April 14

Today was a very big day - all day. First of all, I was scheduled to do a tour for a group of high school students at Palomar Observatory at 10:30 so I headed out from home about 7:45. There are two ways of driving there. One is the coast route that takes the I-5 down to Oceanside and then east on Rte. 76. That's the shortest route at 82 miles; the second route is the inland route - over the Coast Range, down the I-15, and then east on Rte. 76 but that's 100 miles. That's the route I took this morning to avoid he commuter traffic into San Diego that can get bad very quickly as you get into the Oceanside area. I got to Palomar about 10 AM and met Scott, the PR director, and two other docents. I was just in time to hear a news announcement from Cal Tech - Palomar actually imaged several planets outside the solar system - this was the first time an actual disk of a planet was imaged rather than appearing as just a pinpoint like a star. So much for being only the 15th biggest telescope in the world. I was able to use handouts of the announcement as part of the tour in the morning. Then the students got something of a rare treat. While the tour was in progress maintenance work was going on with the wheels that turn the dome being lubricated. To lubricate all the wheels, the dome must be turned as each set of wheels become accessible at a service door. The students were able to not only see the dome turn from inside but they were able to go up on the catwalks, both inside and outside, and get a ride on the dome. Its a very strange feeling if you are on the inside catwalk because the dome turns so effortlessly that at first you think that the telescope in the center is turning and not you and the dome. You feel no motion or vibration. After the tour was over at 12:30 we did a quick recap at the docent center. Then we got the occasional perk we anticipate for volunteering for this work. Scott showed us a small file cabinet that was full of historical photos of the Observatory. They were all extra copies that he found in an old storage room and he told us to go through them and help ourselves!

By 1 PM I was ready to head over to my observatory at Anza. This was sort of a test ride for the future when I hope to drive regularly between the two places instead of always the long drive from home. From one place to another the distance is twelve miles as the crow flies. However, the actual drive involves driving down Palomar (which is actually a long elevated ridge rather than a mountain peak) and around the east flank of the mountain past Lake Henshaw and back west. That 12 mile straight line is actually a 60 mile, one hour drive! But at least its through beautiful country. In fact, the area around Lake Henshaw is quite surprising. Its a large flat grassy plain centered around the lake about 3,000 feet above sea level. For twenty miles I did not see one car in either direction. Finally about 2 Pm I got to my observatory.

John had accomplished quite a bit last weekend. He built the walls and roof for his warm room in the observing area and got as far as covering it with tar paper. My main task was to correct an error I made last week. You are going to laugh about this. Take a look at the picture below that I had in last week's blog:

Notice anything wrong? How about the red cement mixer in the back behind the wall I built that has a door too small for the mixer to pass through? I had to saw through the two studs to the right of the pocket door to get the mixer out. The only problem was that John had to take his Sawzall home and I had to make the cuts with a hand saw. Then I had to splice the studs and crossbraces back in place. That didn't take too long so I was also able to put up about 2/3 of the dry wall by about 6 PM. Then a two hour ride home.

So I got a lot done: the tour at Palomar, very rare historical feebies, the first test ride between the two observatories, and more construction work at my observatory.