Saturday 6/4 Telescope!

We arranged a telescope visit in the afternoon and took the time in the morning to hit the Effel National Park.  We didn't have much information to go on other than the park's location, but we were able to find a nice walk along a creek and a good spot to have lunch.  Beautiful place.

In the afternoon, we jumped on a tour David, a British astronomer working in Bonn, was giving to his parents of the Effelsberg Telescope.  The telescope was commissioned in 1972 and since it was designed using computer modeling, a component missing from Jodrell Bank's design process, it is slick and less bulky than the latter.  It is located in a small bowl/valley and is surrounded by trees.  It's pretty cool.  David's Dad and I agreed, however, that Parks in Australia is tough to beat for coolness as you just don't run across too many telescopes that have kangaroos running all around it.


Since it was a few days ago, I don't even remember what we did in the evening.  Went to bed, I guess.