Day 5

Day 5

I love my commander.

My personal alarm went off at 6.30 as per determined the night before. However, the music that is usually set to go off and wake us up didn't go off, so I figured I would be a bad girl and roll over. I woke up next to the music playing and figured I had gotten another hour. Lo, my clock read 8.30. We got two extra hours of sleep today!

It felt good, but for some reason I'm still tired. It's a bit annoying because I keep zonking out on my books/laptop and Auvi keeps getting incriminating pictures. Perhaps the afternoon hours are just when my body needs more rest than usual.

The telescope is finally up and running. Apparently I was not authorized to even use the CCD camera, which is perplexing because nobody else was using it. It was in a box collecting dust on the observatory floor. Before I knew I wasn't supposed to be using the CCD camera, I had taken it out and attached it to the telescope. I know how to work one now, which should come in handy when I get back to Uni, as I've heard interest in CCD imaging with our telescope.

We're starting to get sick. The cold and lack of sleep has taken a toll on us. I think everyone is sneezing and sniffling a bit. Nothing serious, in fact I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. One of the reasons I sort of wish we really were on Mars- we would have been decontaminated before lift-off, so illness should not be an issue.

The observatory is working better than ever, and we just need to get the dome operational before I can remotely observe. I'll comment further on my experiences with getting the observatory up and running at a later time.

I saw the band of the Milky Way a few nights ago. It was breathtakingly gorgeous. I am not ashamed to admit that I leaked a few tears (luckily it was dark so nobody saw). It again reinforced why I do what I do. If I have time tonight before the moon rises I will try and capture horizon to horizon with the camera.

We all took showers last night, which improved morale a bit, and we watched the Train Job episode 2 of Firefly which greatly improved morale. Nothing beats Jayne going crazy and falling asleep.

I have to go plan my six star alignment to try and get the telescope to focus properly.

Night monkey signing out.

End day 5