April 13-14: Opening!

Post date: Apr 16, 2018 11:59:12 PM

Friday the 13th. An overblown superstition, or so I thought. We left Seattle at 2:30.

- A collision at the pass caused a 12 mile backup.

- The gate at the bottom of observatory road, well, you'll just have to ask me in person.

- We finally got there at 10pm to find that a rat had moved in. 

We did a lot of cleanup, but we found that most everything was okay. The observatory warmed up quickly and was very comfortable. Next day, Matt and Teagan cleaned up rat stuff. Matt caught the rat and found it a new home. Bayu dug a beautiful hole. Eva made an Arduino to talk to the telescope.

Issues:

- The water tank isn't venting air when we fill it--will have to amend instructions, but will air go back in when it needs to?

- The 2nd water catchment tank's pump appears to have died.

- One of the webcams was full of water (amazingly, the images were bad, but it still worked!)

Groceries: We have lots of drinking water in the fridge, and at least two water jugs up there. Need paper towels, paper plates.

Water: refilled tank to almost 33". Forgot to record water level when we left! Doh. We also didn't measure the height of the main tank, will measure after valve repair.