Work sent me on a trip for the first week in February out to the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins in Arizona, about an hour south of Tucson.

A view of the ridge observatories from MMTO at the summit.

The dorm I stayed in is situated on the ridge below the summit. The ridge observatories are nearby - they're a 5 or 10 minute walk away. There is a road between the two but it was under construction when I was there. The road crews were pouring a new concrete road to reinforce some stronger guardrails. From the amount of rocks I saw tumbled into the road, maintenance must be a constant activity up there.

A view of the ridge dorm with MMT on the summit in the background.

Looking back at the ridge from MMT.

The other dorm, the Bowl, seen from MMT.

The weather was beautiful all week. We only had a few clouds that impacted observing on Monday night. The rest of the week was clear. It pushed 70°F during the day and dropped into the 50s at night. It was very pleasant and made it inviting to get out and look at the stars.

Everyone's schedule was pegged to being up all night observing so the mornings were quiet. I'd get up and make breakfast and coffee alone in the dorm kitchen.

My view from breakfast.

Then I'd go out exploring before lunch time. There aren't really any trails up there so the exploring was restricted to looking for birds and other creatures in the trees and bushes along the roads and just generally taking in the views.

A yellow-eyed junco, spotted alongside the road in a group of other dark- and yellow-eyed juncos.

Meep meep! It's a roadrunner! As seen from the car.

I couldn't ID this one. Can you?

Found myself!

Some lizards sunning themselves on the dorm balcony. They scurried under the cooler and the grill when I went past.

After lunch it was time to tour the telescopes and ask lots of question to the daytime crew. We took lots of notes and prepared ourselves for spending the evening with the observers who were busy sleeping until just before sunset.

Shhhh!

After chatting with the observers during their "breakfast" I would cook dinner and then head over to the observatory in time for sunset. All of the calibrations and preparations for the evening happen just before sunset so there's lots of activity to watch out for. But of course, once things are set up, we must go outside and watch the sunset.

The shadow of Mt Hopkins cast onto Mt Wrightson!

The sunset as seen from the ridge.

And of course, after the sunset it get dark and we see...

The night sky. So many stars!

Looking out toward Nogales at night time

Same time, looking at Tucson.