A road trip around the dark skies of Arizona and a visit to the Lowell Observatory

[Nicola Fletcher]

I’m just back from a long work trip to the USA, which ended with a tagged-on holiday to the Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona and Utah, and a visit to Flagstaff. Flagstaff is the only international dark sky city, and home to the Lowell Observatory. 

First up was a flight to Flagstaff via Phoenix last Thursday, where I landed at the tail end of a snowstorm. It was a challenge getting into town but I made it with the help of a very nice taxi driver who kindly showed me the way to walk to the observatory from my hotel. People were very busy clearing roads and footpaths, so I climbed Mars Hill to the observatory that afternoon, which was definitely a good healthy walk and gave commanding views of the neighbouring mountains and the surrounding city. The Lowell Observatory is at about 7,200 feet above sea level, and I was very much looking forward to seeing the collection of telescopes including the 24” Clark refractor. It was at new moon and the forecast was for clear skies. Alas, upon reaching the observatory, the staff informed me that the telescopes and the museum were not open for visitors that night, due to the weather and the snowfall which had not yet been cleared from the paths. However, the exhibit within the visitor centre and the gift shop were open, so I whiled away a few hours spending money and looking at the exhibits, including a large meteorite from the nearby Meteor Crater and photos of the research instruments located outside the city,  before making my way back down to my hotel.

The following evening also had a clear forecast so I went back to the observatory that evening. I wanted to see the telescopes while it was still bright out and also stay to hopefully view through some of them as evening came in. Happily, although the Clark refractor was not open for viewing due to some wind, the 24” Dyer Telescope, a Planewave CDK24a f/6.5 Corrected Dall-Kirkham astrograph, was open for general viewing. This scope was only installed in 2020 and is normally only used for private viewing sessions, so I was very happy to have some early evening views of Jupiter through it.

 

On the way back down from the Dyer telescope, there was a beautiful sunset and I stopped to look at the view and the mausoleum of Percival Lowell.
 

The thing I had most been looking forward to was the Giovale Open Deck Observatory, which is a large platform containing a range of telescopes, within a building on runners that slides backwards off the telescope platform, and converts into a warm room lit with red lights, for breaks from the intense cold. The platform contains a smorgasbord of delightful scopes: 14” and 17” Planewave CDKs connected to cameras with live viewing of targets, a 32” f/3 Starstructure dob, an 8” Moonraker Victorian refractor, a TEC Apo 140FL widefield refractor and a 16” Meade LX200 ACF.  All had beautiful Feathertouch focusers and a range of 2” EPs. While I was there, the dob was tracking Saturn (by far the best views I have ever seen of Saturn!), the smaller Planewave was also imaging Jupiter and the TEC was on the double cluster in Perseus. I stayed for quite a while, warming up in the warm room as it was freezing out!

By the time I left the open deck observatory, it was dark and Orion was riding high in the sky. I was impressed with the grit that had been spread on the pathways which was also glow in the dark!

I then went back up to the the Dyer telescope to see Jupiter once again (by now it was about 9pm and the views were much better) and also to see the Clark refractor which is in a large dome close to the Dyer telescope.

At this stage, I was frozen to the bone, so headed back down to the visitor centre via the Rotunda Museum, which had a fantastic exhibit featuring Clyde Tombaugh and the discovery of Pluto, Percival Lowell and Robert Burnham. Some of the highlights were a first edition, loose leaf edition of Burnham’s Celestial Handbook and lots of letters, telegrams and suggestions for the naming of Pluto. I took tons of photos but will spare you from an avalanche of pictures! Very tired but very happy, I went back to Flagstaff and sampled one of the many locally brewed beers in the atmospheric pubs there, and then walked back to the hotel through the lovely,  minimally but safely lit city that has maintained Bortle 4 skies through its International Dark Sky City status.

