Astronomers love star parties! For years Jeannie and I traveled to many all over the country, but recently have not traveled so far from home, so this year was time for a change. This summer's events we are attending take place in Colorado, California, and Oregon, and just for good measure, we will be observing in many other places as well. On April 12th we hit the road, the motorhome packed with our 8, 10, and 16" Dobs, and the 24" riding along behind in the van we tow. The 8" was brought along to sell, and the 10" is getting recoated in Salt Lake City as we pass thru. Of course the American West is loaded with National Parks and we plan to visit many of them. Travel along with us via this travelog. I will be adding new photos frequently.

First stop is near Phoenix, AZ. We are visiting friends, and hooking up with Steve Coe, who many of you met last year when he visited Chiefland. Above right was taken near the Arizona Sky Village. The American west is like being on an alien planet for people from Florida…

4/13 The only thing not so exciting about traveling across the country is that this is a big country we live in. Here the GPS shows that we still have 468 miles to go, and we have already crossed most ofTexas and are nearly to El Paso. The high desert is 3763' above sea level in this shot.

    To make long-distance trips more fun, we always listen to Books On Tape while traveling. We made it all the way to Phoenix and still have two tapes to go on Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor."

Although the moon is not cooperating very well, we get out the scopes to sneak a couple of hours observing right before dawn. Our new 68 pound 16" f4.5 is very quick and easy to set up, and the views under these desert skies is more like a 20 or larger back home.

    I wish all my buddies from Chiefland could have been standing here at 4AM with us, just to see the naked eye view.

After arriving in AZ we spent the first week in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix. Living in the desert is so different from home. The air is so clear, and the humidity is usually 25% or less. The Phoenix area is covered in flowers. The road sides have bougainvilla and oleanders everywhere, and the beauty is very pleasant. Golf courses are also everywhere. Yeah!!!

4/24 After the first week of camping in a crowded city RV park, we headed out to the desert for a little room to spread out. You may camp for free on Bureau of Land Management land (BLM) for up to two weeks at a time. Nice! Without electricity we park awning to awning to provide a big shaded area to hide from the mid-day sun. Temperatures are in the high 80s during the day and 60s at night. Perfect for hanging out. This site is used by Steve's club as a dark sky site. It is 100 miles west of Phoenix, but the city's light dome still shows easily in the east.

By the way, the Saguaro Astronomy Club calls this site the antenna farm. Cell towers are a quarter mile away. Imagine, out in the middle of nowhere, and the internet reception from my cell card is better than at home. Go figure! This photo was taken by moonlight!

4/27 Our plan was to go to Flagstaff after leaving the southern desert site, but the weather had other ideas. It is still early in the season out here, and a cold front forecast snow in Flag, so we moved half way there to an RV park in Prescott. It's only 5000' high. However, 50 mile per hour winds and lows in the 30s rearranges our schedule a bit. While hunkered down in Prescott, we took some day trips and took in the local scenery.

4/28 The first national park we visited was Sunset Canyon National Monument near Flagstaff. We were on a scouting mission, checking out camping spots in the National Forest system near the Naval Observatory. Shortly afterward the skies started turning white,  and soon thereafter we were in a blizzard. That's a bit unusual for folks from Florida.

5/1 While driving the motorhomes from Prescott up to Camp Verde, a warmer place just south of Flagstaff, the scenery was just spectacular. Central AZ is very pretty, We are just waiting a few days until the cold front passes and we move to Flagstaff next week. Right now the nights up there are still in the 20s - just a bit cold for Dry camping in a RV!

On 5/3 we took a drive to scenic Sedona, a pretty red rock country 40 miles south of Flagstaff. A perfect day at 5000' and 70˚.

Near our RV park in Camp Verde is Montezuma's Castle, an old indian relic that is now a national monument. It was a nice way to spend a pleasant morning walk.

Last night, 5/4, we set up the 16" for a little RV astronomy. Although we were in a small town with lots of light pollution, the images were quite good, due to the 3200' altitude and and very low humidity. The RV park even turned off two street lights for us. That's a first! The park owner is now talking about getting a telescope and making astronomy a regular part of their entertainment programs.

