Star Hat

DSC_0107, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Zachary and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to McDonald Observatory with Sarah. In the background you can see the HET which is "mommys telescope". And just behind the orange fencing is the structure that will hold all her spectrographs.
We toured all three big telescopes at McDonald with a some staff members and later with the tourist guide. Both were great, we got to ride on the HET as it spun around and learnt about the history of the site. It also snowed, Zachary was very excited, although it didn't settle. But there was a few small patches left from the last big snow. He made a snow angel and had lots of fun throwing it around, mainly at small signposts. Because it was a little to gritty and icy for a really snowball fight. In other exciting weather, we got a texas duststorm and 60+ mph winds. Bit chilly, so during the star gazing party at the visitors center, Z fell asleep all bundled up during short lecture. But I was impressed with the number of questions he answered without a pause before curling up in the seat next to me. Including, if you can't see Jupiters red eye where is it? "on the other side", and what's the next planet out from Jupiter? "Saturn"... no prompting from me, and quick than anyone else in the room! A trip to remember for sure. His highlight, listening (for the first time) to Harry Potter and the philosophers stone audiobook on the eight hour drive out and back to austin.