Notices by Thomas Connor (thomasconnor@mstdn.social)

Some advice from Yoda to Will urging him to calm himself instead of being destructive. #DontDeadOpenInside

Well this is fun: The #Federation has joined the #Fediverse! r/StarTrek shuttered and went to a Lemmy instance -- https://startrek.website/ #Reddit #RedditMigration

@tagomago Kinda but also not kinda. For all but the smallest telescopes, you're going to want a telescope operator there. Their job is to handle the operation of the telescope, make sure things are working, and to be ready to protect the telescope if we want to, e.g., observe in high winds. But we're also functionally doing everything ourselves; we send the targets to the telescope, we operate the instruments. And everything is computer operated now; even when you're on site, you're in a separate room (heated and illuminated, both of which are crucial) just sending commands.

As I said, tonight I'm on the 200-inch (that's the diameter of the primary mirror) telescope on Palomar mountain in southern California. The Hale telescope, to use its proper name, was once the largest optical telescope in the world. It's also a giant, in a way that even larger, modern telescopes are not. Nowadays, we can stack some pretty impressive telescopes in relatively smaller domes, but construction of this started before WWII. It is, in some ways, the last of the Telescope Battleships.

First light occurred in 1949. But in June, 1948 there was a large dedication ceremony. Photos from that event really drive home just how freakin' big the whole thing is.

It's time for my favorite part about being an astronomer: an observing night! Tonight, I'm on the Palomar 200 inch telescope, although I'm doing the observing from home. I've been a bit swamped with other things to talk too much about #Astronomy, but tonight's the perfect opportunity to get back into it.

So, for the next twelve hours, let's enjoy the fun! #SciComm #Space

The Coast Starlight is, to my reckoning at least, one of the Big Five Amtrak routes for long distance travel, along with the #SouthwestChief (Chicago -- Albuquerque -- LA), #CaliforniaZephyr (Chicago -- Denver -- Oakland), #EmpireBuilder (Chicago -- Spokane -- Portland | Seattle), and #SunsetLimited (New Orleans -- Houston -- Los Angeles). The Starlight also covers some of the same ground as the #PacificSurfliner (San Diego -- LA -- San Luis Obispo), the #CapitolCorridor (Auburn -- Sacramento -- Oakland -- San Jose) and the Amtrak Cascades (Vancouver Canada -- Seattle -- Portland -- Eugene).

The train consists of several sleeper cars (~$1k per room, at least when I bought tickets), a business class car (~$170/ticket for the whole line), several coach class cars (~$100/ticket), a dining car, and a lounge / viewing car. These are all two-level cars, with most of the excitement on the second level. Second level is where you transit between carriages, where seats are, and where the dining room is. Bottom levels have bathrooms, a limited number of accessible seats, luggage holds, the cafe, and the dining room kitchen. I, being rich enough to afford things but far too poor to afford a house, opted for the business class seat. A little more room, a free bottle of water, and -- most importantly -- fewer people to interact with.

The LA stretch really isn't that exciting. Highlights include passing near the new Taylor Yard bridge over the river (pedestrian infrastructure!), past the Burbank airport (#RIPFrys), up into the hills right next to Stoney Point (no climbers were out when I went through), and down into the unexciting plains leading to Oxnard, Ventura, and the sea.

But then you get several hours of just running along the coast. It's the #PacificSurfliner experience; bluffs, views, a little bit of speed, and the California coast just zipping by. #RailJourney

A few more photos from the coastal section. All of these are south of San Luis Obispo, so, if you're in LA, you can get this view on the Pacific Surfliner as well -- which should have more times available than the 9:50 AM departure of the Coast Starlight. I was doing a little work during this time, which the spacious Amtrak seats gave me ample room for.

@iamdoon And I, in turn, need to find an excuse to do the Empire Builder!

Do people on here want #train content? Because, boy-oh do I have some good ones after the past week! #Amtrak #Railroads

So a week ago I decided to check off a bucket list item and took the #CoastStarlight all the way from Los Angeles to Seattle.

For those of you with better things to do than to keep track of #Amtrak routes, the Coast Starlight is the West Coast's only long N-S route; starting in LA, it steps north to Burbank before cutting to the coast at Oxnard. It then hugs the coast to San Luis Obispo, cuts inland into the Salinas Valley, and heads north before joining the Santa Clara Valley near Gilroy. Then the East Bay through Oakland, over the Carquinez Strait to Sacramento, north past Mt. Shasta and into Oregon, over the Cascade Range to Eugene, and then up the Willamette Valley to Portland. Finally, the train shadows I-5 toward Olympia, then to Tacoma and Seattle.

In short: it's a grand tour of the Pacific Coast of the US! And this full ride takes about 36 hours, so there's plenty of time to appreciate the sights.

Oh man oh man oh man oh man -- the Ingenuity Helicopter on #Mars swung over and took a view of the backshell and parachute used to land Perseverance on Mars! It is so cool what we can get up to when we have a little drone accompanying our rovers. #JPL #Mars #Astronomy #Perseverance #Space #Science
Raw image: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/HSF_0414_0703689952_044ECM_N0260001HELI00005_000085J