Day 6 - Historic Flagstaff - Lowell Observatory

Wednesday - September 11, 2019

First I will share a few photos of our lodgings for the next few days. It is quite comfortable, especially just for the two of us. It is a three level unit. We have 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a very nice kitchen, living room with a rock fireplace and leather sofa and chair. The dining table sits 8 (a little overkill for us). There are two decks, an upper and lower with access from the living room, the dining room and the master bedroom. There is a full golf course on the property, which we will not be using and a 9 hole par 3 which loans clubs! We will probably avail ourselves of this course before we depart.

Mount Elden at 12,355 feet can be seen in the distance from our deck.

Dining room to the left, living area to the right. The kitchen is located behind me and the living area.

We have a nice large master, with deck access and a large walk-in closet, but it's hardly worth unpacking for 5 nights...

We elected for today to be an "easy" day to let our bodies catch-up. Tomorrow is Grand Canyon day and it will be long and busy with a lot of walking. There is really nothing exciting about this post, unless you are an astronomy or old town nerd, which we both are.

We visited Lowell Observatory, being there when it opened at 10:00 AM and spent about 2 1/2 hours touring the grounds, watching films and listening to programs. It was a very enjoyable visit.

The 42 inch Lampland reflector, retired in 1964 after an attempted upgrade fractured the 7 inch thick mirror into many pieces.

The 42 inch reflector above, was for many years the largest telescope in Arizona. It was built by Clark and Son and installed in 1903. This instrument was used for planetary study by

Astronomer Carl Lampland who pioneered infra-red radiometry, determining the temperature of Mars and Jupiter, using thermocouples. Henry Giclas used the

telescope in a solar variation project after 1956, and later for photoelectric photometry.

Famous Clark 24 inch refactor dome

This beautiful precision instrument was built in 1894.

This is a stock photo of the telescope.

The 24 inch was Percival Lowell's primary instrument in his Mars investigations, and was used by V.M Slipher to measure the redshifts of galaxies and thus discover the expansion of the universe.

This instrument is still if full use for research, and despite it's size and mass, it can easily be rotated by hand. It is truly a precision instrument.

The intricate wood dome.

I was almost as much in awe over the wooden dome as I was the telescope itself.

The dome rotates on auto tires.

The tires are circa 1940 and as you can see were Ford!

I'll not bore the faithful readers with anymore astronomy nerd photos...

After leaving Lowell, we went to the Historic Downtown area along Route 66 where we walked a couple of miles enjoying the old buildings architecture and then had lunch.

The old town hall.

One of the many Babbitt Brothers Buildings.

The old Weatherford Hotel. Many famous people have stayed here including Teddy Roosevelt, Zane Grey and William Randolph Hearst

Not sure about this building, but it was interesting.

I couldn't end without sharing a meal with you. We had lunch at Collins Irish Pub.

This perhaps was not the absolutely best Shepard's pie i have had, but it ranked close to the top. It was accompanied by a Smithwick's Draught, my favorite Irish Red, yum!

Kay had a Reuben, of which she sang it's praises.

As I stated earlier, we are visiting the South Rim of the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We plan to visit the North Rim on Sunday on our way to Kaneb, UT. Depending on how late we are getting back, I might not get a post done tomorrow.

So, until the next post...