Painted Sky and Parapet

2014-06-08 18:56:39.000 – Caleb Meute,  Summit Intern

Arielle and I painting the parapet today.

As I sit here contemplating all of the different things I want to fit into this comment, I am enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee. I don’t usually drink coffee, but when I do, I prefer it to be due to the result of being tired after waking up in the middle of the night to see the northern lights. Yesterday, we received word about the potential to see these Northern Lights overnight, due to a large coronal mass ejection from the sun, which occurred on June 4th. This was exciting, as the forecast looked to clear during the afternoon and into the overnight hours. Before this amazing event even occurred, I was fortunate enough to see one of the most spectacular sunsets that I have ever seen. This may not have been one of the best sunsets per the full time observers’ standards, but for me who is coming up here from Southern Pennsylvania, it was wonderful.

I went to bed with the hopes of being awoken by our night observer with news of the magnificent dancing lights. Sure enough, right after I had begun to enter my REM cycle, he came in and told us to wake up as it was one of the better Auroras that he had seen. I took some time, debating contacts or glasses and then finally, I hustled up to the deck and was blown away by the event that I have longed to see since I was a child.

Today brought more excitement as my fellow intern Arielle and I, applied a fresh coat of paint to the parapet on top of the Observatory. It looks great and I did manage to get the ‘majority’ of the paint where it was supposed to go, and not on my clothing. Wearing some of this red paint on ourselves, we then set off on a hike down to Lakes of the Clouds and then up to the summit of Mount Monroe. I am happy to inform everyone that I am beginning to acclimate to this shortage of oxygen and I finished the hike, only out of breath for the next twenty minutes!

It has been an exciting week up here thus far and I am starting to worry that this summer may end far too quickly!

Caleb Meute,  Summit Intern