Astronomers occasionally have to deal with snakes. It’s part of the job.
Just kidding. Nicha, Brent, and I were at Palomar Observatory for the past two nights. Last year, Nicha proposed to use the 200″ telescope to observe nearby galaxies to determine the relationship between their mass and metallicity (see my previous blog post). She was granted four nights. Unfortunately, the weather was not good, and she was able to observe only a few galaxies.
However, support astronomer Carolyn brought her new pet, a ball python named Stanley. He helped the three of us pass the time while we were waiting for the fog to clear. Even if we didn’t get to observe very many galaxies, we still got to play with a snake. I’d say that’s a win.