The next day, my mum joined me for a road trip around Navajo Nation and through Hopi reservation. We rented a car and our first stop was Meteor Crater, about 45 minutes drive east of Flagstaff. It was a really amazing place with a visitor centre and several views from above the crater. It was difficult to capture its magnificence in a photo, but there was an Apollo astronaut model in the crater which I couldn’t even see from above. It was used to train the Apollo astronauts before their missions to the Moon.

We then drove up to Second Mesa in the Hopi reservation. The Hopi villages are located high on three mesas in the area, surrounded by vast expanses of flat land. It was hair-raising driving up steep roads onto the plateau of the mesa to our lodging for the night. While there, the locals advised us to drive to First Mesa in the morning for the annual Buffalo Dances. Unfortunately the sky was completely clouded over that night, but the terrifying drive up onto First Mesa to the village of Walpi, and the whole village celebrating the Buffalo Dances, was a morning to remember and something I doubt many people get to see.

On we went to Monument Valley which I was really looking forward to, as we had rooms booked at The View hotel, the only hotel within the Monument Valley National Park. Our room had a balcony with truly incredible views over Monument Valley and Bortle 2 skies (and the hotel were very aware of the attraction of stargazing from the hotel so had very dim lights that I think were turned off after 10pm). I had brought my Takahashi FC76-DCU and had two incredible nights of stargazing under crystal clear skies. The balcony was south facing so I concentrated on southern Messier objects the first evening, observing M35, M42/43, NGC1980, M41, M46/47, M48, M50, M93, M78 and M79. Many of these were naked eye objects, and looked fantastic through the little Tak. It truly is the 3”that thinks it’s a 4”, especially under those skies! M42 in particular was incredible, with so much structure and detail and perhaps a hint of green colour. I used a Tak prism diagonal and 24mm Panoptic for the whole evening.

The next morning, having left the curtains open so I could see when it got bright out, I awoke to a beautiful sunrise and got the little Tak out for a morning view of Venus, this time with the 9mm Nagler.

The following evening, I revisited many of the same targets, with a couple more including the Beehive and M67, and I tried without success to see Barnard’s Loop and the Flame nebula.

After this we continued on to the Grand Canyon via Horseshoe Bend and Navajo National Monument. Grand Canyon is another Bortle 2 dark sky park, and our cabin right beside the canyon rim had some beautiful sunset and sunrise views, but unfortunately another mostly cloudy night. At 5am, there were some wonderful naked eye views, reminding me of how low we were situated, at 36 degrees North. Arcturus was high overhead with Spica, Hydra and Centaurus visible to the south. We stood on the crater rim in the bitter cold, waiting for the sun to rise and light up the canyon as we watched. 

We headed back to Flagstaff that day, for one more visit to the Lowell Observatory and our flight home the next day. I had a fantastic trip and saw some of the best and darkest skies I’ve ever seen. I’d highly recommend a visit to any of these places if you ever get the opportunity!

Edited January 21 by Nicola Fletcher

[JeremyS]

What a super trip @Nicola Fletcher. So glad you were able to take your Tak 76DCU.

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

[dweller25]

Wow, awesome 👍

[GordonD]

Amazing trip! This is a great read,  thank so much for posting it.

[Captain Scarlet]

My God what a trip! What was the eyepiece situation for those scopes? Were they whatever was installed or could you use your own?

Magnus

[Nicola Fletcher]

7 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

My God what a trip! What was the eyepiece situation for those scopes? Were they whatever was installed or could you use your own?

Magnus

Thanks Magnus! It was absolutely brilliant 😊

I had my 22mm Nagler in my backpack just in case there was an opportunity to use it, but to be honest the eyepieces were of such obviously good quality I didn’t ask if I could use it. The Dyer had a big 30mm 2” EP in it (I don’t know what it was but I don’t think it was a Televue) but it was absolutely fantastic. All of the scopes had very good 2” EPs in them.

[Zermelo]

A trip of a lifetime, and a fascinating read. Thank you for posting.

[John]

What a great trip and super photos !

They bring back lovely memories of a similar trip that we did in 2019. That was in early September though and keeping cool was the challenge rather than keeping warm !

