As I've noted in the past, one of the new holiday traditions we've followed the last couple years is to drive an hour north of our house in Tucson to photograph or observe the sunset alignment behind Kitt Peak National Observatory. It happens a few days before, and a few days after the Winter Solstice, so, of course, prime dates are Christmas and Christmas Eve. Fortunately, most everyone is available to join us as they don't work on those days - but I understand about family obligations. But there are a few astronomy buddies who have grown children who are joining us in our tradition. We were joined by at least 10 people along the road on the Mount Lemmon Highway at milepost 8.8 for the annual alignment last evening.
This year we were joined by our TAAA buddy George Barber, who moved to Utah 2 years ago for a job. We were pleasantly surprised when he turned up in town for the Holiday, so he joined us. That is him in the right photo, standing next to Richard in the truck, with Elaine and Carrie at far right. In the left photo, Bill was aligning his scope at left, with Mary sitting behind it, then Susan is visible, with the Jims at right...
And while we were concerned a few days earlier with threats of an arriving front, it cleared early morning and we enjoyed some spectacular blue skies all afternoon and for the trip up the mountain. Just as we arrived at the observing spot, there were a few tiny clouds over the distant view of the observatory, and as we set up gear, waiting for the sunset, those tiny clouds grew into larger ones, obviously borne by pretty high winds - you could actually see them whipping past in the telescopic view of the mountain. And as the photos show, the sunset alignment was wiped out by clouds at the last moment - I only got to briefly see the silhouetted solar telescope in the picture at right.
But as the saying goes - "when life throws you lemons, make lemonade", it was quite a pretty sunset! Obviously after the sun set behind our view of the Observatory, it spent some time in the clear again, and you can see a faint shadow of the 4-meter telescope at the right side of the mountain casting it's shadow up into the sky. Somehow, Melinda caught it more clearly in a hand-held shot with her telephoto and camera at right - you can see the shadow being projected into the cloud itself! Click for the full-sized image and to see it a little more clearly. But even though we missed the observatory silhouette, we had a good time, and proceeded down to Village Inn for some socializing over dinner as we often do after an astronomy club meeting. It was fun spending time with friends, consoling each other over our miss, but telling yarns, tall tales, and big plans for the future. And of course, there is always next year...
This year we were joined by our TAAA buddy George Barber, who moved to Utah 2 years ago for a job. We were pleasantly surprised when he turned up in town for the Holiday, so he joined us. That is him in the right photo, standing next to Richard in the truck, with Elaine and Carrie at far right. In the left photo, Bill was aligning his scope at left, with Mary sitting behind it, then Susan is visible, with the Jims at right...
And while we were concerned a few days earlier with threats of an arriving front, it cleared early morning and we enjoyed some spectacular blue skies all afternoon and for the trip up the mountain. Just as we arrived at the observing spot, there were a few tiny clouds over the distant view of the observatory, and as we set up gear, waiting for the sunset, those tiny clouds grew into larger ones, obviously borne by pretty high winds - you could actually see them whipping past in the telescopic view of the mountain. And as the photos show, the sunset alignment was wiped out by clouds at the last moment - I only got to briefly see the silhouetted solar telescope in the picture at right.
But as the saying goes - "when life throws you lemons, make lemonade", it was quite a pretty sunset! Obviously after the sun set behind our view of the Observatory, it spent some time in the clear again, and you can see a faint shadow of the 4-meter telescope at the right side of the mountain casting it's shadow up into the sky. Somehow, Melinda caught it more clearly in a hand-held shot with her telephoto and camera at right - you can see the shadow being projected into the cloud itself! Click for the full-sized image and to see it a little more clearly. But even though we missed the observatory silhouette, we had a good time, and proceeded down to Village Inn for some socializing over dinner as we often do after an astronomy club meeting. It was fun spending time with friends, consoling each other over our miss, but telling yarns, tall tales, and big plans for the future. And of course, there is always next year...
nice photos in spite of the clouds, good to see mr barber again.
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