On Saturday evening we had clear skies, so Rodolfo Llinas very kindly invited us to his house to drink wine (out of Lord of the Rings pewter goblets!) and look through his telescope. Look up through a telescope vs. down through a microscope stimulated some interesting discussions which will likely be revisited throughout the summer.
We (Yuyu, Alberto, Chris, Rebecca, Tim, Alex behind camera) arrived a bit early so the sun was still setting. Apparently to the chagrin of the neighbors, the rotating observatory for the telescope can be seen on the top of the house.
Spectacular sunset over Buzzard's Bay, seen out of the observatory's sliding door
The interior was lit exclusively with red lights so that our vision remained dark-adapted
Mobile phone picture of the moon's surface
Professor Llinas himself at one part of the "rig"
Minor acquisition software grief...this time with the single photon camera
At 23 million light years away, the Whirlpool Galaxy prompted some existential vertigo