Surprise Birthday Trip
I was pleasantly surprised by an astronomy-themed trip for my birthday this year. I was suspecting a long weekend in St. George with my new telescope, smart telescope, and astrophotography gear, but about halfway into the trip, several "wrong turns" and a short discussion, I was told we were heading to Flagstaff, Arizona. A quick background of Flagstaff, for those who are unaware, it is the world's first International Dark Sky City, home to Northern Arizona University, resides in the contiguous United States largest ponderosa pine forest, lies in the San Francisco volcanic field, has a population of over 75,000 people, and, most notably to many astronomers, is home to the Lowell Observatory.
After arriving at our hotel in downtown Flagstaff and unloading most of the car, we drove up to the Lowell Observatory to spend the afternoon. Lowell Observatory was built in 1894 on top of Mars Hill, approximately 200 feet higher in elevation than Flagstaff. It is named after Percival Lowell, who was interested in astronomy, especially Mars, and later in the search for Planet X. Unfortunately, Percival Lowell passed away before the discovery of Pluto at his observatory.
 |
| Lowell Observatory Welcome sign with Mars Rover |
The above image was taken (and edited to remove myself) of the welcome sign, a full-sized Mars Rover, and a plaque that provides a brief history of Lowell Observatory. After arriving and checking in, we looked at the schedule of shows that was offered, but decided to wander around the campus for the afternoon. Our first stop was a group of telescopes that were set up, with one aimed at the Sun and another at Venus. The telescope, pointed at the Sun and equipped with a Hydrogen-Alpha filter, revealed countless solar prominences and sunspots and gave the Sun a deep red color. The telescope aimed at Venus revealed a nearly full disk of the planet. We also looked at several other, larger telescopes that were housed under a dome. More on these later.
After viewing the Sun, we made our way to the Clark Telescope. This telescope was built in 1896 for Percival Lowell to study Mars. He was convinced that there was intelligent life on Mars and made several drawings of the "canals" on Mars and wrote many papers about them. This telescope is a 24-inch refractor that weighs about 11 tons. The image below shows the Clark Telescope inside its wooden dome. The black part of the dome opens to reveal the night sky, and the top half rotates to reveal different sections of the sky. The dome rotates by rolling over several old tires.
 |
| The Clark Telescope is housed in its dome. |
Just outside the Clark Dome, Percival Lowell rests in his own mausoleum. Two inscriptions encompass the entrance, which is, of course, locked. Below are these inscriptions and the mausoleum as a whole.
 |
| Left inscription at Percival Lowell's mausoleum. |
 |
| Percival Lowell's mausoleum. |
 |
| Right inscription at Percival Lowell's mausoleum. |
We spent several minutes here before moving on to the Pluto Dome. This dome houses the telescope, a 13-inch astrograph used to discover Pluto. This telescope is not a visual telescope but strictly one that takes images of the night sky. Instead of digital images, since this was done before the digital age, the exposures were placed on glass plates. Clyde Tombaugh would compare and examine two plates at a time to search for any objects that had changed between them. While at the Pluto Dome, we met a guide named Brian, who had worked with Clyde and was also the last person to use the Pluto telescope. Below is the best image I was able to get of the Pluto telescope. Notice that there is no place for an eyepiece at the back (bottom) of the telescope.
 |
| The telescope used to discover Pluto. |
The top half of the Pluto Dome is also made of wood and can rotate on small wheels.
We left the Pluto Dome and made our way back to the visitors' center before leaving for the night. The following day, we had several shows we planned to attend, but since the Lowell Observatory does not open until 12, we made our way to Meteor Crater, approximately 45 minutes away. Several signs led the way to the impact site, which would direct us "Five Miles to Impact!" and others to pique travelers' interest. Upon arriving at and exiting the car, the atmosphere is filled with music that makes you feel like you are floating through space. It's very similar to music I sometimes listen to while writing my blog, stargazing, or just wanting some calm background noise. We made our way inside the visitors center just in time to watch a short introduction video about the history of Meteor Crater. Following the video, a guide gathers the interested individuals and takes them outside to walk approximately 1/4 mile around the rim of the crater.
