Darrell Lee
9/18 Monday. We did our daytime solar viewing at Farview Point today,
and drew nearly 200 people to the park’s 70 mm. Coronado solar scope
and Jim’s double-stacked PST. I set up my Pentax PF-80ED on a nearby
pinnacle, as I was unable to find any wildlife to pose in the scope. I
looked for Barn Owls roosting in the cracks in the rocks, without
success, and looked for resting elk and deer on the plateau tops. The
tourists at the distant vista sites are much more relaxed and take more
time to ask questions than the ones at the VC, who sometimes walk right
by us, or who have only 5 minutes to use the restrooms before their
tour bus leaves. We also think some of them may think we charge a fee
for viewing. I’m surprised at the number of people who’ve never
thought about our sun as a solar energy source. Our standard facts
include how large sun spots and solar prominences are (20,000 to 50,000
miles, several times the diameter of our earth), how sunspots are 2000
degrees cooler than the rest of the sun’s surface, etc.
I locked my keys in my car accidentally. It was so warm coming back
from solar viewing, I threw my jacket into the trunk of my car, and
naturally my car keys were inside the jacket. After calling my wife to
overnight my extra car keys, the Law Enforcement Rangers got their car
break-in tools (they used a couple of wedges and a flexible metal rod
to push the door’s unlock button) and opened my car for me. It always
helps when dealing with LEOs, to tell them I taught at the Federal Law
Enforcement Training Center for a couple of years, as that gives me
some extra credibility to offset the credibility I lose for being dumb
enough to do things like locking my keys in my car.
I set up my SN-10 in the parking lot in the evening. Elevation at the
VC is 7910’, and GPS coordinates are 37º38’27.3”N, 112 º10’11.3”W. We
astro folks sometimes set up private viewing sessions at the Paria View
parking lot, which is a little higher (8164’), and mostly free from
parking lot and road headlights interruptions that affect our VC
parking lot sessions. Other than the collimation going south and the
clutches slipping at the end of the session, the scope worked well and
was giving great views all night. Views of M11 and the Swan Nebula
were wonderful. I also had my scope briefly on the Lagoon Nebula and
Albireo. Steve had M13 in his 8” SCT, and Jim had the Andromeda Galaxy
and the Veil and Ring Nebulae in his 14.5” Starmaster. Randy was
running the CPC1100, but shut it down to give the constellation tour.
My observing buddy Renato wants me to look at NGC 7479, a face-on
barred spiral in Pegasus, under truly dark skies, so I’ll do that my
next viewing opportunity. I’d been telling people that the Wild Duck
Cluster was maybe 1000 light years distant. When I check my facts the
next day, I learn it’s 6000 light years distant.
9/19 Tuesday. Another day off. I visited Pipe Springs National
Monument and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, as I’d never been to
either before. They closed the Visitor Center and employee parking
lots today, and they also closed the park road south of Farview Point,
so it was a good day to leave the park. Gasoline in Kanab was
$2.68/gallon for regular, and $2.88 for premium. I got home 10 p.m.
for a 12 hour day. I saw my 9th Bobcat running across the road near
the north rim. The others include two others in Arizona, four in
California, one in Texas, and one in Florida. I also saw a Coyote
coming back up to Bryce, and lots of Mule Deer. I visited all
viewpoints (including those you have to walk to) along the North Rim
roads, except Roosevelt Vista. I’ve now seen all the Arizona National
Parks and Monuments except Navajo NM, which I’m planning to visit this
coming weekend. It was great driving home tonight and seeing the Milky
Way as I drove north, despite my lack of dark adaptation with the car’s
headlights on. I got 40 mpg today, thanks to cruising the park roads
at 35-40 mph.
9/20 Wednesday. Steve, Jim, and I created the following justification
document today, as the weather is threatening snow and dropping hail,
and we curtailed our solar viewing.
Bryce Canyon Astronomy Program
Public astronomy programs at Bryce Canyon have been part of the
Interpretation Program for more than two decades. Astronomy programs
were scheduled on a regular, but intermittent, basis. The positive
public response and growing interest led to a quantum leap in the
program after 2003. A huge increase in the number of programs and in
the number of people attending was made possible by a concerted effort
to schedule large numbers of volunteers, and increased the number and
quality of telescopes available. In addition, since most of the
volunteers are serious amateur astronomers, they often bring their own
high quality instruments.
The early leadership of Kevin Poe, Randy Dunning, and Ron Warner,
followed by the addition of Chad Moore and Angie Richman made the
dramatic expansion of the program possible.
In the first years of night sky programs, presentations were scheduled
roughly on a monthly basis, and they were greeted with some popularity.
The addition of amateur volunteers allowed the expansion of programs
to a minimum of three to four times per week throughout the season. In
recent years, more than twenty-five different volunteer astronomers
have lent their efforts to interpreting the skies above Bryce Canyon.
The popularity of the program has resulted in a waiting list of amateur
astronomers desiring to participate in the program.
Most night sky programs involve the participation of over one hundred
Bryce Canyon visitors. When conditions are ideal during summer nights,
it is not unusual to have two hundred participants or more each night.
The evening programs often last well beyond midnight, bringing
outreach to visitors well beyond the normal work day. One estimate for
the seasonal contacts by the astronomy program during 2005 was over
27,000 total people served.
Evening telescope viewing is coordinated with the evening Ranger
program to give visitors a better appreciation of the importance of the
dark night sky at Bryce Canyon. Each night, four to six telescopes are
set up to display a wide variety of celestial objects. Both Bryce
Canyon staff and volunteers interpret not only the scientific
significance of those objects, but also allow visitors to experience
dark skies they may be unable to see at home.
In 2005, the donation of a solar telescope allowed a significant
expansion of the astronomy program to daylight hours. This unique
instrument allows volunteers to share an unusual experience – that of
viewing our sun’s solar phenomena at a level previously only possible
to research scientists. We are able to show visitors solar
prominences, sunspots, and other features. Visitor response has been
overwhelmingly positive to this unique aspect of Bryce Canyon
interpretation. Frequent comments include exclamations such as “I’ve
never seen anything like this in my life” and “This made the entire
summer trip special.”
The solar program expands Bryce Canyon’s astronomy outreach, spanning
both daylight and nighttime hours, adding up to many hours of public
contact per week. We’re also exporting astronomy outreach to Red
Canyon USFS Visitor Center, Kodachrome Basin State Park, Cedar Breaks
National Monument, Circleville and other local schools on a weekly basis.
In addition to astronomy duties, volunteers also serve regularly
scheduled shifts at the information desk of Bryce Canyon Visitor Center.
The Bryce Canyon astronomy program continues to be a dynamic aspect of
the interpretation efforts of the park.
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