South Pole Telescope, revisited

Last year I got to visit the South Pole Telescope (and crawl around in the machinery at its base) and posted about that. So fun to get to take another tour this year, especially because (1) it's featured in all of the weekly snapshots I'm taking, and (2) this year the scientist who generously gave us a tour took us up into the dish, which was AMAZING!

It's really mind-blowing to hear the scientists talk about both the science of what the telescope looks at (cosmic microwave background) and the mechanics of how it works. My brain is just not that competent.

But I will always remember that I got to stand in the dish of this beautiful thing in such a strange place in the world. (I took the first of these two pictures, but I'm on the far right in the second one.)