En route to see salamanders and the Green Bank telescope in rural West Virginia …

Wow, I didn’t realize how burned out I’d gotten on daily blogging. Do I still have any readers, after finishing “100 Days of Science” and then logging off for a whole week?

Well, stick with me, because I just needed a break. I won’t blog daily any more, but I’m still here! Today I’m in Raleigh, NC, after spending Mother’s Day with my Mom. This afternoon, I’m meeting a new Twitter/blogosphere connection, Bora Zivkovic, for lunch.

And tomorrow, I’m heading up to West Virginia to (visit my Grandmom and) see THAT TELESCOPE, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the world’s largest fully steerable single aperture antenna. It’s operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

I’ve wanted to see the Green Bank observatory for years. I relished visiting one of the NRAO’s other sites a while back, the Very Large Array, particularly because it happened to lie along beautiful Pieway 60 (oops, highway) near Pie Town, New Mexico …

The Green Bank array appeals to me for so many reasons. First, I love West Virginia, since my Mom’s side of the family hails from there, and I’ve visited all my life. Second, the Green Bank telescope was the first to confirm that the Huygens probe had successfully landed on Saturn’s moon Titan back in 2005, by detecting its signal. I was rooting for that mission especially because I was fond of Martin Tomasko at the University of Arizona, who headed up the team running one of the imaging instruments aboard the probe. At the time, I was following the Cassini-Huygens mission for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson.

I met some of the Green Bank media relations folks in January, during a poster session at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, CA. And that’s when I learned about an incredibly innovative project they have going. On Thursday I’ll tour the site and learn more about the project — and, most likely, be blown away by the spring beauty in those West Virginia hills. Check back later in the week for an update about the observatory — and maybe a little tribute to the spotted salamanders that were my childhood summer pets, because I also plan to turn over leaves on my Grandmom’s bank, and look for them …