Gotta Catch 'em All

It is here in the Khomas highlands of Namibia – on the site of the High Energy Stereoscopic System – that my adventure begins. The shifters’ residence building was a welcome sight indeed after my 27 hour-long journey, made sweeter still by the discovery of an acoustic guitar in the sitting room, and my learning that the nest above my bedroom door is in fact home to a swallow, and not some hostile insect intent upon bleeding me dry. The abrupt change in season and altitude have had no truly adverse effects as yet, though I noticed those extra 1600 metres when I took a short bike ride on Monday, and had the winds knocked out of me. Meal times are largely a carnivorous affair (Gemsbok barbecue, anyone? My first taste of game, I rather think!) and taken outside, with the Gamsberg (Namibia’s table mountain) in sight upon the horizon and the tweeting of myriad little birds on the air.

Of course my situation this month is by no means perfect. I am the only individual on site lacking a Y chromosome, the dry air is wreaking havoc on my skin, and a good 50% of the flora and fauna pose some threat or other if I get too close, but you know, I think it’s worth it just to see the Milky Way painted gloriously across the Southern night sky of an evening, or watch the telescopes slowly parking out in unison before a shift; to witness finally the rising of the Magellanic Clouds (Big Fuzz and Little Fuzz as I've come to name them) or play spot-the-γ in the Control Room as events flash onto the monitor in real time. It’s all really quite magical.

So today I met a singing; dancing warthog who assured me in a rich baritone (in no uncertain terms) that I should adopt a problem-free philosophy from now on.

Okay, that’s not altogether true. Would that it were! I did see a warthog at the side of the road, seemingly fully occupied with grazing for it paid us little heed. I’ve seen such animal life here I hardly know where to begin! Birds of prey, Oryxes and Ostriches, Snakes and Springbok – and baboons in abundance! Nearby waterholes make such sightings frequent, and this will tide me over ‘till the safari next month.

In case you’re wondering, the title of this post alludes at once to the obvious plight of the gamma-ray astronomer, and my completing the set of naked-eye-planets-viewed-through-a-telescope at long last – with Jupiter rising even before the Witching Hour and the use of a sturdy little optical reflector living on site, I was treated to a wondrous view of the great gas giant that has eluded me for so long! Its zones and belts, and four of its satellites were also visible, and Sky View Café assures me these were Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. Incidentally, Pokémon with planets rather than pocket monsters would I think be a far easier state of affairs, given there are only eight of them (sorry Pluto dearest – your ship has sailed).

So without further ado, a gamma-ray haiku, entitled Monitor Number Five:

Gamma rays, these days

Are little fishes swimming

In Cosmic-ray pools

Muons are ripples

On the detector surface

From Cosmic-ray rain

The fishes converge

On a night-sky point: Here be

Cosmic-ray dragons

Still alive and there's Science to do!