Night on Bald Mountain

Actually "Day on Kitt Peak" would be a slightly more appropriate headline but didn't sound nearly as interesting. Switching to AST (Astronomer Standard Time) began today because my wake-up time was a highly unusual noon. I conducted myself in a rather ho-hum manor this afternoon because there was really no place I could go with my foot the way it is (see July 4). No matter though. Storms encircled and finally descended upon Kitt Peak, lowering visibility to a mere 10' or so. The cold, grey clouds/mist surrounded us into the night when (up in the SARA dome) we collected our recommended daily allowance of biases, darks, flats, and lamps. No asteroid or star data would grace our 36" mirror tonight. The highlight of the evening included a night lunch viewing of Star Trek IV, always a big hit with the astronomer crowd.

As the night shifted to morning and my awareness shifted to drowsiness, the weather calmed and the haze lifted. When 4:30am rolled around it was time to close down the SARA dome for the night and go to our dorms to sleep. As I meandered (I really mean "meandered") back to my room in Dorm #1, I realized the sky was growing light toward the east. "What could this strange phenomenon be?" I asked myself without a thought of a clock. When I realized that even though I hadn't even gone to bed it wasn't actually night time, I decided to take my digital camera out of the case I had slung over my shoulder. I put the camera (and my will power) to the test. Cold, clear, and oh, so very late it was. I stood at the end of a large cement area which includes truck storage, a helicopter pad, and the visitor parking. My perch was the end of the flat bed of one of the trucks used to service things that need to be serviced on the mountain. This eastern most vantage point allowed me to scan the eastern part of the view without interruption from north to south. As dawn approached, whispy clouds climbing the edge of Kitt Peak and the visble Coyote Mountains began to grow fewer. Highlights dance across every bump and ridge nearby and cast various shades of blue and purple throughout the scene. The sky fluctuated all over the spectrum of visible light and one spot became increasingly brighter than the rest. A bank of clouds was lined with a red-gold shine that got brighter until one thing proved more brilliant: the Sun.

Now, it was time to go to bed. I hopped down from my vantage point and gracefully hobbled (see July 4) back to my room, all the while carrying a satisfied and stupified grin on my face.

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Tue. July 6, 1999

Night on Bald Mountain

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