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[taps my metaphorical microphone] …hello…? Hello! I’m Erin Maier, your guest stay-at-home blogger for this fine Wednesday. I’m a PhD student in astronomy working with Dr. Ewan Douglas in the University of Arizona Space Astrophysics Lab group (UASAL) on various things related to high contrast imaging from space (including continuing the good work of Dr. Kelsey Miller on Electric Field Conjugation.) I report to you live from my bed, where I have spent a lot of time the last six weeks or so, sleeping, (…sometimes…) working, and playing video games.

Video games have become my biggest social outlets in these times of quarantine, and I know they have for other people too. Every day I get closer to buying a Nintendo Switch so I can play Animal Crossing with all my friends. Alas, I’m not quite there yet. The turnip market scares me. As does Tarantula Island. But I’ve picked up Overwatch for the first time in two years or so to play with my best friend; a friend bought me and another friend copies of a JRPG called Octopath Traveler and we’ve been livestreaming with each other on the weekends (we also have a cooperative Stardew Valley farm between the 3 of us); another friend and I have little dates in Destiny 2 every Tuesday evening to do a challenge that’s on a 6 week rotation and grab the special collectibles together. This is what our “we still on for this evening?” conversations have become:

Of all my games, I’ve been spending the most time in Destiny 2, and it’s been a major help in keeping my mental health up, mostly by being an escape fantasy. I mean, sure, the Universe is once again under threat by the powers of Darkness that nearly destroyed us a couple centuries ago, but that’s something I personally can do something about, unlike this pandemic. It’s an open world looter-shooter with plenty to do at all levels of commitment. It’s easy to spend a couple hours exploring and doing bounties on my own,

or hop into the Crucible (6 player – vs 6 player battle royale mode) on my own or with friend(s) for a few matches,

or throw up a “looking for game” post to preplan an activity if I want to do something mechanically difficult to take my mind off things. There’s a group of us slowly working through the list of achievements required to get the special title “Rivensbane” for Last Wish, my favorite raid in the game. We run it a couple of time a week together, and cheer on each others’ successes and commiserate the failures.

My fellow UASAL grad student in OpSci, Jaren Ashcraft, has also recently picked up Destiny 2! Which has been exciting! We yell about optics, take a break to go shoot some aliens, go back to yelling about optics. It’s been fun dragging him all over the Solar System and being like “oh god is this what my friends felt like when I was a new player?” I feel a deep sense of responsibility to make sure he gets to see all of the cool places and things and also to laugh when he misjudges his jumps and falls off a cliff (karma usually gets me a few minutes later).

He’s also still leveling his character, which means he’s often stuck with the ugly low rarity gear. I try very hard not to be mean about it because I was there once, but also, I can’t believe there was a time I thought this stuff was fashionable.

You know what, this seems like a perfect time to do a reenactment of the Old Spice “Look at your man” skit.

Hello, Guardians.

Look at your Guardian.

Now back to me.

Now back at your Guardian.

Now back to me.

Sadly, they aren’t me. But if they keep grinding, and find some decent gear, they could, someday, have a power level like me! Look down.

Back up. Where are you?

You’re on the Moon, with the Guardian your Guardian COULD be! What’s in your hand?

Back at me.

I have it. It’s the materials you need to upgrade your gear.

Look again.

The materials are now pigeons. Aren’t they adorable?

Anything is possible when you work hard, Guardians.

I’m on a tiny sparrow.

(I spent like half an hour in game yesterday taking all these screenshots. Many thanks to Nan for their help with my shenanigans.)

If you’re looking for another game to play during this quarantine and enjoy shooters, I recommend Destiny 2! The base game and first 2 expansions are free. If I finally break down and get a Switch and Animal Crossing, I’ll let you all know…MagAO-X’s own Lauren Schatz has recommended the game Astroneer though, so I might pick that up first.

Stay safe and healthy, my dear readers. Take some time for yourselves when you need it.

– Erin

Oh, I almost forgot – your song of the day! The “Escape” version of “Shell of What Was” from the Last Wish raid in Destiny 2. Great motivation music. Plays while you’re running a combination relay race/high stakes hot potato with the heart of a dragon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXWC90Jq8Go

One of the best features in Tucson, in my opinion, is The Loop, a 70+ mile paved bike and pedestrian paths that encircles the city, mostly on the shoulders of a dry wash. I live pretty close to the Loop on the westside of town, and to keep active and get out of the house, I’ve been walking, running, or biking on the loop nearly every day for weeks now. My office is situated such that at ~4:30 the afternoon sun makes it impossible to sit there anymore, and I guess I have to stop working now, oh darn. So I’ve been heading to the same portion of the Loop at about the same time at least 3-4 times a week to walk or run. Thus I’ve developed “Loop friends” – I see the same people nearly every time who are also in the same routine. There’s the lady with the fat dog (she will smile at me), and the one guy who runs back and forth on the same ~0.5 mile stretch, so he passes me several times as I’m walking (he does not smile at me). There’s that ~12 year old kid on the skateboard who held his hand out to me for a high five one time like a psycho (don’t you know there’s a virus on??), and those two homeless guys always in the same spot by the cool tree.

