Wind is what we have to worry about

From the previous post, we were talking about observational astronomy. Specifically, we talked about 'seeing' and how weather can affect the ability for the astronomers to do observation. In this post, I want to talk specifically about wind.

You might be wondering how is wind has an effect on the telescope. The answer is a strong wind can  literally shake the telescope and have a damage on the telescope itself. The criterion for a strong wind is 35 mph (56 km/h). Therefore, every time the wind gets stronger, a telescope operator (a person who is responsible for moving the telescope and dome) will shut down the dome to protect the telescope from the wind and an astronomer can just sit there waiting for the wind to stop. If you think sitting and waiting for cloud to go away is bad, waiting for the wind to stop is even worse simple because you can literally see a clear night sky outside your dome, but you simply cannot do the observation.

A wind chart from 3/17-6/17

Adventure through the Southern Chile

Even though I went to Chile before, I wasn't really planned to go visit the Patagonia region (southern Chile) any time soon. But that changed as soon as my friend from Caltech asked me whether I want to join them during Christmas. Of course, I would like to go to Patagonia and visit Torres Del Plain. Plus, I have my second observing run in Northern Chile at the beginning of the year, meaning that my flight will be covered from works. Before the trip, I barely know anything about this region, including what are the highlights and why is it a popular tourist destination.

However, because of my last final exam is pretty late this year, I will not have time to visit Bolivia with my friends. Instead, I arrived Santiago, a capital of Chile, two-three days before we meet up to go down to Puerto Natales (a town that we will be staying during my trip in Patagonia). First thing I did was going back to the same empanadas shop (Empanadas Zunino) and getting the same empanada that I had during my first visit. I ate it so fast that I didn't have time to take a photo. Below is a photo from my first trip. 

Original Empanadas at Mercado Central's restaurant (Photo from my summer trip)