NM-Chapter 1!

So, I have yet to make a post about my Grand Canyon trip (mostly because I don't have the pictures with me), but I went last year so it can't really be that exciting for you to hear about it again, can it?

Anyway, last Sunday the REU students, plus a few stragglers headed out in two NOAO vans to the state of New Mexico. This is an annual trip that the REU program makes each year, to see some observatories, etc. So, we left early Sunday for our 6 hour trip. I drove about half of the way there and took away two things from the experience:

1) New Mexico is very boring to drive through (until you get to mountains)

2) Driving a large van is not fun.

We eventually made it to a city called Alamogordo, NM. We met the NSO (National Solar Observatory) REU students at a BBQ place (not so great for a vegetarian). The NSO is based in Sunspot, NM- near where we would be staying for the next 4 nights. After eating dinner, we headed over to White Sands National Monument for the sunset. It was incredibly cool.

The sands are gypsum, from the surrounding mountain ranges. With time and much erosion the gypsum crystals forming in the basin wore down into the beautiful white sand dunes seen. Ken, the REU program director, had brought a few circular sleds with him. We waxed them up and then slid down the dunes! It was way more fun than it should have been. We then explored a bit and watched the beautiful sunset.

HEEEEELP!

Oh, I also got buried in the sand. :)

Then we went to our hotel, which was in Cloudcroft. Normally on this trip we stay with the NSO students up in Sunspot. Both of places are on Sacramento Peak, at about ~9500-10,000 feet. Sunspot is home to the NSO, as well as Apache Point Observatory (I'll get to that later), so only astronomers and those who work at the observatories actually stay in Sunspot. Well, apparently they had a lot of scientists up on the mountain this summer, so there wasn't enough room for us to stay there. :( Instead we crashed in Cloudcroft, at a really nice hotel, so I'm not really complaining.

The next morning I went for a nice run (and by nice, I mean elevation-breath-robbing), then we headed over to Sunspot (about 20 minutes from Cloudcroft) to celebrate the 4th with the NSO peeps. We spent the day playing games and generally just chilling out. All of the games were done in a tournament style, and I lost all of them (but ALMOST won bocce ball, in my defense).

Log toss. I lost (but looked cool).

Frisbee golf. I lost (but looked cool again).

Bocce ball. Vivienne (right) and I ALMOST won the tournament! 

Orange race. I lost.
And yes, those are oranges in panty hose tied around waists. Yup, astronomers are weird.

I didn't get to see any fireworks :( There were hardly any shows due to the fire danger across NM and AZ. But all in all, it was a very enjoyable Independence Day and I had the chance to meet lots of cool and friendly astronomers. It was nice to take a legitimate break and just spend the day relaxing.

More to come about the last half of the trip! Get ready for lots of boring descriptions of telescopes! :P