Some other Loop friends:

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We all know that the nation-wide shutdown has caused many people temporary or permanent loss of income. There are calls online for rent and mortgage payment requirements to be temporarily restricted, since so many people everywhere will find it very hard to make those payments at the moment. Unsurprisingly, this has not yet happened. But #RentStrike has sure taken hold online. So for today’s blog entry, I present to you a gallery of #RentStrike related art to be found on the Loop’s west side.

Say what you will about the quality, the artist’s message was clear and consistent throughout their body of work.

And then, one day, it was all gone. Just like that.

Although the bridge underside doesn’t appear to be any cleaner than it was before. So maybe the paint was magicked away? Who cared so much to paint “Rent Strike” all over everything on this one section of the Loop? And then who swooped in to clean it all off without managing to also clean the bridge underpass wall it was on? The Loop keeps her secrets.

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Song of the day is “Rent” from the broadway show “Rent”. Some particularly apt lyrics from this song for the current global climate and today’s topic.

Today is the largest national holiday in the Netherlands, Kings Day. Kings Day is a bit of a difficult holiday to describe. It originates from the 19th century when the great-grandmother of the current king was reigning. The government decided that it was necessary to have a national holiday to celebrate the monarch. And so, Queensday was born. The holiday is held every year on the monarch’s birthday. Except during the reign of the previous queen, who wanted to keep it during her mother’s birthday to honer her.

Since 2013 we have king, which didn’t have for over a century the previous three monarchs were all queens. Nowadays we celebrate the kings birthday on the 27th of April. While I say we celebrate the king, we actually just use it as an excuse to have the largest party of the year. In the video below you can get a bit of a feeling of what Kings Day means.

For us in the USA we sadly can not party on a boat. That is especially difficult here in Tucson where we are getting or first 40+ C day of the year this week, pfoeh. So we decided to make and eat the traditional Kings Day pastry, Tompoes. The Tompoes is a pastry that consists of two layers of puff pastry with custard cream in between and colored icing on top. Tradition dictates that the icing is pink, and this is a pretty hard rule. You can not do something else without getting some disapproving Dutch eyes on you.

Except on Kingsday, then you are allowed to switch to orange icing on top. So we made some orange Tompoezen for ourselves. The recipe is relatively easy but takes a bit of time. You need to make the custard a day before so that there is enough time to solidify a bit. The next day you bake some puff pastry sheets that are cut into rectangles. You grab one sheet of baked puff pastry and you just put some custard on it. Then you add the second sheet and you color the top with some icing. And well that is it. You can add whipping cream on the top according to your own preference.

The most difficult part of the Tompoes is the whole thing. Because the pastry sheets are crispy you can not really cut into it. Usually what people do is take off the top and it eat. Then they use a fork or spoon to eat the custard. And finally, they eat the bottom pastry. But there are many different variants. Here we have a video that shows 12 different ways that people can be classified into based on their way of eating a Tompoes (commentary in Dutch).

With this I end the blog post of the day. The song of the day is the Dutch National Anthem, which is one of the oldest national anthems in the world. It was composed in 1572 during the 100 year war against the Spanish king.

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Most places, 100F means the dog-days have started. Here, ’tis but a hint of spring. In fact, our gorgeous desert flower show is just getting started. The Saguaros in Sabino have just budded, might be a week or two until they really go.

I looked at our weather station logs for last year. Amusingly, we actually hit 100 for the second time on 26 April, 2019 — so this year we’re behind. Not to worry though, we were in the 80s still for most of May, with occasional days in the high 90s. It probably won’t be until June when it really kicks in.

I am sure a lot of you are tired of looking at the inside of your own homes, so I invite you to take a look inside of mine. Specifically at my rock collection. It may be hard to believe but mineralogy was my first science love. When I was really little (like 4) I was obsessed with crystals and I remember having some books on crystals and minerals that had stickers and little facts. My favorite childhood board game was unironically rocky bingo. It wasn’t until I was older that I was seduced to the side of astronomy by beautiful Hubble images. I am pretty sure what sparked my interest in crystals and minerals was Sailor Moon, a cartoon charater that uses a magic crystal wand to fight. Sailor Moon was a huge part of my childhood; recently my mom found a kindergarten journal and in it I said that my new years resolution that year was to become Sailor Moon.

A lot of us know Tucson as a major center for astronomy and optics in the United States. It is also a center for gemstone enthusiasts such as myself. For about a month starting from the end of January to mid February the largest gem show on Earth takes over a good chunk of the town. Surprisingly a lot of our group has never gone! Understandably the gem show is overwhelming, but here are some tips and tricks I have picked up as a novice collector and survivor of two gem shows.

So where to start?

If you want a bunch of sparkly rocks for cheap I recommend starting off with apophyllite. Apophyllite is a crytal that usually comes from India. Typical colors are white/clear and green. This stuff looks similar to quartz and is dirt cheap. My piece of apophyllite the size of my head was $35. You can find whole flats of this crystal for around that price at the gem show.

Apophyllite, especially green apophyllite is typically found in a matrix of stilbite. It has a waxy apperance and is usually a peach or yellowish color.

