extremely large snowman

The current routine is... well, there are a lot of interruptions, a lot of alarms. Gap as long as 4 hours... I digress. 

Middle of the night, trying to followed my directions, getting the next reminders in the calendar, squinting at Mnemosyne, brightness set very low, double-checking, triple-checking, then one last verbal command... 

And, as usual, now I'm alert. Disturbed. Awake. Brain activated. I think.

Well, what's going on. At 4 AM? 

Not much.

No emails. 

No notifications.

No new photos from sis.

I launch Chrome. 

On the mobile device, Discover launches. The Google Machine dangles my carrots: Formula 1 spoiled brats, camera vintage lenses, space agency updates, fires across Canada, all important cat videos.

Then an image jars me, I stop swipping.

What the Universe?!

Shake my head.

What?

Look again.

Could it be? 

A snowman?

It looks like a snowman! Snowman's head. Big round head, top hat, charcoal eyes, a long orange carrot for a nose. 

I squint and shift and bob and move the phone back and forth for the sweet spot. 

It's a snowman!

Funny. A very funny, odd effect with this image shown, the low light level, the teenie display.

Do you see it? What do you think? Sit back, squint, turn your monitor brightness down. Do you see it? See the face? See the snowman?

OK. Maybe not...

Maybe I'm a little funny in the head.

Anyhoo. The copy then pulled me away.

The article is about the Extremely Large Telescope in the Chillean Atacama Desert. Ooh. Interesting.

It is a progress report. The Extremely Large Telescope is halfway complete.

And then, as I try to read the article proper, I start nodding. Re-readding the first paragraph a fourth and fifth time.

OK. Yes. I really am tired.

So I push it into Evernote.

And lights-out.

§

Jacinta Bowler gives an update, from 12 July 2023, on work with the ELT. The Extremely Large Telescope is part of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) complex. When complete, it will be the largest visible and infrared light telescope in the world. Using hexagon mirror segments, like the JWST, it will be more than 39 metres in diameter.

It's a short piece but with a couple of cool photos.

I was intrigued as to progress of the build, being very interested in gneeral in project management and megaprojects. Happily, Bowler reported that the team was on target and they expected to see "first light" by 2028.