I get nervous walking to the bathroom in the dark of the nearly-empty observatory.

Arizona is severely different than Pennsylvania, but everyone knew that.

There is certainly a beauty in the isolation here. The cacti are quite fun, too. Unfortunately, they don't grow at such high elevations (I'm up around 6700 feet). The most amusing thing about this elevation is that the short hike up to the observatory is not easy. I find myself panting by the time I reach the top (halfway up if I have my backpack).

Kitt Peak National Observatory was constructed in 1958. Since then a number of telescopes have been added. I'm working at the Coudé Feed, which is a telescope for spectroscopy. It is on the side of an observatory with a 2.1-m telescope.

This is the 2.1-m and the Coudé Feed. I use the mirrors hidden in the tower and the shed on the roof to the right of the dome. They reflect light down a light tube to another mirror then into the spectrograph. There the light bounces around and is separated. I'll go into more details when I can draw you pictures or point to the specific parts of the instrument.

So the first day I was up for about 27 hours straight. I learned how to manage the telescope and all of that stuff. I discovered that nothing in this place has really been updated unless it is technology. The furniture is almost entirely circa 1960, see example to the right.

On the second day, my advisor and I visited some of the other telescopes (the massive 3.5-m WIYN and the solar telescope). The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope was probably the best adventure. We went in all of these places that we probably shouldn't have...like the tunnels that move around the glycol that cools the telescope. But who doesn't want to climb around in underground tunnels?

So the days pretty much consist of sleeping then around 12 hours of observations. During those 12 hours I do homework, read, and waste time on the internet. It's such an exciting life. It's actually pretty great. I get to be in absolute seclusion (there are others in the building using the other telescope, but they don't bother me). I get to see some of the most beautiful sunsets, night skies, and sunrises that I have ever seen. The best part of this is that I'm reminded that this is actually what I want to do with my life.

How touching.