I had a very successful night of observing after an afternoon of successfully taking a lot of pictures of the telescope. I tried to get pictures of me with the telescope, but that didn't work out so well.
The next day, I left the mountain because I had three nights off before returning to the lesser adjacent ridge to use one of Michigan's telescopes.
I tried to do work, and I tried to see Tucson, but it was really just too hot (over 100F every day!). I'm not meant for the heat. What I managed to do was eat some tamales and go to Saguaro National Park, which was a bad idea, but I had to see the cacti. So here are some cacti pictures. A saguaro with the moon to the left. I got there ridiculously early, and it was still exceptionally hot. That made me cancel my plans of doing much more than driving around the 8 mile paved loop. There is a hiking path connecting the north and south parts of the loop that I wanted to do, but I gave up on that idea pretty quickly. I took a short hike that was supposed to be a mile loop, but what should have been halfway through the path got lost and mingled with other paths. Realizing that I didn't really care to be lost in a shadeless desert, I just doubled back. On a cooler day, another path might have been welcoming, but not that day.
While being one of a tiny amount of people brave (or stupid) enough to try to see the park in such oppressive heat, I discovered what could very well be my new favorite plant: the staghorn cholla cactus. It's a pretty and bizarre plant (right).Tucson was to become even more scorchingly hot, not that I thought it was possible, so I fled for the mountain again, really it was just time to observe again.
Because I really did find these things remarkably pretty, here is a close up of the staghorn cholla fruit.
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