Bug Solar Panels Sunset

Nothing much happened yesterday…

Blowy and Sadness

Yesterday people were mostly sitting in front of their computer, not moving. Nothing picture-worthy. Except Nick and Blowy. Around 7, Mark announced “We’re going to Shep’s! You coming?” which is a very silly question to ask. And then the sadness…

Compatibility

Yesterday was BLAST’s last time going out with Tiny Tim. It’s sad, I know. Yesterday was important for 2 reasons – 1) We passed compatability! ie. when all our stuff is turned on, it doesn’t mess with CSBF’s stuff; and 2) I found out the story behind what we were calling the “Awesome Chair of […]

Shooting Again, etc.

You may recall that when Chris took us shooting, Natalie had left for Chicago. Natalie was really, really, really, really, really excited to shoot some guns, but then Chris went on vacation before she got back. However, one of the upsides of being here a long time is that Chris’s vacation ended. So for the […]

Helium Filling, Outdoors Again

This morning the early team showed up to hear in the weather briefing that there would be clouds all morning. Good thing the cryostat is ready for its day of many helium fills, or they might not have had things to do (or, actually, there’s still lots to do). Since the sun sensors require low […]

Elio and Natalie

Yesterday Matt took a ton of pictures (and I took a few). Most of them feature Elio, often without a shirt, or Natalie. The main business of the day was rearranging antennas to make room on the top of the sun shields to attach the old/omnidirectional sun sensor (OSS) up there too. Joseph also mounted […]

Sun Sensor, Clouds, Team Shirtless

Yesterday Natalie and Laura had the gondola taken outside again to calibrate the sun sensors and the magnetometer. We arrived at 6:30, and the CSBF folks all came in to collect some weekend overtime. We were out well before the sun got too high but had to wait a bit for the sun to dissipate […]

Old Pre-Closing Photos, etc

I was noticing yesterday that I didn’t feel like taking many photos, and since it was Saturday everybody was in slow mode anyway. So, I had the foresight to save some cryostat pre-closing photos taken (presumably by Matt) while I was off train riding. I also present a few assorted bits actually from yesterday.

(Quick, […]

Texas State Railroad

Laura, Natalie, and I spent yesterday morning and afternoon taking a relaxing historical train ride on the Texas State Railroad. It runs twice a week between Palestine and Rusk with an old diesel engine and an older steam engine. The steam engine is running the wrong route this month, so we settled for the diesel—we […]

Fake Sun, Black Widow, Matt Gone Wild

Yesterday morning (or, rather, the day before yesterday, since I forgot to publish this yesterday) Laura and Natalie were testing the sun sensors using the fake sun. I went exploring outside and found a black widow, which was cool because I had never seen one before. Then in the afternoon Matt and I (mostly Matt) […]