Flowers in the front of my apartment in Gainesville, long since gone.



A closeup.



A somewhat poorer-quality closeup.



OK enough flowers.



Outside our dorm at Apache Point Observatory. Much nicer mountaintop than Kitt Peak in terms of scenery. Almost looks like a campsite.



The front of the dorm where most of the visiting astronomers (i.e., me) stayed. Had a double kitchen inside and was generally quite cozy.



The Sloan 2.5 meter control room. The 2.5 meter is a "hands-off!" telescope, I don't control it but rather an employee at the mountain does. We are in charge of our instrument though.



In the corner of this room we did have one computer that belonged to us. It was used primarily to transfer data from the instrument control room to the Univ. of Florida. It was also the only Linux box we have on the mountain.



Another shot with lights on this time. Except for the very first few nights I'd spend most of my night in this room, only heading out into the dark of night towards the instrument control room to check the data and instrument status or to get ready to change plates (usually every 50 min.)



The ARC 3.5 meter telescope. This telescope is owned by a small army of U.S. research Universities: Washington, Chicago, Yale I believe, couple others. Not our toy, but pretty impressive. Notice the doors in front for scale. I didn't go inside but I did see the telescope from the outside on my walk back in the early morning from my night of observing.



Sloan Telescope, the telescope that performed the SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey, perhaps one of the most comprehensive and useful optical surveys of the sky taken to date).



Trying to get a shot of the view. From the view at the telescope, the entire state of Connecticut would fit within the area you can see with your eye. You can barely make out Holloman Air Force Base, which was viewable every night off to the right facing away from the telescope. This is the home of Stealth Fighters, though I did not see any flying while I was there. Then again they are supposed to be stealth....



Another view from the top, this time of the mountain range below the peak. The area towards the top is not sky, but the desert below. Apparently my digital camera can't see things 100 miles away unlike your eye while you're up there. It really is a magnificent view.



Inside the instrument room with the various computers used to control the instrument, mostly monitoring temperatures, the interferometer, and of course the CCD acquisition computer that takes the exposures!.



Inside this charming sky blue room is our Keck ET instrument. It has to be thermally, mechanically, etc. isolated hence the sealed room. Since I was not there in the April when they set it up I do not have any good shots of the instrument itself, but it is mostly a laser, some optics, mirrors, etc..



Another shot of the 3.5 meter.



My buddy the Sloan 2.5 meter telescope. Opening up the doors and the whole building moves on tracks to peel away from the telescope. Was fun to watch every evening while they get the telescope setup.



The beast awakens. With the petals open and the building removed it is nearing time to move the telescope.



Looking off to the east. At night as well as during the day El Paso, TX could be seen more than 100 miles away.



Sunset at Sloan. One person's sunset is another's sunrise.