens the 82" Otto Struve and the 107" Harlan Smith telescopes. Sure is tempting. I'd better not go in the buildings on my own though. I'd probably be banned from this place for life.

There are no activities tonight, but my first work shift starts tomorrow. I'll be manning one of the Star Party telescopes and explaining Open Clusters to visitors. Hopefully the weather will be better than it is today. I seems to bring clouds with me to the observatory. It was very overcast when I arrived. It's a good thing that no Star Parties were planned for tonight. There's not much to see.

I knew I would forget a few things on my trip. I always do. I really tried to remember everything, but I forgot to bring a hat. I'm probably going to have to buy a wool hat at the visitor center gift shop tomorrow. It's pretty cold at night and I'm definitely going to need a warm hat. I also forgot to bring my good binoculars. I didn't bring my bad binoculars either. This was a major oversight.

I hope Dawn doesn't forget about me while I'm gone. Janet said she did very well today. She's completely relaxed and it appears she knows she has a home. Janet and I are really glad we adopted Dawn. She's had a hard life and really needs a place where she can rest and relax. She's not a whirling dervish like some of the younger dogs, but neither are we. A sweet older dog is exactly what we need.

I think I'll go outside and see if the clouds have cleared before I go to bed. I won't stay out long though. There are mountain lions and bears up here.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3715

I'm starting to get volunteer assignments for my time at McDonald Observatory. Among other things, I will be responsible for keeping a telescope pointed at Messier 35 during Star Parties, while explaining to visitors what they are looking at. Although this beautiful open star cluster in the constellation Gemini was discovered in 1745, I've never seen it yet. This isn't surprising, since you can't see much in Dallas. I do know where the constellation Gemini is though. Gemini is high in the sky on clear evenings and I often see it when I take out the trash.

Now that I have been assigned a telescope and tour guide duties, it seems even more important that I get a refresher course on the night sky. I talked to the astronomer who owns the little observatory north of town and made an appointment to visit in the next week or so. All we need is a clear night. Maybe he can show me how to set up and align a Losmandy German Equatorial Mount as well. I know how to do this in theory, but once again, I could use a refresher.

Not a lot happened today, but the day went quickly. My routine has changed a bit since we are walking Dawn now. Janet and I take a two mile walk with Dawn after she gets back from the gym in the morning and then later in the day I take another three mile walk by myself. Dawn loves going on her walks and I think they are good for her. We try to take a different route every day to give her a little variety. Basically, Dawn just eats, sleeps, and goes on walks. That's all Dot and Dash did most of the time too. A dog's life is simple, but it seems honest and enjoyable to me. I've always thought that dogs make good role models.

I'm beginning to see signs of Spring. A few of the trees in the park are already starting to bud. The start of the wildflower season is still over a month away, but I'm starting to see new flowers every day. Most of the flowers I saw today were quite small. It was still encouraging to see a little color in the park. Winter can be pretty dark and grey.

I ordered the wide angle lens I've been thinking about. I was disappointed to see that even B&H charges sales tax now. When did this happen? Will this lens make it easy to take great deep sky pictures. Probably not. I've been reading that the best pictures of the Milky Way often involve stacking dozens of identical images in Photoshop to eliminate background noise. It's kind of a technical process that doesn't really appeal to me, but maybe I'll learn how to do it. Modern, full frame sensors eliminate a lot of this noise, but of course I don't own one of these cameras. I'd love to have a Sony Alpha a7R IV, but I'd have to win the lottery to get one. A new camera like this means all new lenses and that's just not going to happen.

I wasn't pleased to see the stock market drop almost 2,000 points in two days. If the coronavirus ever starts to spread within the United States, things will get much worse. Hopefully, that won't happen. I'm enjoying life now. The last thing I need is an apocalyptic pandemic.

Cookie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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