Night Under the Stars

We lucked out and found a last minute opening for the night telescope program at Kitt Peak Observatory. We have jumped at the chance and drove the 45 miles west and up to the 6875 ft mountain for this after hours program. Kitt Peak has the worlds largest collection of telescopes with 25 optical telescopes, two radio telescopes, and the worlds largest solar telescope at their National Solar Observatory. We started at 6:00pm with a box dinner and an explanation of the many telescopes available and the research being done on the peak. We then went out for the sunset and to one of the telescopes for a viewing of Venus. As it got dark we had instruction in using star charts and were issued good quality binoculars for constellation identification with astronomers who had lasers to point out what we were looking for. We then went back into the domes for viewing. We watched the process of setting up the telescopes and rotating the domes into each position for each subject. We were a small group of just 12 people so we really got to ask questions and get excellent information. A few of the highlights were Saturn with her rings and moons, the Whirlpool Galaxy that is in the process of a massive collision with its companion galaxy, the Ghost of Jupiter that is a blue gas cloud of a dying star, and Omega Centauri a globular star cluster that is only visible low in the southern sky and we would never see in the north. It was a late night and after 11:00pm before we were ready to leave. No lights of any kind except for red lights are allowed anywhere on the top of the mountain, so we could not use headlights for the first few miles down. We followed one of the instructors in a lead car that knew the way. It was a little harrowing as this is like driving down Hurricane Ridge with lots of twists and turns and a steep descent (and no moon). Once we got down onto the valley floor we had to go through a Border Patrol checkpoint as we went north. That was really weird. Seems so foreign to have to say where we have been and where we are going and where we live and why we are out driving. Did not have to show ID, but they did shine a light in our van to see if we were smuggling anyone. I understand the problem down here as we saw it all too clearly last fall, but there needs to be a better solution. In any event ... other than feeling like we had just crossed the Berlin Wall everything went smooth. It was after midnight when we got back to our campground but our night truly under the stars has been a once in a lifetime event that we are still
talking about.