Our guide, Kyle, did an excellent job at answering any questions and keeping the group, approximately 30 strong, on the path and entertained. He described the failed mining attempts to find the core of the meteor that caused the crater, why it's a meteorite crater rather than a volcanic crater, and the different types of rock in the area. Kyle also went into detail about a plane crash, a car crash, and a man thinking that the mine shafts were a cover-up for the entrance to Middle-earth. Below are my best images, which really don't do it justice, of Meteor Crater.
 |
| Meteor Crater and the Visitors' Center. |
 |
| Meteor Crater. |
We spent a few hours at Meteor Crater and could probably have spent a little more time, but it was time to head back to Lowell Observatory for the shows/speakers we wanted to see. The first speaker talked about the history of Percival Lowell and his observatory. The speaker, of course, did an excellent job and afterward, gave most of the attendees a quick tour of a small museum which housed several of Percival Lowell's belongings. This included his first telescope, several of his books, and his 1911 Stevens-Duryea Model Y Big Six car, aka "Big Red." Below is a picture of Big Red, which has approximately 55 horsepower and is about the size of a Suburban.
 |
| Percival Lowell's person car, Big Red. |
Following the tour, we made our way back to the auditorium for our next speaker. She talked about the origins of the observatory. After this talk and a quick break, we listened to a guest lecturer discuss the discovery of Pluto and the painstaking work of searching through glass plates to find this tiny world. By the end of this lecture, it started getting dark, and several telescopes were coming to life.
We quickly made our way to the Clark Telescope that Percival Lowell had once used. The aide had it set up and pointed directly at Porrima, a double star in Virgo. What a sight! Below is an image of the Clark Telescope with the dome open.
 |
| The Clark Telescope pointed at Porrima. |
I took this quick, low-quality image of Flagstaff at night just outside the Clark Dome to show what a Certified Dark Sky City looks like. If I had been prepared, I could have easily caught several stars and the Milky Way from this location.
 |
| Flagstaff at night. |
We then made our way to the Open Deck Observatory via the Rotunda Museum. This museum had been closed the previous day, but as chance would have it, it was open as we walked by. Inside, we found a homemade telescope built by Clyde Tombaugh from old farm equipment (image below), a used space shuttle tire, and the blink comparator used to compare glass plate images, including those that contained Pluto.
 |
| Clyde Tombaugh's telescope made from old farm equipment. |
We continued the brief walk to the Open Deck Observatory, where many visitors were gathered to peer through the telescopes set up. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the scopes, but they included a 32-inch Dobsonian, an 8-inch refractor, a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, a 14-inch CDK (corrected Dall-Kirkham) reflector, a 17-inch CDK reflector, and a 16-inch Catadioptric reflector. We first looked through the 16-inch Catadioptric reflector, which had a new type of eyepiece installed. The eyepiece is similar to a smart telescope in that it captures and stacks images to provide a brighter, colored view of an object. Depending on the manufacturer, this eyepiece can cost as much as a telescope. This scope had The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) locked in its sights and offered an amazing, albeit a little blurry, view.
Next, we moved to the line for the 8-inch refractor, a smaller version of the Clark telescope. While in line, we talked with a fellow amateur astronomer from Phoenix about smart telescopes. We stepped up to the eyepiece and viewed Bode's Galaxy, M81. The view was incredible! We made our way to the line for the 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain for a view of Jupiter and its Galilean Moons. On this night, only three of the moons were visible.
After viewing Jupiter, we waited in line for the 32-inch Dobsonian, the big brother to my "tiny" 12-inch Dobsonian. This large scope had its sights set on one of my favorite globular star clusters, M13, the Hercules Cluster. The view was quite amazing! Afterward, we stepped over to the 14- and 17-inch CDK telescopes, which have cameras installed to image their targets. Only one was in use that night, and it had The Mirror Galaxy, M100, in its field of view. Unfortunately, the image wasn't spectacular because the operator chose different targets instead of staying on one target to let the images stack and improve the view on the screen.
Finally, it was time to make our way to our final show, a tour of the night sky in an open dome setting. This dome features the typical dome theater seats that are slightly reclined to view the dome, or open sky in this case, with the seats also being heated for the cold nights. The presenter did an exceptional job of pointing out the constellations and Jupiter. He also talked about exoplanets and the famous Hubble Deep Field image. This is how stargazing should be!
This entire Lowell Observatory campus has dark-sky-friendly lighting and illuminated walkways. I only had one image turn out, see it below.
 |
| Glow-in-the-dark galaxy and illuminated walkway. |
After this magnificent birthday surprise, we made our way to St. George, where I thought we were planning on going. I had hoped for great weather so I could use my new telescope for the second time, but it turned out to be quite windy on the single night we were there. Instead, I set up my smart telescope in hopes of capturing the objects that we had viewed the previous night. Unfortunately, my smart scope could not resolve both stars of Porrima. Here are the best images of those targets, plus more.
 |
| Jupiter and the Galilean Moons |
 |
| Porrima, unresolved |
 |
| Hercules Cluster, M13 |
 |
| Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 |
 |
| Bode's Galaxy, M81 |
 |
| Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 |
 |
| Globular Cluster M3 |
 |
| Mirror Galaxy, M100, and other galaxies |
We left having had a great time on this surprise trip. Even after looking through the much larger, not to mention extremely expensive, telescopes, we were both impressed by the views that we could get from our scopes. In the case of Jupiter and, to some degree, the Hercules Cluster, I feel that our telescopes even surpass the views we experienced.