The observing deck was opened just after our visit so it's great to see the scopes installed and in action now.

As it happened I bumped into @Saganite at the Lowell Observatory doing a similar tour 😁

Magnus mentions eyepieces. Here is a video posted by the Lowell Observatory showing a delivery of eyepieces for the public observing sessions:

 

[Nicola Fletcher]

Whoa! A 3” Explore Scientific 30mm?! No wonder I was impressed. It was absolutely incredible. The video is so cool - I love how he keeps laughing with excitement. Thank you for posting that.

The open deck observatory was fantastic. So many great scopes and really nice and helpful staff at each one. It was such a treat to have them set up by someone else and I just had to walk between them observing whatever was on offer.

[andrew63]

Epic trip, exciting just reading your experiences.

[Second Time Around]

Great trip, great story! Thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

[globular]

Fantastic! Thanks for posting.

I now want a smorgasbord of delights in my life too.

[Louis D]

Glad you enjoyed your trip to the American Southwest.  There's plenty more to see and do there on future trips.  I've taken my family on about half a dozen road trips around that area over the years.  PM me for ideas for future trips.

[lunator]

It sounds an amazing journey, thanks for posting.

cheers

Ian

 

[Mark at Beaufort]

What a fantastic report and such wonderful photos.

My Granddaughter is at a university in Flagstaff and I would to go and visit the area.

 

 

 

[Ceramus]

What a fantastic trip! I once had the chance of a quick visit to the Observatory and was lucky to see M13 through the great Clark Refractor, absolutely amazing! Very few of the newer scopes were around then.

[josefk]

Brilliant write up and photos. What a trip and what a set of experiences! Fantastic.

Edited January 22 by josefk

[Paz]

A great trip and great post. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd like to do one day.

[Mr Spock]

Sounds like you had a great time 👍

[RobertI]

What an amazing trip! Some lovely photos there which really convey the experience. That open deck observatory is just so cool, a sumptuous array of telescopes available for public use. I did a tour of that area some thirty years ago, and saw many of the sights you mention, but stupidly never visited the Lowell Observatory. I’ve been promising the family a trip to the US, so I think I may have to sneak Flagstaff into the itinerary! 😉

[Nicola Fletcher]

7 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

What a fantastic report and such wonderful photos.

My Granddaughter is at a university in Flagstaff and I would to go and visit the area.

 

 

 

You should definitely take the opportunity. There was so much to do in the area, it was difficult to narrow down to the things we chose to see. Arizona is a beautiful state!

[Nicola Fletcher]

57 minutes ago, RobertI said:

stupidly never visited the Lowell Observatory

To be honest, when I planned the trip I didn’t even know about the observatory. We wanted to see Navajo Nation and Hopi, so the astronomy aspect was a complete bonus!

[John]

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

... I did a tour of that area some thirty years ago, and saw many of the sights you mention, but stupidly never visited the Lowell Observatory. 

That was almost exactly the situation that we were in. We had toured the western USA back in 1989 but astro related sites were simply not on the itinerary. When we were there I realised that we were not far from places such as the Lowell Observatory and Meteor Crater but too late to change the plans to actually visit any of them.

In 2019 my other half gave me the thumbs up to arrange "something different" so I did 😁

[Louis D]

I've been to Flagstaff quite a few times, but have yet to visit Lowell Observatory.  I'll have to make it a priority the next time I'm out that way.  I have visited McDonald Observatory in Texas twice, for what its worth, but only during the day.

[mcrowle]

A wonderful report and photos, Nicola!

Brings back a few memories for me  - and a regret. I was lucky enough to visit the observatory during a walking holiday in the region back in 1998. I remember queuing to view the Moon through the 24” Clark, but when it came to my turn I looked at the wobbly view (due to turbulence) for about half a second, said “thanks” to the staff member managing the viewing, and walked off. I should have savoured the view through such a classic instrument for a little longer at least! 😄

Regards, Mike.