A spider in the clean room, oooppps

Robert and I went to town. Our
first stop was for me to get a
hair cut and while I was doing
that he went to Eco-cycle to
drop off our recycle items.

From there we stopped at Target
to kill time and to get Robert
a cheap belt to wear with his
work pants.

On to get our flu shots at
Passport Health Center. We
had vouchers from NCAR so
didn't have to pay for them.
Yea NCAR...finally a perk for
being retired (only took 22
years).

And finally on to a small cafe
at the CU Research campus in
east Boulder. It turned out to
be a great little cafe, nice
setting and reasonable food and
very quiet. A great place to
stop for a quick lunch.

Our main focus for the day was
a tour of the Laboratory of
Atmospheric and Space Projects
(LASP). This Lab is not a
theoretical lab, but a hands on
satellite research lab. They
currently have 5 satellites they
are monitoring with differing
research on each. The one I
found the most interesting is
called Kepler. They are orbiting
in the earths orbit and looking for
other starts, similar to the sun with
planets orbiting, similar to earth.
The pictures they get back are
interesting and of a magnitude
not reached by any other satellite,
to date. Far more magnitude than
the Hubble. It would be interesting
work there. They have 150 students
working there on a ration of 1 grad
student to 5 undergrads. The grad
students are totally supported; the
undergrads are not. They have to
work 20 hours per week in addition
to their course work; it's not an
easy task. They also have to be
available 24/7 365 days a year. BUT
they get to actually run and monitor
the satellites.

During our tour, we stopped to admire
a "clean" room and hear at what
lengths they go to guarantee it's
clean. Robert, however, pointed out
there was a spider on the floor of
the clean room...ooopppps.