NOOOoooo - you guys Can't Go!!!

The long nights continued - starting with evening twilight sky flats that reliably triggered the loud Sun Alarm in the control room (ensuring that everyone was wide awake when the games began)!

& by the time we finished up in the mornings, the Earth's shadow filled the western horizon.

In between, we were occasionally treated to delightfully good atmospheric conditions.

& other times driven insane by awful seeing due to moisture-laden south easterly winds.

But, fortunately, a good braai can undo a lot of damage...  For the non-Afrikaans-speakers out there: "ons gaan nou braai" means "we're going to have a BBQ".  & indeed - everything Will be OK!

So: HUGE thank you to Hamish & Egan for their inspired effort on Saturday - that really hit the spot! 

& extra well-done for arranging an absolutely perfect Karoo afternoon for it :)

Now the bad news...  Last Monday we had to get together for the obligatory group photo as members of the HRS team started flying home on 18 November :(  First off were Sean & Jürgen, followed by David, Eddy & Michael on Thursday & then Ray left on Sunday.  SALT really can't thank you guys enough for everything you've done & for the incredible way in which you've done it...  It's been such a privilege & a total blast working with you all!

Luke & I actually bailed too as SALT's currently down for an engineering week, but we'll get back on-sky over the weekend to take more HRS Science Verification data during the next couple of weeks.  Be warned though that we'll be all lonely & miserable again...