Our Spring Break Trip to OVRO

For Matthew's short break between terms this Spring (or is it still Winter? Because it feels like Summer...) he committed to working on the 40m radio telescope at OVRO [the Owens Valley Radio Observatory]. Since it was break and B and I had no commitments here, he took us with him. You may recall Matt made a trip up last term with his classmates, he visited the ancient Bristlecone Pine forest? Anyways, same place.

So, it was a neat little vacation for us! Owens Valley is ~ 5 hours North East of Pasadena, in the desert. The scenery was different from anything I'd ever experienced before. The Observatory is just outside of Big Pine California (the pine wasn't actuall very big to a BC-er such as myself), population 1,300 ish. Nice small town. About 25 minutes North on the freeway is Bishop, well known for its Rock Climbing community, pop 3,500. A neat little tourist town with the best Indian restaurant I've found so far.

On the drive up we stopped at Fossil Falls, the water is dried up but the lava rock still depicts where the falls were.


We stayed on site at the Observatory in "the cottage" which is a small house larger than our apartment, fully equipped with internet, full kitchen, satellite tv... all the essentials :) Right across the road from the cottage are the offices, a small cafeteria serving the 5 - 10 people up there each day, and the telescopes. It's really neat walking out your front door and seeing ~6 telescopes looming right there.

The OVRO was the site of the filming of much of Contact, the movie which inspired me to marry an astronomer :) The beginning where she hears the signal and rushes into the office was OVRO. That office is actually where Matthew works from while up there.



The first morning there, Matthew mentioned that there was a heard of cattle near one of the telescopes. Later when I saw a giant shadow coming around the corner of the house I wondered what the heck that could be, only to find the herd circling round the house. I woke Bronson to see his first cows up close and he was fairly enthralled for the first minutes. But the herd just kept coming and coming.

After the herd had left our backyard, Bronson and I ventured out for a little walk to the river. The front yard was full of cows, though and we just sort of stared and skirted each other, every mother present watching out for their kids.
When we returned from our walk there were no cattle to be seen in the front yard but we could hear a loud, horrible "Moooooo" ing coming from somewhere, like an animal had been hurt or was in labour or something. When we entered the house, we saw through the back windows, this giant cow up on the back porch, staring in the window, just giving us heck. We of course took pictures. Diane has now informed me that this animal is a bull. Bronson was just stunned by the sound.

All in all we spent 5 days in the Valley. The telescope had some trouble with the focus and Matthew ended up working more than we'd expected, but that was alright and it was an overall fun [free!] vacation.


Bronson practiced his sitting and his crawl stance, though has yet to move forward.



Bronson also became very hungry and needs at least 2 real food meals a day to supplement the mum-mums he gets. We're thinking a growth spurt is near as he is a chubby little mister these days.


We went swimming at the local hot springs pool Sunday Afternoon, it was nice and warm, but not too warm for the kiddo. He seemed to really enjoy his first swim, although did become very jealous when he spotted a baby girl across the pool with a small rubber ducky, I guess his large inflatable turtle couldn't compare to a simple rubber duck!



Dad took us on a tour of the facilities, including climbing up the 40 m scope. Here we are 20m + up the big scope, the climb was interesting as it was a series of small stairwells and tiny doors and low overhangs.
Looking down at the car.
Looking up at where we were.

The stars at night were the most amazingly bright I've ever seen, even better than Tofino and Hornby Island. Bronson and I lounged outside quite a bit and the silence there was wonderful - not a person, nor a cricket, not even a cow after that first day. I really loved being up there in the country, and Bronson was really happy there too. Matthew enjoyed working hands on with the telescope - I mean, that's why he entered this field, so our love of Owens Valley is unanimous. Expect more time spent up there, and more blog entrys of the desert scape!