400 Years of the Telescope

David Dooling of NSO came a-knocking at our cabin door this morning, prepared to show us the Sunspot facilities. He took us up to the solar telescope at the top of the hill that is shaped like an unusual triangle/elongated pyramid. We took some b-roll footage for outside the building, trudging through the brush and rocks, trying not to make contact with the poison oak and trying not to collect any ticks on our clothing.
We all made sure to brush ourselves off before entering the building that housed pristine instrument tables with lasers and mirrors. The interior of the solar telescope looked like a mad scientist’s lair from some 1960s Bond film. The orange glow of the low lights mixed with the spherical hanging lights in the ceiling gave the interior a retro feel. The only thing bringing it into the 21st century was the dozens of computer screens displaying everything from calculations to mirror calibrations to a visual depiction of the sun in real-time.
David opened some of the partitions, giving us a clearer view of some of the technology in the lab used to calibrate the telescope. The camera captured mirrors and lasers and bouncing light from inside the instrument cases. Kris even got an amazing shot of the primary mirror that sits 170 feet below the main floor of the building. The “Wishing Well”, as David calls the mirror, can be seen by looking down a hole in one of the instruments on the main floor.

After the shoot was complete, David escorted us to the Visitor’s Center where we would get to see one of the smaller solar telescopes that was presented in the visitor’s center displays. As we entered the parking lot at the building, we realized that we were not the only people visiting the mountain this morning. We happened upon a PT Cruiser car show. About 50 PT Cruisers were filing into the parking lot, letting their respective passengers get their souvenirs and trinkets before the show began. We entered the packed visitor’s center which we realized was only packed in through the doorway and in the gift shop, but as we approached the solar telescope display, we found that the computer was not up and running. After about 15 minutes of trying to boot the computer, we came to the conclusion that the telescope was down for the day. Bummer! Before leaving the visitor’s center, we were enticed (just like the car-show visitors) to purchase some souvenirs from our visit. We picked up these great sunspot t-shirts with a huge grinning sun on the back. What a treat!

The crew descended the mountain in record time and was on their way to Tucson. This change in our schedule (we were supposed to be heading back to Las Cruces until Monday) was due to a change in our production schedule. Our schedule to interview Dr. Owen Gingerich at Harvard Observatory got moved up a week and the crew needed to fly out the next morning instead of a week later. Anita and Kris were set to fly to Boston Sunday morning for the interview and Krista was heading back to Chico to complete the audio files for transcription. The crew drove the 6 hours to Tucson, stopping for Sonics (mmm jalapeño poppers and cheese fries) for lunch and stopping at “The Thing” a roadside attraction about an hour out of Tucson (I highly recommend this to anyone traveling to or from Arizona!)

Once the team had arrived in Tucson and settled in a hotel a block from the airport, they planned to spend the evening with Kris’ brother, Dean and his wife Donna, owners of the Arizona company, Starizona, which sells telescopes, and telescope and camera equipment. We had no idea until we went to dinner at a local Mexican Restaurant, but it was Dean and Donna’s wedding anniversary. Congratulations to them!! The crew returned with Dean and Donna to their store where outside, some local amateur astronomers had their telescopes set up and observing constellations, distant galaxies and the comet within Perseus which has been visible this past weekend. The crew spent about 30 minutes observing with the crowd, until they decided to return to the hotel and get things packed and prepared for the following morning when they would be departing from Arizona to Boston (Kris and Anita) and back to Chico (Krista). Wish us luck in our travels!