Friends,? last week I had the opportunity to work with Marc Buie, Brian Keeney and the SwRI team on the (617) Patroclus-Menoetius campaign (aka PA20240811).? A top notch project team all the way around.? It was an adventure reminiscent of our PO2022AUS trek across Australia.?? After arriving in DEN and picking up the CPC1100 along with the QHY/gear, the teams drove down to Amarillo TX.? I opted for the 287 route, a bit more scenic than I25 with a short corner tour of OK thrown in. The first practice started at 03:30 the next morning with this being the initial scope intro to half of the team members, most of which were college coeds.? Including the Dunhams along with a few IOTA peers, and Tom Heisey's? Astrid on a home built scope using a large 12" round spaghetti pot as a mirror box, we had - I think, 34 tracks across the two targets.
The next day the team split with the Patroclus teams heading west, and the Menoetius (moi on track M07) team headed south to Lubbock TX in time to check in, a dinner, a nap, and another practice again at 03:30.? Cloudy weather and rain plagued us and our destinations were keyed on weather forecasts (Thanks Kai!!) and luck.?? Texas is big, flat, with cattle feed lots that go on for a mile, windmill farms that go on for miles and oil rigs that go on for as far as one can see.
From Lubbock, it was a drive to Roswell, NM with a fun afternoon of going to the International UFO Museum and walking around town.
Believe! - We are not alone!? Practice at 03:30 (by this time one was feeling more like a vampire than a 9 to 5? day worker) was at a local park over looking a small lake.? The sky was beautiful, steady, clear with the Milky Way blazing overhead.? I wish that my 16 dob was along to enjoy the night.?? Alas, the weather continued to be a challenge, the next day the Menoetius teams met in Plains, TX to determine our direction for the night - event night.? Midland, TX turned out to be our centralized location, with our M07 track being further south closer to Rankin, TX.?? A dusty crossroads type of town with one gas station, one cafe, one Mom & Pop hotel and lots of oil rig trucks. The tired but clean hotel saved team M07 from making an extra drive back to Midland after scouting out our event site. The wee hours of the morning greeted us with 100s of blinking red lights from the windmills stretched from horizon to horizon. In a way - mesmerizing to watch. ?
Friendly Fomalhaut led us to the 13.4 mag target field with a 2024 August 11 at 10:47:33.5 UT event time.? We set up outside of Rankin along Hwy 329, parked in the ditch with the scope set up by the fence line. I had visions of Breaking Bad as our original sites were discarded after noticing worn out camper trailer shells with patchwork vehicles near by. 329 turned out to be busier than expected, but then again, with day temps of 104 degrees, they run the rig trucks at night.? At 75mph, mostly they ignored us. However, one tricked pickup did slow down to check us out, then roared off. I kept the Jeep Grand Cherokee idling the entire time.?? It was a beautiful event night. Quiet, still, no coyotes, just the wind Mariah periodically gusting up to 24mph. We got a 6 second-ish positive running at 200ms.? Yay! Success!? After tear down, it was a 10 minute stop at the hotel to refresh, then a turn of the Jeep northward? back to the LOHQ warehouse in Mead, CO. The Sun was rising on Sunday and my teammate had an 0700 flight out of DEN on Monday. Thankfully Marc and Brian coordinated ride shares to match flights and we exchanged? passengers in Midland.? (in being under age 21, the college coeds could not drive the rental cars.. I picked up the Jeep with 5 miles on it and rolled into AVIS with 2067 miles)? The straight drive back to LOHQ was a bit over 11hrs (yeah, that's after 3 hrs of event drive, set-up, record, and pack-up time).? An iced coffee from Pilot Gas Station refreshingly did the trick. After hanging around LOHQ conversing with other participants while helping to copy laptop data, it was time for a late dinner and 10 hrs of uninterrupted sleep.? Flights home were delayed and re-booked, but in the end I'm back home in PA.
While the days were long with an estimated 17 hrs sleep during the entire campaign, it was a fun experience across parts of Americana that I'll never see again. Now, if I can only get these Merle Haggard songs out of my head.....? - Roxanne
Official event details->? https://lucy.swri.edu/occ/predictions/20240811Patroclus/
