Mauna Kea Observatory Tour
My high school friend Craig met us in Waimea and gave us a personal tour of Gemini North observatory atop Mauna Kea. Very impressive, especially the practical joke Steve and the crew played on us where we had to guess which was rotating, the telescope or the dome (that is the entire building shell). Made me think of that wierd Frames of Reference movie from high school physics class…
No real hiking today, but it was great to see Craig and to be at 13,800 feet. I haven’t seen Craig in a decade or more, and it was good to see someone still pursuing one of those crazy teenage dreams like astronomy. What is it about ourselves that we forget about the ambitions we had when young and end up as an insurance salesperson or something?
What an awesome and otherworldly shot!
I had an ambition to be an astronomer…I did a high school career report on it and it turned out that I would be unlikely to feed myself on the salary so I studied physics instead. Sometimes old ambitions simply become updated. (Or at least that’s my excuse.)
Today, my real ambition is to not work at all. Or maybe have a blog or something….
Comment by rjz | February 6, 2007