This morning I'm starting to think that scheduling telescope observations in a queuing system is like playing roulette. Eta Carina should pop its top sometime next week. So in an ideal world we'd like a spectrum every night. But I've got five windows left to schedule. We want to save at least two of those for after the event and I've got one more coming up tomorrow to take Eta's temperature for positioning the last three. In the ideal situation I'd hit the peak of the event and then get another right when it hits bottom. This is what makes me feel like I'm standing at a giant roulette wheel every time I talk to the observation queue coordinator. I've got two chips in my hand and I've got to pick the two numbers out of about ten spaces that are going to pay out big. We've already gambled a little by delaying our next window until tomorrow night. Of course all of this is much better chances that playing roulette, however it is a lot more nerve wracking. In roulette you just loose money. Here I could loose at least 5.5 years of work.

Soldier on brave space-cadets.