heat logistics, VLBA

heat logistics

This site is 1,800ft lower than the previous one and quite a bit warmer. It’s been in the 80s each day, too warm for my defective bodily thermostat.

I’ve been adapting to the heat again by going to bed late, getting up early, and taking a siesta during the hottest part of the afternoon. I schedule any spongebaths just before the siesta.

relief on the way?

The forecasts suggest this might be the last day of 90s in Los Alamos proper, which could mean the last day of 80s at this higher elevation.

Update: it was cool enough the next morning I needed a long-sleeved shirt while walking the dog. :-)

At this rate the timeline could be:

• beginning of Sept - relo to BLM/NF outside Santa Fe (4deg cooler than SFE)
• beginning of October - stealthing in Santa Fe
• middle of Oct - Capitan
• middle of Nov - Alamagordo / ELP

More heat dome events (or whatever they are) would delay the various moves.

There is a reported water source in Los Alamos which I will check out during the mid-August relo.

VLBA

I broke out the binos to survey the area below the campsite. There was something that looked like a water tower (it was), and a white splotch that turned out to be bare rock on a mountainside.

The oddest thing was a vaguely popsicle-shaped object, but it was bigger than the water tower. The binos revealed this was a satellite dish. A big one.

I looked it up – it’s 82ft across, weighs 218 tons (!) and part of the Very Large Baseline Array radio astronomy project.

The VLBA is a critical tool for astronomy, where knowing distances is the basis for figuring out mass, makeup, and movement of cosmic objects.