Kitt Peak, Arizona

It's my second night on Kitt Peak in Arizona. We haven't had any Gamma Ray Burst activity, but it gave us time to view some other cool things in the sky: clusters, nebulas, galaxies...and others of the sort. I didn't make it the whole night last night....gave into sleep around midnight arizona time, but 3am for my body clock...since I had to get up at 5 to catch my plane out here, I was pretty exhausted. Today we got to visit the University of Arizona in Tucson and tour the astronomy facilities and campus. They have like 7 or 8 astronomy buildings! and the campus is really cool, but I don't know if I see myself in Arizona. Also got to tour the Steward Mirror Lab where they make the huge mirrors for the big telescopes around the world, so I am now an expert on mirror making...who knew.

However, the most exciting news of the night: I saw my first shooting star! It's pitch black on Kitt Peak with only a few cities close by...Tucson is an hour and a half away, so it's pretty much more stars than I've ever seen. The halo above Tucson can be seen to the east, and Phoenix lights can even be seen from 60 miles away...thank you mountains. It's awesome that it's so dark because you can just look up at the sky and see the milky way and who knows how many planets. In honor of Arizona, we are taking images of the Sombraro galaxy as the last ones of the night, and it's 4:10 am...we have about 45 minutes left to observe before the sun comes up, then it's off to my blacked out window room to sleep into the afternoon....