The Heavens Through Sky Center’s Telescope
Catalina Highway to Mt. Lemmon. Photo by Wendy Buckley.
(While 99% of the Guide’s content is either Ms. Karen’s or Jim’s product, occasionally we invite adventurous and talented others to write a guest column. Wendy & Richard Buckley are visiting us from Alberta and we encouraged them to experience the Sky Center’s night program. This is their report.)
We recommend this program to anyone who enjoys the beauty of the night skies and the magnificent scenery around the Tucson Basin. We took the 27 mile drive to the top of Mount Lemmon; glorious views all the way up from a number of vista points.
We, and 13 others, were met at the top by Kathie Zelaya, our administrator/guide/driver/caterer/entertainer. She was great – highly informed, highly informative and very entertaining. We started with an orientation of the overall site. Then, inside the learning centre for some basics on the night skies and the physics of sunsets. Then out again, with binoculars provided, to view the sunset. It was wonderful; just enough cloud to deliver spectacular colors. A light meal and coffee/tea was provided.
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula. Also known as M42, the nebula’s glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large star-forming region, but also because the nebula’s energetic stars have blown away obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block our view – providing an intimate look at a range of ongoing stages of star birth and evolution.
As predicted by Kathie, the cloud cleared for the night sky viewing. We viewed stars such as Sirius and Betelgeuse, the Orion and Crab nebulae, the Pleiades and other star clusters, Andromeda and other galaxies, and Jupiter with four of its moons through the 34” Schulman telescope, one of the largest available for use by the public.
Messier 31, the Great Andromeda Galaxy, thanks to Edwin Hubble and the 100″ Hooker telescope on Mt. Wilson, played a pivotal role in the science of astronomy. Until Hubble discovered Cepheid variable stars in 1923 in what was then known as the Great Andromeda Nebula, no one seriously considered that this naked eye smudge of glowing light in the constellation Andromeda was another galaxy very similar to our own. A classic spiral galaxy, M31 is our closest neighbor galaxy, at only 2.5 million light-years away.
Even when not using the telescope, it’s amazing how much you can see with just a decent pair of binoculars if you know where to look.
Sky Center Telescope. Photo by Wendy Buckley.
TIPS:
Book ahead, each tour has a limit of 20 people and the spaces fill up fast.
Leave early and allow lots of time for the drive up the mountain. It truly is spectacular, you’ll want to stop often, especially at the Seven Cataracts, Windy Point and Hoodoos Vista Points.
Dress in layers and bring a warm coat. It’s chilly on top of the mountain after sunset. The tour alternates between outside cool and inside warm.
The program lasted from 4pm to 10pm this time of year, so with the drive up the mountain, this takes the best part of an afternoon and evening.
Click here to visit the Sky Center Website.
For additional Star Gazing or Solar Gazing experiences, visit the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Watch our Kitt Peak video here.
