LBT Tour & Picnic

Hello everyone,

As you might have heard, we will be traveling to the Large Binocular Telescope on Mt. Graham near Stafford, Arizona on Saturday, April 25th. The plan is to leave campus around 11am in order to reach the telescope by 3pm for our tour. We will probably have a picnic near or on the mountain. There is going to be a small fee associated with this trip of $10 for dues paying members. We will all be going in a large passenger van. Personal vehicles are not recommended because of a dangerous dirt road. I need to know if you plan to go on this trip by the meeting on Thursday (4pm in Steward N305) either by email (kevinkhu [at] email . arizona . edu) or at the meeting so I can arrange a few things before the trip.

Thanks,
Kevin Hardegree-Ullman
UASEDS Trip Coordinator

SpaceVision - Day 3

Day three of the trips (second full day of the conference) saw more speakers, the highlight of which was resoundingly agreed upon to be the Mars Phoenix Lander principal investigator Peter Smith. After the talks there was a formal banquet (which I unfortunately don't have images of) after which the UASEDS telescope was set up to show to the other SEDS chapters. Already there are at least two other chapters interested in building their own telescope, so I think it was a success.


A member from the UCF chapter of SEDS peering at the moon. The seeing conditions weren't that great that night, but the moon never looks bad in an 18 inch telescope.


UASEDS members posing with the telescope at the end of the night. The red glow of a fountain can be seen behind us. In the photo from left to right are Josh Nelson, Zeke, Kyle, Mike, Katie, and Pye Pye.

SpaceVision - Day 2

Second day in Texas, and the first full day of the conference. The day saw a large host of speakers, including Peter Diamandis, founder of SEDS along with a million other space related organizations. The day also featured a number of forums to discuss various aspects of the organization and how to improve and expand it. The day was capped off by a networking party, which due to the number of enthusiasm of the SEDS members attending, was forced to move three times before the night was over.


The campus of Texas A&M University (otherwise known as Aggieland) as seen from the 11th floor of the conference tower at the center of campus.


SEDS members participating in one of the forums. UASEDS members in the picture include Tyler, Triana, Pye Pye, Kyle, and Josh Nelson.

The national conference is one of the few times when SEDS members from different chapters get to interact, and there was far from a dearth of that going on this year.

SpaceVision - Day 1

After driving for 18 hours straight (we left Tuscon at 5pm (UTC -7) and didn't arrive in Houston until noon (UTC -6)) we finally arrived at our destination. For our efforts, we were rewarded with an exclusive access tour of Johnson Space Center. We were given special tours of the Mission Control Center, of full scale mockups of the space shuttle used for training, and of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab.


The group with an astronaut who had just finished a training session in the giant pool in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.


The training pool. Full scale models of the space shuttle, ISS, and Soyuz spacecraft are all inside.


The Mission Control Center, hours before being transitioned to having all public locked out so they can run the launch that's scheduled in two days.


A Saturn V rocket. The picture doesn't begin to capture just how big this thing really is.

Kitt Peak

On Saturday, October 11, 2008, SEDS took a trip to Kitt Peak. Below are a few pictures from the trip (more photos are available on the SEDS national gallery). Click on each picture for a higher resolution version.


A group photo taken near the visitor's center. In the photo are (top row, left to right) Tyler, Jennifer, Triana, Kevin Newman, Kyle, Brian, Mike, Josh Nelson, Zeke, (bottom row) Amy, Katie, Pye Pye, and Josh Sosa.

Another group photo, in front of the Kitt Peak sign. Present are (top row, let to right) Tyler, Josh Sosa, Josh Nelson, Zeke, Mike, (middle row) Amy, Jennifer, Katie, Brian, (bottom row) Triana, Kevin Newman, and Pye Pye. Kyle was taking the photo.


Tyler, Josh Sosa, Jennifer, and Kyle (left to right) have trouble staying standing as a strong gust of wind goes by.


Josh, Jennifer, Zeke, and Katie (left to right) play a game of (imaginary) volleyball on the desolate court at the foot of the solar telescope.


We were given a special access tour of the 90 inch Bok Telescope. This photo was taken atop the extremely windy platform atop the dome. In the photo (left to right) are Amy, Zeke, Triana, Kevin Newman, Kyle, and Jennifer.


A view of the Kitt Peak observatory taken from the observation platform of the Mayall 4m telescope.