Well, another expedition, to another place, chasing yet another elusive occultation, is always interesting and fun! I was recently invited to participate in a NSF-funded expedition to observe an occultation of Triton, one of Neptune's thirteen moons. Occultations occur when an object passes in front...
Well here goes the whole crazy story of this trip. It started out with an awfully long flight to Frankfurt, however since we had a twelve hour layover, I decided to check out the town and do some exploring. After a few hours, I headed back to the hotel we rented day room from the get some rest. Then...
Well, I arrived back in the US yesterday after 24 hours in the air. And today I am back at work at Software Bisque. The trip went quite well, however I can not say overall if the project was a success or not, as at this time the data has not been analyzed, and NASA wants to put out the official press...
This morning went quite well! Despite the forecast predicting clouds, the sky at my site was totally clear. However, it was quite windy, so we held up a tarp to protect the telescope and keep it stable. My team got the data, and it sounds like other teams had success, too. After our observing run, and...
Well tonight was a success and a failure. My partner and I were able to get setup and tracking on the sky at our chosen site, but then the clouds rolled in and ruined everything. Luckily last night was only the practice run. Hopefully tonight is much clearer. We did chance onto a wonderful site. There...