Take 2

Ok, the last post was uber depressing. It happens. Grad School still weighs on my mind, but life moves on, and I am glad it does. I spoke once with a friend of mine about how he stayed so positive. This friend of mine went through trial after trial after trial.... I asked him, "how do you stay so upbeat?" To which he replied, "Well, you're sad for a while, but don't stay down for long." I heard that for the first time 2 years ago, and I'll never forget it. Don't stay down for long.
Anyway, life is GREAT! This past week I have had tons of adventures. I'll have to post 4th of July stuff later (sorry, I don't have my pictures on my computer yet!) but I have to talk about West Mountain!
West Mountain Observatory (WMO) is the observatory operated by BYU astronomy dept. It's like a little piece of heaven. I went there at the beginning of last week, and we got awesome data. It's so different to actually be in a place specifically set aside for astronomy research, as opposed to working with a telescope in the same building as all my classes. For the first time in a looooooong time I felt like a real astronomer again. I loved every second of it, even though I came back with more than 20 mosquito bites.

A little piece of heaven - WMO. Sunrise over Happy Valley. This pic doesn't do it justice.

The main dome, open, with la luna in the upper corner.

The 12in telescope. (Takes AMAZING data for such a little scope.)
Sunset over Utah Lake. Stunning.