The drive up to the
observatory was unnerving to say the least, and I was unsure of how well I
would feel the rest of the trip. As soon as I set foot on the top of the mountain, all was well. Seeing the telescopes from the outside felt surreal. To think that these structures had been built nearly a century ago completely baffled me.
Exploring the ground with our seasoned docent provided me with an exciting introduction to the observatory. Seeing the clash of the past with the present, the decades-old lockers, one inscribed with the name “Hubble” filled me with a sense of the true humanity involved in the search for extraterrestrial knowledge. When we toured the largest telescope, I could;t help but visualize the astronomers working all night on the precarious equipment, making groundbreaking discoveries that completely changed not only the field of science, but the way that humans perceive the universe. To be in such a charged space was a unique experience that I knew I would not encounter in other courses.
Exploring the ground with our seasoned docent provided me with an exciting introduction to the observatory. Seeing the clash of the past with the present, the decades-old lockers, one inscribed with the name “Hubble” filled me with a sense of the true humanity involved in the search for extraterrestrial knowledge. When we toured the largest telescope, I could;t help but visualize the astronomers working all night on the precarious equipment, making groundbreaking discoveries that completely changed not only the field of science, but the way that humans perceive the universe. To be in such a charged space was a unique experience that I knew I would not encounter in other courses.
Above all, seeing Saturn in the eyepiece of the 60' telescope blew my mind. It was difficult to comprehend how I could see something so unimaginably far away with nothing but the aid of a very old piece of equipment.
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