Ahhh - up bright and early to take the dreaded GET test;)
We drove down to the place where we were to take our tests:o) It was open book and multiple choice off a computer screen. Everybody passed:o) And of course, Donna managed to pass with flying colors, seeing as it was her 4th? time taking the test or so;)

We then drove down to Santa Fe for lunch and som shopping and looking around and such. We then visited a community college and watched a planetarium show. I don't remember too much - most of us started to all asleep in the comfy chairs(No! Not the comfy chair! :::multiple voices whispering "Comfy Chair! Comfy Chair?"::: Ahh..not more Monty Python for you, Ewen;)) They had some neat-o column thingies in the hallway, tho with the zodiac andplanets painted and sculpted:o)

It was the back to the Bradbury Science Museum for Ed Fenimore's lecture on Gamma Ray Bursts. Mr. Fenimore is one o the world's leading experts in GRBs, so he gave an interesting lecture. GRBs are these short, but very intense bursts of Gamma Rays, containing more power than the sun. ( "I felt a great disturbance in the Force - as if millions of voices cried out and were suddenly silenced... Tho, I imagine GRBs are even stronger than 100s of Death Stars=) They are supposed to have the energy of 1000 supernovas.) They were initially disovered in 1973 by VELA satellites and in 1992 BATSE determined that they were really far away(whereas it had been speculated that these were nearby - in our galaxy, etc). It seems these things happened a *really* long time ago - like the beginning of the universe or so.
They are bright enough to be spotted with binoculars, if you know where to look. After the intial optical burst, they are followd by an x-ray afterglow which can be followed for a while. ("Jade Blue Afterglow" ~X-Files, First Person Shooter )
There are a few different theories on how thy are created, Ed Fenimore explained. Both involved black holes and neutron stars collapsing or their energy somehow being condensed and then emitted. Then, there was some speculation on whether the bursts were emitted like a flashlight beam or in all directions.
It was pretty interesting to hear about it - because GRBs are still a fairly new topic and not much is known about them. And it was great to hear about em from Ed Fenimore since he seems to be so involved with em:)

We then left for a night at Fenton Hill. We got a flashlight tour of the place - it seemed pretty small. I was expecting something a little more hi-tech looking:o) There was the warm trailer with the computers and food and such and the concrete platform with the telescopes.
We got to experience how to operate the telescopes - setting them to stars so they could then us their catalogue to point to many cool sights. As a result, we learned a little more about the summer night sky - how to locate stars like the Summer Triangle, Arcturus, Spica and the constellations that corresponded with the stars.
Don attempted to give us a lecture on telescopes in the Ops building at 1AM. Dumb idea;) We were all exhausted and kept falling asleep during the lecture. All I seem to remember now is the two different kind of telescopes and vaguely how to calculate the field of view - something involving length of the telescope, size of the lens and the size of the opening or something...?:o) Ahh wellz:o) I'd say that's a pretty good recall for it being that late/early and for me being as asleep as I was=)

After some snacks at the trailer, we then drove back down the mountain. yeah for van trips! Much random sing-a-longs and bonding=) (o/~We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine... ~\o)

Upon getting to White Rock... Well - it just happened to be Galen's 50th B-Day=) So they have this rock in town that people vandalize with messages and the sort. We drove dow nthere to paint the rock - only to find it had already been painted... Ah wellz=) We just took another side of it and had fun=) We also spray painted a few posters and then drove down to Galen's house...
(Your mission, if you choose to accept it...) We sent Owen, Jake and Cathy out for a quick stealth operation;) In less than a minute(to avoid waking the dog), they scrambled out of the car, across the street, up the Gisler driveway, plastered the signs on the car, the door and other places, and ran back into our getaway van=)
And then back to the hotel at about 4:30 am for some sleep=)

<- Previous Day | Next Day ->

Back to the main page!

This page last updated October 15, 2000.