Hi all,
Well, all good things must come to end, and so it is with my US trip. Heading home tomorrow and will be in transit for 32 hours!
That is from the time I book out of the hotel, in San Diego, until I get home in Perth.
This portion of the trip has been as amazing as ther previous portions. Day one was spent at Balboa Park in San Diego where I visited the Air & Space Museum, which had some interesting exhibits. I also visited other museums in this park, which were also interesting. It is a lovely park.
Day two was spent driving up to LA via the Interstate 5 and what an experience that was; what a busy road, and I mean really busy! Once I got to LA I headed up the East Grade Rd to Mount Wilson. What an wonderful mountain road to drive, with its awesome twists and turns, with some corners great than 300 degrees
had to have both hands on the wheel for this drive. With a 55 MPH limit, I rarely got anywhere near it. I came back via the South Grade Road, and that was just as awesome.
At Mount Wilson I had a personal tour of the 100" telescope, which included getting to see the "old" (no longer in use, obviously) clock drive in action.
What was really amazing was when Larry moved the dome to show me the unusual effect. This being that you cannot tell if the dome is rotating or the mount. It actually looks like the mount is rotating
Even standing on the mount section, it still looks like the mount is rotating. This effect is due to the fact that the mount is stationary and the whole building is rotating and because there are no outside references it actually looks like the mount is rotating. Apparently, Einstein, when he witnessed this effect said "Now that is relativity!"
I also got to see some of the interferometry scopes and the CHARA array where the light from the three scopes is combined and shunted to the experiment tables. Talk about smoke and mirrors
It was an awesome (there is that bloody word again) setup, which requires considerable maintenance to keep all the mirrors aligned. It was an amazing setup 5that requires very fine tuning and it was interesting to see how they managed to compensate for the different light arrival times. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour of Mt Wilson.
The next day was spent driving other mountain roads around San Diego. I really enjoyed these mountain drives.
The third day was spent driving up to Mt Palomar, where I couldn't arrange a personal tour. Apparently it is very difficult for anyone to get a tour, under normal circvumstances. However, I managed to "charm" my way into the inside of 200" dome and got some great pictures, which was difficult to take through the glass observation deck. I also managed to get my picture taken with the 200".
I also came back from Mt Palomar by a different route.
Today, being the penultimate day, I spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. I mainly went to see the giant Panda's, which are on loan to SDZ, from China. I also managed to get a great photo of the baby Panada which was sleeping at the top of the tree. It couldn't be seen from the ground, but I took photos from the Sky Safari chair lift, which turned out ok. This is an enormous zoo set over 125 acres, so I didn't get to see it all.
Well, it is time to pack up and head home and back to work on Monday
Oh well, it is what pays for these trips, so I won't complain. Hopefully, all going well, I will be back early in the new year.
I have had a wonderful time here and look forward to coming back. I had meticulously planned this trip, which my kids thought was way too anal, but, it all went according to plan and I got to do almost everything I set out to do. About the only things I had to drop off the list was the Empire State Building and the Intrepid in New York, but the compensation for missing these was well worth it. I had a really nice lunch instead, with a very nice lady
I also got to see a lot more than I had planned too. However, some things I wish I had had more time, whilst others were nice, you know, but been there done that! Some things I plan on doing again, if I get the chance. Stellafane being one of those things. It really is the best astro event in the world, one in which it is well worth going to, for sure! Another thing I want to do again is to drive the Hwy 550, but next time, instead of just Durango to Ouray, to do the whole raod from Alburquerque to Green River and back to Albuquerque via Denver, including doing Pikes Peak, the highest road in the US, at 14,000 feet approx.
Anyway, that raps up the US trip. Tomorrow I head back to LAX (where I have a 10 hour wait for my flight) and home (with a 2 hour layover in Sydney).
Cheers Peter
Peter thanks for the comprehensive reports , I have enjoyed reading them it sounds like you had a blast ! I especially liked the convertible red Mustang part !! nice .
you home yet Peter? ,.
