ARO trip log day 3

8:43 AM. Woke with a start. Yet I was relaxed and rested. I could smell breakfast. People outside talking. Seemed like I was the last one up.

I learned it had started to rain in the morning and that had caused some scampering to tear down telescopes. Phil said the bugs were really bad.

9:12. Finished my continental breakfast. Tangerines, toast with butter, orange juice. There was cereal too but I did not partake. Mmm, pressed coffee. Infinite pressed coffee.

We chatted, compared notes, photos, video from the night before. Then Ben said he was ready to lead the first group for the dish. All right.

I took detailed notes in my Psion while others captured visual data. It was a tremendously interesting tour!

12:47 PM. We were back in the lodge, back from fantastic tour.

It was lunch time! I was hungry. Chili with cheese, garnished in a pleasing way, delicious garlic bread. Oh my. It hit the spot on what was turning into a grey day.

4:03. We returned from a short hike which included travelling the 660 metre portage beside the Poplar rapids, toward The Temptations. Brought back memories of past Algonquin trips, the Silver Peaks, canoeing with Cam on the Saugeen. I tried to read the water.

Kids were playing in the living/dining room. A few of us relaxed in the library. I read a bit more of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress on the netbook. Afternoon drowsiness.

Steve found old log books! Cool.

6:11. We heard distant thunder. Skies were getting dark.

6:23. I finally figured out the site layout from the mapping software. I had interpreted the scale wrong. Now I understood the lodge location versus the telescope.

Helped Charles with his Surface, again. This time I sorted out the networking, enabling the private option. But the wifi signal was still spotty. So he still could not connect.

Dinner was roast beast, mmm. And vegetables! Dessert: fudge brownie with ice cream. Wonderful. Ian, Steve, and Katrina shared beer and wine.

Catherine Tsouvaltsidis invited us all to the library. We watched the 1969 National Film Board documentary on the ARO. Entitled To the Edge of the Universe, the 22 minute film showed some of the construction of the ARO and its early use in pulsar VLBI experiments. I didn't know about that. Impressive.

Then she showed us two Discovery show clips. Fun. I got a kick out of Brendan painting the plates with a roller.

I tried to round up some players for euchre. But then I could not find any cards.

We heard from Catherine Carr. She was OK. Circumstances conspired to prevent them from making the trip. Too bad. Happily, the ARO appears to be thriving.

9:30. We put the lights out to watch the lightning.

Chas showed me and Katrina some of us Hawaii pix and vid. He's working on an upcoming presentation.

10:45. Popped outside for a moment. Bill and Steve were cloud busting. But I saw nothing, no stars. Good quality Bortle sky where the clouds are black; the light patches are the sky!

Headed to bed early. Almost immediately I fell asleep reading.