Saturday, Oct 15

Today was a great day with two very different experiences. I drove from Yuma to Tucson, Arizona taking in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Organ Pipe Cactus is one of the few major National Parks/Monuments in the southwest that I had not visited previously and, since it is on the border with Mexico, this trip seemed like the perfect opportunity. As the name suggests, it protects the only area in the US where the Organ Pipe Cactus grows – which also happens to include some scenic areas. Unfortunately much of the monument is closed to the public due to ongoing smuggling activities so I drove the recommended Ajo Mountain Scenic Drive which is a 21 mile, mainly dirt, loop through cacti and canyons. The video gave me the best, albeit very shaky, view of the drive as I was concentrating on avoiding rocks and obstacles more than I was taking in the surroundings. I also walked a short, informative trail near the visitor’s center.

Next stop was the Kitt Peak National Observatory which has the largest, most diverse array of astronomical telescopes in the world. I had visited here about 10 years ago for the tour but, this time, I had come for their Nightly Observation Program. The program starts about an hour before sunset and they give you a light dinner before teaching you how to read star charts to identify stars and constellations. There is then a session, using binoculars, to understand many of the main features of the night sky, such as identifying the Pole Star as a point of reference and then discussing the motion of planets, comets, stars etc. We observed Mars, Jupiter, Venus, several constellations and the Milky Way.

Finally, came the part that I was waiting for which was observing through a 20 inch, research-grade reflecting telescope. Our guide showed us an open cluster, a planetary nebula, a globular cluster, a binary star system and Neptune while explaining the basics of each. Although I taught astrophysics for many years and knew the information I had never actually seen these sort of objects, except in photographs, before. We left at about 9:30 and, since the area is an active research site, they took special precautions to reduce the amount of light created by our departure. Our headlights had to be covered while we drove off the top of the mountain and were uncovered on the way down. I had not attempted to video night driving before and was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out but, of course, it is not scenic. The map and video of the long day is here.

These are saguaro, not organ pipe, cacti at the National Monument visitor center but I thought they looked very human and fun

These are organ pipe cacti (and a couple of saguaro) out on the Ajo Mountain Scenic Drive.

One of several excellent views from Kitt Peak
Sunset at Kitt Peak with a telescope building on the left. The colors were very vivid and, about five seconds after I took this photo, I saw my first green flash.

Sunday, Oct 16

This was almost a day off from driving. As I have now covered just over 6,000 miles on this trip it is time to get the car serviced but, being a Sunday, the two Jiffy Lubes I tried were very busy and I did not want to wait for over an hour so the car will have to continue for another a day or two. I did laundry, planned how I wanted to get to the Gulf of Mexico (which is the most challenging part of the remainder of the perimeter), watched baseball and relaxed.