Friday night- after a week full of paper writing, and staying up late, about 25 of us drove to Mt. Wilson for a 4W. We left at 3, and got back at 3. Being up that late after a week of no sleep, you can imagine how crazy everyone went!
It started with the drive, which can be highly entertaining in a 15 passenger van, with 15 people on little sleep. We were just joking around and talking the whole way up. When we got there, we parked at the base of the observatory and had dinner. Then I walked around with a senior, Annika, who I don't know super well, but love. We had a photo session with the whole group, and played around a bit with the little snow that was on the side of the mountain. Finally, the lady who was going to show us the telescope, came down. She was amazing! She was totally Ms Frizzle's sister or something. She had a star jacket on and the rocket ships coming out of her hair :) We made our way up to the observatory (where Einstein studied!! it was a 60in telescope:). The dome opened, and the explained all their technology to us. Eventually, it got dark, and the stars came out. We saw the moon, a cluster of stars (100,00-250,00 stars!, Saturn (rings and 4 moons!!), and a couple other stars. It was spectacularly amazing. The dome had great acoustics, so we started singing hymns. I've never heard anything so wonderful. At the end, the lady, who was not a Christian, asked us to sing a couple more- awesome. It was also freezing in there. We were there from 7-1 am, with the dome open to the night. No one knew it would be that cold. So I ended up sitting on Lorah's lap, with two blankets on top of us, listening to Jake tell stories about his childhood.
I love 4Ws so much because I get to talk to people I wouldn't regularly talk to: Scouting around the mountain with Annika, sitting on Lorah's lap, listening to Jake, talking to Kevin, huddling under a borrowed blanket with Bond to keep warm- it was an amazing night.
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