400 Years of the Telescope

Wednesday morning, the team awoke bright and early, prepared for an early morning departure. Their sleepy eyes, in need of caffeine and about 2 more hours of sleep, crossed the street to the nearest gas station and got fuel for the car and coffee for themselves. They realized about two hours into the trip that they needed another refueling, not for the car, but for them – the first round of coffee hadn’t done the trick. To solve this problem, the team stopped once more about 40 miles from the Arizona border for coffee and a small bite to eat. While making this stop, the team contacted Jennifer Oman, our amazing NSF grant-writer and Greg Payne, local Chico artist, who were staying in Kingman, Arizona for the week. We made plans to meet them in Kingman for some coffee and a chat before we started on the final stretch towards Flagstaff, Arizona.

We arrived at Lowell Observatory at 2pm and were immediately connected with our contact, Steele Wotkyns, public information officer at the observatory. He set us up for the afternoon with Kevin Schindler, the outreach manager of the Observatory, for an interview about the history of Lowell. The observatory, established at the very end of the 19th century, was a major contributor to scientific observations around the turn of the century. For example, the 24” Clark Telescope was used by observers in the early 20th century to observe Mars. Another telescope at the observatory was used to make the first observations of Pluto. After the interview, the crew set up the PlanOCam and had Dr. Schindler and another of the outreach officers move the telescope while the crew stood outside the dome. The interview and "Plan-o-Cam" footage acquisition went as well as could be expected.

The team now rests up for another near-full day of travel through the rest of Arizona towards New Mexico. They will sleep in New Mexico tomorrow night, prepared to ascend the mountain at Sunspot on Friday. Wish us luck on the roads through the Southwest with all those big-rig trucks.