Sunday September 21st, 2008

My orderly nature regrets the awkward format of this post, but can take a little chaos now and then.

So this weekend...

My physics teacher last week asked for volunteers (he said he needed slave labor) to set up radio antennae and clean up his observatory (in the mountains an hour east of Pittsburgh). He offered to drive us, feed us, and let us sleep on the floor of the observatory deck (on the floor underneath an amazing sky dome) if we would help him this weekend.

I learned a lot while I was there, and met a lot of very nerdy physics-y people with whom I had amazing discussions.
I hope I get to go back.

Sleeping on the floor of the observatory was very uncomfortable, but totally worth it. There were only six of us who decided to stay overnight. I think only one of us actually slept. I started an alien discussion..

I saw more stars than I've ever seen in my life, and quite a few shooting stars. It was so exciting!

OH and the Milky Way. and the moon was sooooooooooooo bright. and I got to look at it through the little telescope.

There were some boy scouts/eagle scouts who started a fire for us, and we had s'mores. It's pretty chilly here! especially at night especially in the mountains.

There was an Italian guy from New York City who cooked pasta for everyone... and
Doc Stewart, the physics teacher, told us all about Mongolia. It was very amusing. : D

I attached a picture of me up about 16 feet in a tree which we had sawed the limbs off of to put up a tower next to.