Kitt Peak/Kartchner Caverns

The weekend was a rousing success. We stayed the night in Tucson and took day trips to Kartchner Caverns and the Kitt Peak Observatories. (click on any images to get larger picture)

Our first visit was to the Caverns on Saturday. Sorry, but we have no pictures from that trip ... but for a good reason. Kartchner Caverns are what you call a "living cave" and as such, they work very hard to not mess with the conditions of the cave. They make sure that it maintains its 99% humidity through the use of double-air locks that you travel through and misters that add humidity to the air. Additionally, they try to keep as much extra light (for ex. cameras) out of the cave as possible so that photosynthesis doesn't occur with any organisms that may have accidentally been carried in. They've done a really good job here of maintaining a nice balance between allowing people to see it and keeping the cave pristine. I did scan a few postcards just so you get an idea of how it looks inside. The structures are fantastic.



Sunday was as fun as Saturday. We drove about an hour out of Tucson to Kitt Peak, home of the largest group of astronomical observatories in the world (23 of them). I've wanted to visit Kitt Peak for 20 years but never took the time. It exceeded my expectations. We toured 3 of the observatories ... the rest are closed to visitors because they have active research going on. The three that are open also do research but they've partititioned them off so there is no interference. And the visiting hours, 9-4, obviously don't interfere with the times that an astronomer would be using them.



This is a view of the 3.5 meter telescope, WIYN Observatory (completed in 1994)which is owned and operated by U of Wisconsin, Indian U, Yale, and National Optical Astronomy Observatories. It's octagon shaped to minimize the effects of temperature differences in air currents. These air currents severely degrade astronomical images.



The first one that we toured was the 2.1 meter telescope. It is the center telescope in the following picture:



This is the main part of the telescope ... with the mirror being in the middle structure:



We next toured the National Solar Observatory. It has the obvious distinction of being the only optical telescope on the mountain that operates during the day (there are two radio telescopes).



This is a view from within the observatory looking up through the diagonal structure:



The last observatory we toured was the 4.1 meter Mayall telescope (the largest mirror of any of the telescopes):



These are views from the observation decks 4 stories up with in that telescope:



And from within the room outside the telescope itself:



As you can tell by the previous pictures of Alex and the following one, he had a great time also:





P.S. Many thanks to E & J for watching Duchess and making this weekend possible.