Its about 10 days late, but we have been busy (I know, I know, you all must be sick of hearing it, but I am going to keep saying until someone believes me!).
Anyway, spelling mistakes and all, here is our youtube video of the humming bird swarm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN5xljtML8E
We are off for 9 days in Del Mar. Not sure when we will get to blog next, but I suspect that you have gone at least 9 days in the past with no entries??
This past Saturday I had the opportunity to take another tour of the Hale Telescope and attend a star party courtesy of my ‘Friends of Palomar’ membership.
This time I chose to ride up. Of course this was nothing new as such. I really enjoy the Palomar road up, take a look at the map, whats not to enjoy? While I was taking my time and there was no traffic, I still managed to scrape a few foot pegs, its hard not to, the bike is so smooth and the road so twisty…..anyway, point is, its a beautiful ride.
I especially enjoy the bit of road between the T intersection at the top and the dome car park. In the late afternoon the light is just beautiful, the road is not so technical, so you can enjoy the atmosphere. The weather was one again perfect. Its a very moving experience for me each time I go up. I really value each opportunity to visit and tour the telescope.
The tour was a little different this time. When we entered the dome the lights were mostly off and we were ushered up to the dome walkway straight away. Turns out that Scott, the tour director had a little treat for us. Standing on the rim of the dome, we could just make out the Hale telescope in the dim light. Scotts voice boomed out ‘let there be light’, and with that the shutters on the dome opened up and a thin crack of fading daylight lit up the telescope, The light grew in intensity as the shutters slowly and almost silently opened up.
Before our very eyes the scope was then fully lit with the soft afternoon light. It was beautiful to see it lit up like that. Its the first time I have seen it so clearly.
Barley given a moment to take it in, I heard another noise that made my heart skip a beat…… They had started the oil pumps, this meant that they were going to move the telescope for us!
Sure enough, with out a single extra sound, the scope began to move, it was all too much for this geek and I have to say that a tear or two came to the eyes. It was just beautiful to see the scope move around so smoothly and quietly.
The shutters were closed and the door to the dome walkway was opened, every one except me headed outside to see the view. They started up the dome and took us around a few times. I was inside looking at the telescope. The rotating of the dome is so smooth that you think its the scope moving, its the best way to see all over the scope with out having to move.
Walking out of the dome we saw the setting sun and knew it was time to have a bite to eat before the star party got under way.
I had some of Freddys home made lasagna, and some french toast left over from breakfast. Nice.
There were about 6 telescopes set up. Its really good of those people who give of their time and equipment to come and help out at the star party. I was quite taken with Jims truck and telescope set up.
It was pretty busy for a long while, I took the chance to slip away and take some photos on my own of the dome. It was just perfect weather, a touch of cool in the air, very soft breaze, clear skies.
We got to look at a few different objects though a variety of size telescopes. Neptune was a first for me. It really is blue!
I was about the last memeber of the public to leave at 11:15pm.
The ride down was great. The road is so twisty that you cant see around the corners, so you are riding into darkness on a lot of the turns. I did not scrape anything on the way down……..
Got home, had a glass of port and went to bed.
It was a double anniversary yesterday.
Freddy and I were married 19 years ago (technically, it was the day before yesterday, but its all a bit goofy to make it the day before the date, so we are sticking with the actual date rather than the actual day while we are this side of the international date line), and it was 6 months to the day that I started work at Opto 22.
Work was work as usual. It’s pretty busy with every one away. Selam called from the hospital to give us the news that her son had arrived. We have not heard from Tom, but that’s not unusual. The emails are keeping me as busy as the phone. A lot of them require some work to answer fully. Fresh ones come in each day, and of course the previous ones often span over a few days worth of correspondence.
For our anniversary we drove out to Bryces place and lay on the lawn and watched the humming birds. He has 3 feeders and about 2 dozen birds. Freddy snuck in close and took some video. I will get it get it on YouTube as soon as I can. Freddy was thrilled to see so many birds and all the dancing they do. It was like a swam of them……
Bryce gave us a nice bottle of red wine, so we stopped in at Vons suppermarket and bought some cheese, olives and bread. We then lit a candle and sat on the deck and had a little snack. It was a very nice evening.
What does the next year hold? I will be at Opto for a year in 6 months and this time next year we will be thinking hard about if we are going to apply to renew the visa for another 2 years over here. At this stage I think we will. I dont think its been worth the move for just two years, but really I am not thinking too much about it all at this stage. Its a day by day thing for me at the moment (still).
Have not posted much because its been a busy time. (Which is a nice way of saying I have been going nuts with a bunch of stuff and its hard for me to blog when I am orbiting another planet).
But, I just want to say, I had salad for lunch at a local restaurant with the training group. In other words, for the past 5 weeks I have been watching what I eat (and drink) and have been doing 25 minutes on the treadmill every morning, I am pleased to announce, the pot is gone. This morning I did my belt up another notch to stop my pants from falling down.
Raelene’s sister bought us some chocolate from Australia when she came out for a conference, we found some more Victorian port, I have found a few bottles of Green Ginger wine in a grog shop here, so I have not totally given up the finer things of life….. I’m just a little more careful with them.
(Mind you, I have this theory that giving up the drink is whats making me grumpy, but we don’t need to go there!).
The kids are fine, Freddy is happy to have her drivers license. Its all good.
The Opto 22 building is designed and built to be earthquake resistant…. As a result it moves around and wobbles when a group of people walk down the hall, or some equipment is shifted around on trolleys and the like. Its always done this, right from the first day I started, and I have never given it another thought…….
That is until we had that earthquake…… Since then, every time, oh, and I do mean, e-v-e-r-y time the building sends a little quiver into the seat of my pants, my mind takes a little nano-second to think ‘is this the start of something big?’
Its been nearly two months since the earth really moved for us here, but I have not got to the point of ignoring all those little quivers.
Silly really, but thought I would mention it, till you have lived it, I don’t think I would have really understood.
