In the past days as part of Project EDEN I had the opportunity to participate in my first ever observing run. We spent four nights at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on top of Mt Graham in Arizona, in the Mount Graham International Observatory. Our goal was to take some of the first images in the EDEN survey, starting our search for habitable zone planets around nearby stars. In this run I also learned the basics of operating a telescope under the guidance of astronomer Paul Gabor.
I have a better understanding now of how to actually acquire the data for our survey, and what that data actually looks like. I was able to do this by the effort in no-small-part of the graduate student also on the observing run, Alex Bixel.
More than that, however, this observing run inspired me more than any light-curve or science image ever could. We took a tour of the Sub-Millimeter telescope as well as the Large Binocular Telescope. In both places, I found funny and kind people who were excited to talk to us about what they were learning themselves. For me personally, I was held in awe of the Large Binocular Telescope –the largest ground-based telescope on Earth. It was incredibly inspirational; not only for its size but also for the fact that it only came about from the combined efforts of so many people. It was standing in that hangar that I was assured that I was on the correct path for my own life.
As we traveled up the mountain and looked out upon the impressive vistas, I was reminded of the reverence the local Apache tribe holds for that place. When we look to the stars, we see our future, but we also see the past. Observing on that mountain reminded me that going beyond this planet is our destiny, but we cannot forget the history and the sacrifices of many people that led up to this moment. Mt. Graham as a whole shows the world that a balance can be found between the future and the past, and that science can exist in harmony with the communities and environments it is involved with.
Ultimately, I gained a new appreciation for the operators of these telescopes. These are men and women that lead a very solitary life and are more than just geographically isolated from the rest of society. Some are more suited for this lifestyle, but ultimately it is a sacrifice that some dedicate their whole lives towards. The caretakers of these telescopes are like those people in old stories who kept the light burning in the lighthouses on the edge of the land. But, instead of stoking the fire which protected travelers of the jagged rocks below, these men receive the light from the fires of the skies. It is by their actions and the dedication of their lives that many more travelers will be safe and secure as they live the coastline of this world to the vast unknown of the ocean of the stars.
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