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atwood european / phoenix


Mercedes and BMW and drivers of all european exotics in america should be aware: if you have a problem with your car in the phoenix area, then atwood european is the address to stay at. Andrew knows his stuff with the modern technology of vehicles, he not only has a super clean and well-organized workshop, he breathes Mercedes like none I have met  before. On weekends – in his leisure time, he restores a “tail fin” mercedes which looks now as if it had come straight from the factory and he regularly reports his knowledge and progress of the restoration in “The Star Magazine Mercedes-Benz Club of America”

“I never give up my friend” he said again and again, but he finally had to capitulate because a special cable, which was important for the software update for the engine was not built into our truck. And, because all his efforts were not crowned with the success he would have liked, he hadn´t charged anything !!! Andrew, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thanks also to the mercedes truck workshop in frankfurt where oliver kraus and martin lemmerz were conceded to solve my problems with the truck. Again: thank you, thank you, thank you.

mc donald observatory / texas

main mirror (diameter is 11m!) hobby-eberly research telescope main mirror (diameter is 11m!) hobby-eberly research telescope hobby-eberly research telescope 2,1-m-otto-struve-teleskop (82) & 2,7-m-harlan-j.
-smith-teleskop (107)

many thanks to frank w.cianciolo who has explained to me the scientific research program they are doing at the observatory . read the article he has given to me, it´s really worth it! the researchers hope they soon will understand more about the dark matter and the dark energy . exciting!!!

and here the link to mc donald observatory , they provide much more information.

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HETDEX: Leading the Revolution

HETDEX will be the first major experiment to search for dark energy. It will use the giant Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory and a set of spectrographs to map the three-dimensional positions of one million galaxies

 Hobby-Eberly Telescope [Martin Harris/McDonald Observatory]

A scientific revolution is underway. It will tell us more about the universe than we have ever known before, because it will tell us what makes up almost three-quarters of all the matter and energy in the universe. It will tell us if the laws of gravity are correct, and reveal new details about the Big Bang in which the universe was born.

The subject of this revolution is dark energy, a mysterious force that is causing the universe to expand faster as it ages. And one of the leaders in the revolution is HETDEX — the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment — at The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory. Its observations will narrow the list of possible explanations for dark energy, and may even provide the final answer.

HETDEX will combine the immense light-gathering power of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, the world’s third largest, with an array of new instruments for analyzing the light from distant galaxies.

charlottesville

elvis in the blue moon diner sweets in the blue moon diner mr. pantops at work

While we were waiting for a service-on time for our truck, we had breakfast at the blue moon diner (bring something to eat on sundays, because it takes time until breakfast will be served. But it’s worth to wait).

Mercedes doesn’t  support trucks in america, so they sent us over to the truck garage of chevrolet. The mechanical maintanance could be done ​​but with our „hill starting problem“ we were referred to mr. pantops . With his truck from the last millennium he is on the road since many years as a car trouble helper and he even had the matching plugs and the right software for our Atego on board. Read error, software reset, ad-blue refill, bingo. On the road again.

During our stay on the nearby campground we experienced the american hospitality „at it´s best“. thanks folks. © n.g.

blue ridge mountains


After all those big cities we had visited during the last weeks, it was time for a little seclusion. We drove in the shenandoah national park and stuck in a traffic jam at the entry counter. Everyone wanted to see the last sun rays and the colorful stained woods and of course: enjoy some solitude. But after the weekend the park and the skyline drive almost belonged to ourselves. © n.g.

 

new york city -> baltimore


In the pouring rain we said goodbye to new york city and in the evening we reached the marina in baltimore … © n.g.

departure

the first step of our trip to patagonia was frankfurt -> hamburg. our truck starts its see passage to halifax in that harbor, we will follow with a plane. © n.g.