I think I’ve had observing time at LCO in every month (though I’m unable to figure out from the records I have on my laptop if I’ve actually physically been at LCO in every month), but this is the best November that I remember. The days are warm and lovely, the nights are clear and crisp with good seeing. “These are the days to hold on to” and “this is the time to remember.” I’m busy using this run to forget the 2024Ab weather.
Even though I never forget how beautiful it here, I can’t help taking more photos of lovely sunsets and Venus next to the dome.
A lot of Magellan observations are done remotely now, but I continue to think people ought to come and experience the Observatory and learn the instruments in person. There are no shortage of students on this run, of course, given that MagAO-X is so hands-on. And I admit that I am remotely observing on two separate nights in the next month alone. But I hope some others see these photos and want to come. I fear a future when we’re all just looking at screens of telescopes.
On a different subject, I have to say that for something not very funny to 9 people sharing one bathroom in the dome, our clogged baño caused a lot of hilarity. Thanks to the heroic efforts (though I will spare you the photo) of Roger, Laird, and Parker, the situation was resolved. Now we “look back and have to laugh. We lived through a lifetime and the aftermath.”
Song of the Day: Anyone my age knows the song I’ve been quoting as it was absolutely unavoidable in 1986-87 and possibly the prom theme for every senior class in America in 1987. Magellan wasn’t my first love, but “I’m warm from the memory of days to come.”