Resonant Constellation

I was supposed to be up on Mt. Bigelow, observing right now. Instead, I am at home, impotently shaking my tiny fists at the sky. Why, you ask? Because of my arch-nemesis, clouds. We still accomplished our most important goal, which was to get certified to operate the telescope on our own. Basically this involves learning how all of the systems work, how they break, and what to do when they do break. Most of the instruction seemed to actually be tips on quirks of the system and ways to get around them. In fact, most of the operating procedures seem to be clever/desperate ways to get around the fact that most of the equipment doesn’t, in the strictest sense, work. There’s a hell of a lot of components that make a big telescope run, and keeping them all straight was a significant task.

As we were driving up, Jared and I heard and saw lightning, which already made us doubtful about our night of observing. While the rain and thunder moved on, the cloud cover refused to lift and with the prediction of thunderstorms in the morning we decided to stow the telescope and take emergency lightning precautions before leaving (this includes airgaping every single electronic device on the premises, which takes about a half an hour to complete). We were back down by 9:30.

Oh well, at least I’ll get some sleep now.