In May 2026, I attended the 60th reunion of my Caltech graduating class. Gail and I had attended the 40th reunion and the 50th reunion together. This time I went alone, flying to Burbank via Phoenix and then taking a taxi to Pasadena on May 14 and then returning home on May 17. I stayed at a hotel on Colorado Boulevard across from Pasadena City College, and walked the one mile to and from campus. The sky was blue and clear on afternoon when I arrived. During the remaining days, Pasadena’s skies were generally cloudy with an occasional blue spot. At least it wasn’t raining.

My goals for the visit were to enjoy time with old friends, visit Mount Wilson Observatory, and photograph birds. I succeeded in all.

Here are a couple photos photo of southern California landmarks taken from my flight with my phone.

The Rose Bowl & Arroyo Seco seen from my Southwest Airlines flight	Jet Propulsion Lab seen from my flight

When I was an undergranduate, the campus was much smaller. Now it has expanded about two blocks to the north. Here are some photos from the older part of campus.

In 1966, the center of campus was Troop Hall, which was the first building on campus and in my time was the administrative center. Troop Hall was damaged by the San Fernando earthquake of 1971 and then demolished. Its location is now marked by these ponds. They are home to Red-eared Slider Turtles. The turtles are native to the central and southern United States, and considered very invasive in some areas.

The California Boulevard side of Linde Laboratory. It was called Robinson when I was a student and was the astronomy lab. The dome on top of the building is a 1/10-scale model of the 200-inch at Palomar. The model was built to test the design for the big telescope. It was used for student projects in my day.	The “new” Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics is located on the south side of California Boulevard opposite the old astronomy lab.
Traditional Caltech Mission-style walkway at Kerckhoff Lab	The tall building is Caltech Hall, the campus library and administration center. It was built after I graduated. It was originally named after Robert A. Millikan, who won the Nobel Prize for measuring the charge on an electron and who led Caltech to make it the research powerhouse it is now. The building was renamed because of Millikan’s stance on eugenics.

The Caltech Alumni Association organized this event to welcome the Class of 1976 to the ranks of those who had graduated 50 years or more before. Graduates who graduated in multiples of 5 years ago were especially encouraged to attend. (Of course, all graduates should keep Caltech in mind when making donations but there was no hard sell.)

It started on Thursday, May 15, and ended on Sunday, May 17. The activities included lectures, campus tours, lunches, dinners, and a reception with the President Thomas Rosenbaum. The main event on Saturday, May 16, was Seminar Day which was open to the general public and featured lectures by Caltech’s professors and students. Tours were offered of the Jet Propulsion Lab and of Mt. Wilson Observatory on Thursday afternoon. The main event on Sunday was a tour of the Huntington Gardens and library. I did not stay for that.

Two of my fellow 1966 graduates who also lived in Blacker House, Phil Coleman and Ed Robertson, were there. Leonard Gordy from Page House, who I had known 60 years ago, was there. Happily, a 1964 graduate from Blacker House, Peter Mazur, attended too. On Saturday, Bob Diller, a 1963 graduate who lived in Blacker, joined us. Bob and Peter were responsible for a number of pranks carried out by Blacker House members in the 60s.

Ed and I had not realized that a separate registration was needed for Seminar Day so Saturday morning we took his rented car up Lake Street to Altadena to see some of the damage done by 2025’s Eaton Fire. Later, we checked in with the Alumni Association and were told we could attend the Seminar Day anyway. Therefore, I was able to enjoy seeing three grad students describe their theses in three minutes. I also attended a lecture on the Origin of Life on Earth.

I did not take many photos during the scheduled events. One reason is that photos of a speaker in front of a room are not usually interesting. A more important reason is that often I did not think of taking photos.

Al Holm, Pete Mazur, Phil Coleman, and Ed Robertson at lunch on Friday. As students, we all lived in Blacker house.

Retired and current faculty talk about the state of education at Caltech. On the left is Kip Thorne ,who received a Nobel Prize for his work on Black Holes. He was a Blacker House resident who graduated in 1962. Next to him is Andy Ingersoll, who helped develop and use instruments on the Voyager spacecraft and other probes sent through the solar system.

Mount Wilson Observatory includes the 1917 100-inch Hooker Telescope, a 1908 60-inch telescope, a 1912 solar telescope with a 150-foot tower, a 1908 solar telescope with a 60-foot tower, the 1905 Snow Solar Telescope, and 1999’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA).

I joined a visit to the observatory scheduled by the Alumni Association on Thursday afternoon, May 15. We rode up to Mt Wilson in four black vans, each with 10 alumni, a driver, and a guide from the Alumni Association.

We unloaded in the parking lot and started on the path toward the observatories. A line of boulders marked the border between the parking lot and the walking path. I was enjoying the view of the solar telescope towers and the pine trees between us and them. Not watching where I was walking, I tripped over one of the boulders. Down I went on my face. There was blood. I convinced our drivers, guides, and observatory staff that my brain was ok. (If it wasn’t, they could have had me helicoptered of the mountain. The helicopter would have been paid for by Los Angeles County. An ambulance would have been paid for my me and my insurance,) They got me cleaned up a little and I was able to join the rest of the tour. The Alumni Association guide from my van stayed close to me to make sure I did not have any belated effects.

Later, back on campus, the medic from the security office also concluded my head was OK, but thought I should get stitches for a cut above my eye, He took me to the Huntington Hospital’s ER. Of course, in the ER there’s a lot of waiting. About an hour after I arrived, the same medic showed up with my classmate and friend, Ed Robertson. Ed had fallen on his face in the student houses where a step wasn’t very visible. It was good to have company but the circumstances were unfortunate.

The ER people wanted to make they did not miss anything so I was given a CT scan to make sure my head was on and an X-ray of my wrist to make sure nothing was broken. Eventually they “gave” me four stitches above my left eye. All this took time with plenty of waits in between.

While Ed and I waited, a young woman in a hospital lab coat stopped to greet us. She was a Caltech freshman volunteering at the hospital and noticed the alumni badge I was still wearing. We had a pleasant talk with her.

Caltech security gave me a ride back from hospital and I got back to my room around 11:30 PM. Ed did not get back to his hotel until 2 hours later.

Mount Wilson Observatory seen from Southwest flight 2436 with the camera in my phone. The 100-inch dome is on the right in the center, the 60-inch dome to its left, and the 150-foot solar tower left of it.

The 150-foot and 60-foot solar towers as seen from Pasadena with my zoom lens on the beautiful Wednesday afternoon. The two domes are not visible.

In only three full days, I got photos of five species I had not seen before - Red-crowned Amazon Parrot, Band-tailedPigeon, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Anna’s Hummingbird, and Oak Titmouse - and better images of two species I had photographed before - Acorn Woodpecker and Western Bluebird.

Oak Titmouse by the ponds where Troop Hall had been	Three Acorn Woodpeckers in a pine tree on Mt Wilson
Red-whiskered Bulbul on Hill Street across from campus	Band-tailed Pigeon on a tree near San Pasqual Street
A female Anna’s Hummingbird by the ponds where Troop Hall had been	A Dark-eyed Junco. Apparently it’s the same species as the dull Juncos we have in the east but the plumage is much more interesting.

Prepared by Albert Holm, 26 May 2026