You can even find apophyllite as a matrix for other crystals. One of my favorite rocks I own is this spray crystal (I don’t actually know what the crystal is), on a green apophyllite matrix. This rock is awesome and not expensive ~$30.

Another great option for beginers is calcite. Calcite geodes look very similar to quartz geodes and are typically a clean snow white color. Calcite even fluoresces a bright pink color under black light! Calcite geodes the size of your fist should be around $5, and geodes the size of your head should be around $30.

Depending on what matrix calcite is on the crystal appearance can change drastically. I have found that when on a pyrite matrix they have wafer like crystals.

They can also come in funky pyramid crystals. The most expensive calcite specimens I have seen are honey calcite crystals that can grow in these perfect spikes. They cost hundreds of dollars.

Oh what about quartz Lauren? Surely it must be cheap right? It is so common!

Well I do in fact have a large collection of quartz, an entire shelf worth with some spill over onto other shelves.

Why I don’t recommend starting with quartz/amethyst is that it is super easy to get ripped off. This is because the price for quartz has sky rocketed due to a subculture that believes crystals have magic energy chakra. Most of my quartz specimens I have aquired through a hook-up from my mineral guy. It sounds sketchy, but he is a nice old man who sells rocks at the Saint Phillips Plaza farmers market and has super reasonable prices.

For instance this big boy geode here is over $100 (wholesale price!) at the gem show. I paid half of that which is kind of ridiculous. I think he was tired of lugging heavy geodes like this around. He said it was his last one and wanted it gone. This one wieghs around 25 pounds by itself. Imagine having to carry around boxes full!

So if you do decide to shop for quartz I recommend taking your time, and comparing costs from a lot of different vendors. Pricing for minerals is arbitrary after all!

To continue with quartz/ amethyst there are a lot of really cool specimens you can collect besides giant geodes. One of my favorite purchases this year’s gem show was this amethyst growing in a flower formation.

You can also get cactus formation:

And man made formations like this quartz crystal that has a secondary crystal artificially grown on top of it:

There are many other formation types and colors too for both natural and artificial quartz.

Ok so we covered some cheap options, but what if you want to start collecting seriously? Well its not exactly rock-et science, (pun credit to Logan), but it can be confusing. Pricing for minerals is for the most part arbitrary. There are some factors that I have seen influence price. The most obvious is size. If the specimen itself is large (I have seen geodes 10 feet tall!) or the crystals themseves are large typically the price goes way up. The other factors are color, structure, clarity, and general aesthetic. These are a bit harder to figure out. What I typically do is look up a museum quality specimen that serves as a standard for comparison. For an example I will use one of my favorite minerals called vanadinite. Vanadinite is a crystal found in Morocco. It has very cool hexagonal crystals. It is also really cheap to collect. Typically when a specimen is excellent or museum quality, the price range can be in the thousands depending on the type of mineral and the size. A fist size of excellent vanadinite is around $100!

This is a very nice specimen of vanadinite. It has a cherry red color, Large and distinct crystals, with no damage to the crystals themselves. Some examples of damage are chipping or scratches on the crystals. The crystals from an excellent specimen are a solid color, so they are not see through or have any cloudiness.

Now here are my junky vanadinite crystals:

The color is off, a brown/orange color, and the crystals are super tiny. This is one of the first rocks I ever bought, and I got completely ripped off because I had no idea what vanadinite was supposed to look like, or how common it actually is. I had never seen or heard of it before!

These specimens are getting better. The top one has two colors (yellow and orange) which is neat, but it is still off color and has tiny crystals. The one on the bottom has the desired color but the aesthetics aren’t great because the crystals are small and indistinct. These are about $10 rocks compared to the $100+ of an ‘ideal’ vanadinite.

This one is getting closer. The color is almost right, but still too brown, and a little cloudy. It is a larger piece, bigger than my fist, and the crystals are a decent size. This one was about $40, still way below the ‘ideal’. If that is too much work for you, don’t spend more then $30 on a single rock you don’t know about and you can’t go too wrong.

Arizona is a great place to collect because we have a lot of unique minerals coming out of Arizona mines. The most common are azurite and malachite that both have copper in their chemical makeup. They are found in a lot of the copper mines around. Both minerals are brightly colored, making them great display rocks.

Another copper based crystal I have is atacamite which is found in the Atacama desert in Chile, where the Magellan Telescope is!

Our state mineral is wulfenite. Some of our mines in Arizona produce the ideal standard the world compares samples to. Unfortunately I don’t have any blog worthy samples of it (only really junky stuff), because even decent wulfenite is very expensive.

Lastly, Arizona is known for our petrified wood! Some of you may know that Logan and I took a trip to Petrified Forest National Park right before the coronavirus quarantine went into effect.

We learned that Arizona has a special type of petrified wood called rainbow petrified wood. The primary color is typically a beautiful red, with blacks, yellows, blues, greens, and whites mixed in. Of course I had to buy a piece in the gift shop :).

I wish I could say these are the only rocks I own, but I have many more that didn’t make an appearance in this post. Hopefully this helps you start your own collection :).

Song of the day: When I am feeling emo I like to stare at my rocks.