Mamalluca and Stars

We were the first ones picked up for the Mamalluca star expedition. I was going to sleep on the bus but it was a little early so we talked with the driver. We had a group of about 16 people but not everyone spoke english so we were divided in two groups. Once everyone was picked up from their hostels/hotels we headed for Vicuna, the town right near the Mamalluca telescopes. We picked one person up from Vicuna then started heading up the hill. The moon was almost full so we could only see the brightest stars but it was still beautiful. We waited on a little pavilion for our guide and talked to a lady from Seattle that had been to Cusco and gave us a volunteer group to look into.

Once the guide came he led us into the big observatory room that had a telescope that magnified things 300 percent. He moved the wall (it acctually was a moving wall) and then moved the telescope to the moon. Before he let us look he explained some things. My favorite fact that he said was that the moon will dissapear in 4 billion years because every year it gets further away. Now I don't know that many people that have looked in a super big telescope to see th moon, but its awesome. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. He had moved the telescope so we could see the biggest crater on the moon called Copernicus, (I might not be in school but I am learning some things!).

I got to look in the telescope second. The moon was so close I felt like I could reach out and touch it. The crater was huge! After everyone had a look he did the cool thing with the walls and the telescope and we came to the famous constillation Orion. "The Hunter's" belt is very easy to see but if the sky is clear and the moon isn't to bright then you will be able to see his knife. The middle star in his knife a.k.a m42 is a galaxy where there are thousands of baby stars, all blue and ready to live for centurys!!!

The last thing we saw in the huge telescope was Jupiter and four of its moons. The other 48 moons are somewhere out there though!!! Jupiter is supposed to be a yellow planet with 2 orange stripes but just in the last 6 months the second stripe has dissapeared and scientists are stilll trying to find out why. After all that the next group was ready for the tower and we went outside to talk about patterns.

I think my favorite thing about the sky is Orion, his dogs, the bull "Taurus" and the seven sisters "The Pliades". From right to left, first come the dogs helping helping Orion hunt the bull thats guarding the seven sisters. Our guide called them the seven sisters but theres actually 6 dots because one of the is supposed to be in love with Orion. Thats my favorite thing but I also marvel at whoever first started naming the stars. I definately do not get how seven dots can be seven sisters, and how two stars can be two boys and how another two stars can be two dogs. I guess I dont have the immagination!

After we saw all that we headed inside for a short presentation. He had a really cool program on the computer where you could say the date and time and where you were in the world and it could show you the exact sky you were seeing then outside. It was really cool. By then it was 1:30 and we were definately ready to go home and sleep. We got a little snack on the bus. Helen and I had a pack of "Mini Kuky" (thats really how it was spelled!) and then we headed home to get a good half night of sleep.

P.S. The star program on the computer is called Stelarium. You can look it up and download it if you'd like.

Link: http://stelarium.com/