American Observatories 1999
1999 - American Observatories Tour
This was the first 'Astronomical' holiday I had been on.
It consisted of:
a) Visits to some of the USA's most historic Professional Observatories in the States of California, Arizona and South Dakota
b) Visit to Meteor Crater near Flagstaff, Arizona,
c) Visit to the Grand Canyon
The trip was organised by Explorers Tours who specialise in 'Astronomical Tours' - I also went with them to Zimbabwe (2001) and Sinai (1999 and 2004)
The itinerary was:
1) Fly to Los Angeles and visit Griffith Park Observatory
2) Travel to Tuscon, Arizona, and visit Kitt Peak National Observatory
3) Travel to Flagstaff, Arizona and visit Lowell Observatory and then Meteor Crater and the Grand Canyon
4) From Grand Canyon back to the UK via Los Angeles
Along the trip we also visited The Biosphere 2, near Flagstaff - a 'totally contained' bio-world trying to mimic the possibilities for living on other planets
Highlights - the Observatories and watching the sunset on the edge of the Grand Canyon, South Rim
This was the first 'Astronomical' holiday I had been on.
It consisted of:
a) Visits to some of the USA's most historic Professional Observatories in the States of California, Arizona and South Dakota
b) Visit to Meteor Crater near Flagstaff, Arizona,
c) Visit to the Grand Canyon
The trip was organised by Explorers Tours who specialise in 'Astronomical Tours' - I also went with them to Zimbabwe (2001) and Sinai (1999 and 2004)
The itinerary was:
1) Fly to Los Angeles and visit Griffith Park Observatory
2) Travel to Tuscon, Arizona, and visit Kitt Peak National Observatory
3) Travel to Flagstaff, Arizona and visit Lowell Observatory and then Meteor Crater and the Grand Canyon
4) From Grand Canyon back to the UK via Los Angeles
Along the trip we also visited The Biosphere 2, near Flagstaff - a 'totally contained' bio-world trying to mimic the possibilities for living on other planets
Highlights - the Observatories and watching the sunset on the edge of the Grand Canyon, South Rim
Griffith Park Observatory, near Los Angeles
Kitt Peak Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona
Biosphere 2
Meteor Crater
Griffith Park Observatory was first opened to the public in 1935.
Since then it has been at the forefront of 'public outreach' and holds regular open evenings giving the public a chance to see the night sky amd perhaps a look threough one of its magnificant telescopes, if the weather is clear.
The Observatory still does research on a wide varirty of astronomical observational topics
Since then it has been at the forefront of 'public outreach' and holds regular open evenings giving the public a chance to see the night sky amd perhaps a look threough one of its magnificant telescopes, if the weather is clear.
The Observatory still does research on a wide varirty of astronomical observational topics
Kitt Peak has been one of America's premier Astronomical Observatories since it was openeing in the 1950s
The main telescope is the 4.5 meter Mayal instrument - above centre of this image which is used by many multinational research teams to image objects at the edge of our Solar System and beyond.
The Mayal Telescope is a magnificant instrument with the optical tube supported on a giant horsehoe equatoriual bearing
Also not shown in this image is the McMath Solar telescope - one of the technological wonders of our world - which is used to create 3 meter wide white light images of our local star - the Sun - to permit in depth study of sunspots, and the other special feateures of our Sun.
Even in the times of Coronado instruments the McMath telelscope is still a very special instrument
The main telescope is the 4.5 meter Mayal instrument - above centre of this image which is used by many multinational research teams to image objects at the edge of our Solar System and beyond.
The Mayal Telescope is a magnificant instrument with the optical tube supported on a giant horsehoe equatoriual bearing
Also not shown in this image is the McMath Solar telescope - one of the technological wonders of our world - which is used to create 3 meter wide white light images of our local star - the Sun - to permit in depth study of sunspots, and the other special feateures of our Sun.
Even in the times of Coronado instruments the McMath telelscope is still a very special instrument
Biosphere 2 was set up as a research project to see if it was possible to live in a completely self-contained environment
The plan was to set up an artifical enclosed 'greenhouse' actually a set of greenhouses with slightly differing climates and a small group of scientists would live inside this enviroment for as long as possible.
However, soon after the projec started, there were many problems with unstable atmospheres in some of the biomes which resulted in extra oxygen having to be piped in to maintain a livable envoroment
Evenso, it was an early attempt as this kind of living and, in 2010-11 the Mars 500 project is now taking this idea much further
The plan was to set up an artifical enclosed 'greenhouse' actually a set of greenhouses with slightly differing climates and a small group of scientists would live inside this enviroment for as long as possible.
However, soon after the projec started, there were many problems with unstable atmospheres in some of the biomes which resulted in extra oxygen having to be piped in to maintain a livable envoroment
Evenso, it was an early attempt as this kind of living and, in 2010-11 the Mars 500 project is now taking this idea much further
Meteor Crater is a hole in the ground, near Flagstaff Arizona.
It was created by an impact of a 50m wide meteorite some 50,000 years ago.
Named Barringer Crater, after Daniel Barringer who first tried to establish what type of object had landed to form the crater, it was originally thought that a large lump of Iron had struck.
However, after a fruitless and ultimately expensive search, no trace of iron was ever found in the rock below the bottom the the crater - which is about 700m across.