{"id":2762,"date":"2012-11-23T16:34:54","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T21:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deepsicks.com\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2022-06-12T12:59:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-12T17:59:45","slug":"observantory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/2012\/11\/23\/observantory\/","title":{"rendered":"observantory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This time we go west, wave at Fredericksburg as we pass, into the deep expanse of desert steppe and mesas. We have a date with the universe seven hours away to see light from galaxies that took two million years to get here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if we’re late?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We speed across Texas that for all it pulls faces I must admit is beautiful\u2014out here, in nowhere, with scattered alien industry, ancient oil pumps slurping the earth breathing fire, wind turbines as far as the eye can see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was dark by the time we hit the mountains, winding through the night with lightning flashing over ridges, just around the bend, to the McDonald Observatory Star Party<\/a>. We are right on time for the clouds to disappear and peep in giant telescopes to wonder at Albireo, numbered nebulae and Andromeda rushing toward us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We feel big and small and normal sized in quick succession and set up camp in the dark to wake to gorgeousness,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Steppe<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

all kinds of garbage melting out of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want a picture of us with the observatory in the distance, the massive domes seen from Davis Mountains State Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But operating under duress\u2014batteries about to die, the sunglare intense\u2014we can’t catch all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The light is only eight minutes old this time but so bright it blinds us from getting it right and out of nowhere Arthur’s arm turns into the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A year later and my favorite trick is still how he becomes the horizon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This time we go west, wave at Fredericksburg as we pass, into the deep expanse of desert steppe and mesas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,13],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-narratives","tag-adventures","tag-camping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2762"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8219,"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions\/8219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/megasimon.com\/d6\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}