10/11

About this time (but a little earlier) each year I try to write about October Happenings. This year:

-Went to Riley Festival.
-Visited my first apple orchard in Bloomington
-Took a weekend trip with Elaine to the Great Smoky Mountains in TN! (and accidentally took a brief stint to NC...)
-Helped out with a Bloomington city star party for families and their kids.
-Went to the Physics Department Picnic. A rare instance of physicists getting out in the sun.
-Finally got to go to my first Star Party for astronomy club! Notable occurrences include seeing many meteors, star tipping, and astrophotography.
-SAW WAIT WAIT DON'T TELL ME IN INDIANAPOLIS. And yes, Alan Alda was the guest on Not My Job.
-Elaine and I hosted a very interesting Halloween Party.
-Probably more, but I can't remember, since it's now December!!

Quote of the Day

"Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I'm here to stop it ever happening."

-A man who was arrested at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), claiming to be from the future

Find the article here

Quote of the Day

Jesse:  The thing I miss most about kitties

is the sound and feeling when they jump on your bed at night

You know they are going to at some point, but they're quiet and  you don't know quite when

 me:  :)

moka makes a funny cute sound before she jumps

like a meow-purr

 Jesse:  yaaa

 me:  and then you feel the slight depression of a kitty on your bed

and they curl up with you

and you fall asleep to

purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 Sent at 1:24 AM on Saturday

 Jesse:  and the sense of loss when they jump off

and go for a prowl

 me:  the loner kitty

independent

but fiercely devoted

-Late night kitty konversations between Jesse and me.

Yowzah Kids, It's The Scope!

Wow. How lame is it to update your blog with events that took place about 3 months ago? Actually, don't answer that. Get ready for a burst of posts.

In favor of my laziness, I will whirlwind you through some exciting times that I forgot to post about while in Arizona. First on the list is observing on Mt. Lemmon with a couple of UA students I met at Kitt Peak (funny how astronomy works...!) Actually, I already knew one of them from the AAS meeting in January, so that makes this whole "observing with strangers" thing less sketchy, right?

This story begins with Harry Potter, and seeing the movie at midnight. Actually, that has no influence on this post, but I thought I would include it regardless.The following Friday night, after a birthday sushi dinner with the other interns, I met the UA students in a shady alley in south Tucson (almost as bad as Detroit). OK, I'm kidding!!! But I did meet some strangers (I knew one) and together me and three other UA students headed up out of Tucson and into the surrounding mountain range en route to Mt. Lemmon which houses the UA telescopes. I'll spare you all the astronomy details, but we were observing exoplanets on the Steward Observatory (astronomy department at UA) Kuiper 61".

The 61" dome.

We played a fair amount of Jenga, rummy, and boggle (I just want to very humbly point out that I won all of the above), as well as stargazing, coffee drinking, and watching youtube videos. Good times with good people (what astronomers aren't good people?!).

Jenga about to come down!!! Ruh-roh.

Also, Kuiper was buried at the bottom of this telescope! The only indication of this is a rock at the base in tribute to a great astronomer.(I love parentheses today, it seems).
Quick astro plug, Kuiper is known for his discoveries of both a Uranus and Neptune satellite. He also founded the LPL at UA!! (Lunar and Planetary Lab, which does NOT like to associate itself with the "normal" astronomy dept- Steward... geez, astronomy drama) He helped select the landing sites for the Apollo missions, and is the namesake for which the Kuiper Belt is named after! A pretty rad dude in my book.

Anyway, I slept in a very... rustic dorm, woke up, explored the mountain a bit, and we eventually drove back down later that day! Wreaked enormous havoc on my sleep schedule- I had just gotten back to diurnal when I decided to go observing again... And made some new friends! :)

And now for some pictures! Enjoy.

Such a nice homey dorm building.

DAY SLEEPERS (astronomers are zombies)

The liquid nitrogen dewar... the tube froze solid in that position, just floating in the air! NEAT!

We found this "Heistmobile". Astronomers are taking over the world!!!

Not a bad view, eh? 

A monsoon dumps on the city of Tucson below.

Hoodoos exist in Tucson too!!! Fun rock structure on the drive down the mountain.

Quote of the Day

Jesse: I didn't get the gifts for baby jesus

8:20 PM me: WHAT?

  you didn't get the gifts for baby jesus?

8:23 PM Jesse: Blubba Smith: Until it Hurts

8:24 PM me: ahhhhh

  thanks bubba

 Jesse: Blubba

 me: lol

 Jesse: "I love you, and lets trim our tusks."

8:25 PM me: are you gonna trim your tusks?

 Jesse: Gonna trim my tusks

8:27 PM me: where were you raised?

 Jesse: In west philadelphia, I was born there too

8:28 PM Is it good?

8:29 PM me: it's so good

 Jesse: Chocolate?

 me: CHOCOLATE

8:30 PM CHOCOLAAATE

8:31 PM Jesse: Is it all there? and how clear is it?

 me: it's all there, black and white

  clear as crystal

8:32 PM what do you get?

 Jesse: You get NOTHING

8:33 PM 

 Jesse: Who's that superhero and what's he doing?

8:34 PM me: spiderman barrellroll!

  spiderman barrellroll!

  spiderman barrellroll!

8:35 PM Jesse: What kind of girl is she?

8:36 PM me: ???

 Jesse: !!!

8:37 PM Jesse: ...nah munah munamunahmunahmunahmu

 me: a funky little spacegirl
-Conversation between Jesse F. and myself. There is something profoundly meaningful in this conversation.