Trips from April, 2010
Palomar Observatory
I ended up observing at Palomar twice at the beginning of April, and, for the first night, the weather was not quite good enough to observe. But, being fogged in and rained on does mean that we got a chance to go explore the telescope, which was definitely a cool opportunity. From getting to ride up to prime focus (all the way near the top of the dome) to climbing inside one of the arms to seeing the electronics (and, most importantly, the billiard room where many great astronomers spent such cloudy nights), it made for a fun night and some cool photos.
Santa Cruise Island
I spent the weekend at Santa Cruise Island with a friend, alternating between marveling at the beautiful coastline and cool wildlife from a kayak and being scared that the anchor would drag and we'd be thrown onto the rocks. Luckily, the anchor stayed put and the most exciting things that happened at night were the sea lions hunting for fish all around the boat. On the way back, we got to see a pod of dolphins (at least several hundred) swimming through the ocean, with a few putting on some acrobatic display. Despite the adventures with anchoring, I'll definitely be going back as soon as I can to get even more photographs (among other things).
