May 31st, 2007: Why I Miss Boston
The poster tolds us to take a picture so we did
as always, Clayton expressing his inner Japanese schoolgirl
wo-wo-wow!
Attack of the Giant Clayton Nose
not sure why I took a picture of Sam paying the bill
arr
I am proud of this eyebrow-raise
hatin on Toofts
Ilya and Alex at it again
so much love
yep
HI SCARRY GRAHAM
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oh god.
god Charlie's is so good
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undeniably the best of the night
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May 30th, 2007: Monterey Aquarium
I didn't really take that many pictures here but it was a pretty badass aquarium. Lots of cool environments and fish and cute sea otters.
The sea otters had toys! And played with them! It was adorable.
This is a stingray smacking up against the side of its pool
less pettable, probably
aviary part
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May 19th, 2007: Berkeley, 1966 and 2007
My parents dug up some pictures that my mom took while staying in Berkeley in 1966. It's amazing how little has changed.
The bridge over Strawberry Creek near Sather Gate, 1966
2007
Sather Gate, 1966
2007
Upper Sproul Plaza, 1966
The plaza here has apparently changed, though. This part of the plaza has been enclosed. It looks to me like it was nicer back in '66.
Looking towards the place where the picture was taken
As close as I could get, 2007
Looking northeast from the Campanile, 1966
2007
Looking west from the Campanile, 1966
2007
Priestley Hall, 1966
This particular part of the hall has also changed a bit: a new access ramp and a lot of new trees. The original shot basically doesn't work anymore, but it can be approximated.
From a little closer in, 2007
About the original spot, 2007
May 1st, 2007: Lick Observatory Tour
Here's Lick Observatory, on top of Mount Hamilton, just outside of San Jose.
Looking at the western complex from the east
Left dome houses the unused refractor; right the 1 meter Nickel; center is some old piece of junk
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Stairs up to the old dormitory
Looking southwest
Up to the Nickel dome
North
Northwest
Mount Hamilton Road
West-ish. Don't know what the lower dome is.
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North spotter shed
So Lick Observatory has a telescope with a Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system, which basically means that in order to make the telescope work better we fire huge laser out of it into space. This is awesome, except that the FAA gets all uptight about us blinding pilots and stuff. So when the laser is being used, two spotters have to sit in sheds all night looking for planes. If they see one, they hit a kill switch, deactivating the laser and keeping our air traffic laser-free.
The dome housing the 3 meter Shane telescope
The shed housing the CAT, the Coudé Auxiliary Telescope
Geoff Marcy's in-progress Automatic Planet Finder.
What is amazing is that Marcy's telescope has a mirror nearly as big as the Shane, yet its dome is about a fifth of the size. Optics technology has come a long way in the past fifty years.
The Shane
The fork supporting the Shane
The electronics backend (literally)
