From Balmorhea, toward Alpine, I took the trip up to Mcdonald Observatory. After I went through the visitor's center, I drove up to the buildings that house the telescopes. There was a slight problem with the rain shower blowing in. The parking area for visitors is a few hundred feet down the road from the 'scopes. I sat in the car for a minute trying to determine my chances of getting lightning struck while I was scooting from 'scope to 'scope. Decided it wasn't my turn, and went for it. The trouble came when I figured out the self-guided tour did not include entering the buildings, so I took a few pics of the 'scope housings then made a dash back to the car before getting washed off the mountain. There are 3 telescopes up there looking for "dark matter", with the biggest also shooting a laser to the moon, reflecting off a set of mirrors left by one of the Apollo missions. They found the moon is forty feet from the previously thought location, and moving mere inches away per year. Same as I used to do with surveying instruments. As one registered surveyor told me, "we're on the cutting edge". Riiiiight.
The rains did come, so I folded up and headed on to Alpine. I'll be trying to get down to the Rio Grande tomorrow. We'll catch up then. Toodles, noodles.
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