GeminiFocus June 2012 | Page 42

At the Gemini headquarters in La Serena. From left to right: Prof. Jorge Meléndez and students Patricia Martins de Novais, Miguel Paez, Fernando de Sousa Mello, Andressa Silva Ferreira, Nathália Cibirka, Marcelo Tucci Maia, Viviane Salvador Alves and Ana Maria Molina. Picture taken by A.M. M. to learn about telescopes, but also in encouraging them to make true their long-sought dreams of becoming astronomers. I’d like to thank Manuel Paredes, Pascale Hibon, and Tina Armond, our main guides during the visit to the above facilities, for explaining every detail of the telescopes. We gladly acknowledge the financial support from the Vice Dean of Graduate studies at USP (Vahan Agopyan) and the Director of IAG/USP (Tércio Ambrizzi). The visit to Gemini, SOAR, and CTIO from the students’ point of view… Fernando de Sousa Mello: The full understanding of some things only comes when they are truly lived. To watch the world on TV brings information, but not deep understanding. To watch the large telescopes such as Gemini on the Discovery Channel is amazing, but to see one in reality is just an incredible experience. Only then is it possible to realize how big they are and admire their slow and gracious movements. The large telescopes are like airplanes or satellites: they are only developed through cooperation. How many people did it take, all of them different, working together with the same objective to build these grandiose dreams? All of these thoughts were in my mind while I watched everything tiny and still through the airplane window and also when standing in front of those giant telescopes with silver domes. Viviane Salvador Alves: Sometimes the best events in life happen suddenly… and that was the case of our adventure to Chile. When Prof. Jorge Meléndez told us that he was seeking authorization to visit international observatories, we were totally skeptical. Although the observatories could accept us, how could we find the money to travel there? When some of our colleagues and professors learned about the possibility of our trip, they were even more incredulous. Fortunately, the financial aspect ended up being easier than expected, and we couldn’t have been happier. In less than one month from the day that the Professor gave us the news, we were on our way to the telescopes. Our families back at home were thrilled and proud. When my father saw an image of us in front of the Gemini telescope, he described it as a “monster.” 42 GeminiFocus June2012