That’s just what the ground did just a few short hours ago: it fell away.
\nActually, it fell away for the first time of three, as I’m on leg one of a rather
\nlong three leg trip to Hawaii.<\/p>\n
This trip, like my last to the little tropical paradise in the middle of
\nthe Pacific, is all business. There won’t be be any fun in the sun for me.
\nNo beaches, no babes in bikinis, and no daquiris on the water will be in
\nmy future.<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean there are clouds on the horizon. In fact, the only clouds
\nI’m likely to see will exist 1000 feet or more below me. I’ll be sleeping
\nat an elevation of about 9000 feet and working at the top of Mauna Kea,
\nwhich stands over 14000 feet above sea level. Things will be looking
\nup, literally.<\/p>\n
For those that don’t know, my programming work with NASA has led me to The work itself isn’t exactly fun and games. It involves some rather long hours One regret I have about this trip is that I didn’t take this chance to take But it would have been nice to get out and grab some more information on astronomy. Thinking about the rest of this trip has at least gotten me a bit excited, That’s just what the ground did just a few short hours ago: it fell away. Actually, it fell away for the first time of three, as I’m on leg one of a rather long three leg trip to Hawaii. This trip, like my last to the little tropical paradise in the middle of the Pacific, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nvisit one of the best three places on earth to take astronomy. That
\nshould be helpful, as that’s exactly what the scientists I’ll be helping
\nwill be doing. The little piece of
\nsoftware<\/a> that myself and several
\nteam members have been toiling over for the
\npast several years will be helping some scientists take some infared peeks
\nat the sky from the
\nCSO<\/a> (Caltech Submillimeter Observatory).<\/p>\n
\nfighting the effects of high altitude on the brain. I’ll help them use our
\nsoftware and likely write some new software in the process. However,
\nthe opportunity to see your hard work in action is very rewarding.
\nThe opportunity to witness this in a pretty incredible environment can be even
\nbetter.<\/p>\n
\nbetter advantage of the surroundings. I’ve never — never — seen a night
\nsky like the display put on every night by Mauna Kea. My first trip was
\nnearly worth the first glance. Once darkness falls, you can easily make out
\nour neighbor planets with the naked eye. The spectacular light display
\noverhead never fails to impress. No wonder
\nour ancient ancestors once worshiped the sky as a god. It’s an incredible
\nsight to behold.<\/p>\n
\nMaybe I should have grabbed myself a book or two. It would
\nbe a sad waste of an incredible view to ignore the twinkling above.
\nI suppose the internet and the words of several NASA astronomers will be my
\nreplacement.
\nThe one thing I did do was bring my 35 mm camera. Add in some 1600 film and
\nI’m hoping the little photographer in me will
\nallow me to share this experience with others.<\/p>\n
\nmaybe excited enough to ignore the mountains of work ahead. It’s also gotten
\nme a bit homesick. I already miss my wife and unborn child. I sincerely
\nhope I can enjoy the experience of the next week but – make no mistake
\n– I just can’t wait to be heading home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"