The drive to Flagstaff is dominated by distant views of the San Francisco peaks. We parked on Forest Service land at 7340'. What a nice way to camp!

5/6 It pays to have friends in high places (7450'). An old friend, Paul Shankland, is now the  director of the  Naval Observatory. Paul arranged a great tour for us. It will become an article in Amateur Astronomy. The biggest scope there is a 61" f/10. One of the most interesting scopes was an antique 42" Ritchie Chretian. Paul and his wife Cathy came over to our motorhome in the evening, and we observed with our 10" and 16". Paul wanted Cathy to see the views small scopes could deliver.

I am ruined for life! Dark skies, excellent seeing, great transparency, high altitude, high transparency, and very low humidity all combine to make the 16" perform

better than the big scopes back home. I had what just may have been the best views of M81 ever. The spiral arms were easy to see. On 5/7 we toured Lowell Observatory, right near the center of Flagstaff. It was built a hundred years ago. Below is the wooden dome and the 24" Clark refractor. On the right is a no longer used 42" reflector also built by Clark in 1909. It only weighs 13 tons! They had it in storage for years, and finally set it outside on display. (Without the mirror, of course.)

5/8  Arrived at 5 Mile Meadow, near the tiny town of Happy Jack. The altitude is 6800' and the air is clear, clear, clear. We set up the 24" with great anticipation. By 8:30 it is getting  dark, and to check the seeing we put the scope on Saturn. The seeing is great, but the scope sure is hard to move. Before long the Teflon azimuth bearings are grinding. DUST! Ye Gads. The scope is a bear to track on objects. Although the meadow seems to be mostly grass, and you could not see dust blowing around, the Arizona dust has done a job on them. Sure makes you appreciate the grass fields of home.

The seeing was great and the views were fabulous. Steve called the night an 8, but it sure was a 10 to Jeannie and I. Even though we were 100 miles north of Phoenix, it is still a large light dome due south. Thankfully, the dome only reached 15 degrees high. We looked at many of our favorite objects, enjoying the black skies and bright views of galaxies in the eyepiece. M51 was a photograph, and 101 even better. M3 and 5 were wonderful, but Omega was a bust - far better at home. Will get the bearing cleaned up to restore the Dobs normal movements, and try again tonight. In the morning a small herd of Elk were grazing across the meadow from us.

    By the way, no cell or internet here, so will post a few days late. Just down the road another giant observatory is being built for Lowell Observatory. The 170" scope is called the Discovery Channel scope, it should be operational soon.

5/10 OK, so the weather turned lousy, with very high winds and forecast rain-snow. Time to leave and head for lower ground. Camping and observing at 7800' requires good weather.  Of course the North Rim is still closed due to the weather, so we parked near Zion for a week. We will try the North Rim again when it warms up. It's just an hour-and-a-half back to there, so all hope is not lost. The ride up here along the Vermillion Cliffs  was just beautiful. It's hard to believe the color of the mountains!

Question: So just how many photos can you take of rocks? Answer: A lot! We are near Zion, and the rocks in southern Utah just keep causing eyegasms!!

For the next month will be in rock country. Will probably wear out the old camera so I can get a new one!

5/14  We finally entered Zion National Park, and all we can say is if you have not been there, it is a must do!!  This is our third time out here, and still we can't wait to do it again. The mountains reach to the sky like no other scenery anywhere.

5/14  A bit of insanity grabbed us and  we decided to climb to the top of Angels Landing. It's 1450 feet to the top. Switch backs take you most of the way there, but you can only reach the top by climbing slippery rock while holding onto a chain. We made it to within 150' of the top before reality set back in and we called it a day. (If only we were 20 years younger!)

5/16  For the first time we finally made it to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Although walking around at 8,800' was a little breathtaking, we still managed to visit many overlooks and walked a total of 2.5 miles. Was it worth the long drive? Oh yeah! Bear took it all in stride