FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] North Rim Star Party Notes

[Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>]

After spending Friday night at Five Mile Meadow, Jenn and I went to the North 
Rim star party, where we spent Sunday and Monday nights.  On the way up, we 
stopped off at Chris Luginbuhl's home in Flagstaff.  Chris is the forgotten 
co-author of "Brian's book" (http://tinyurl.com/dxgu9) on deep-sky observing.  
He also knows more and has done more about lighting practices in Flagstaff than 
anybody else, and we got an education on the subject.

The North Rim star party is held on the porch behind the lodge.  The horizon is 
obviously zero degrees for a great extent of azimuth to the south.  The lodge 
blocks the northern and northwestern views up to 30 degrees, and a nearby 
building blocks the view to the northeast.  You do lose the Ring Nebula and a 
few other northern Milky Way objects, but not much more.

There are three pesky lights, one of which drove us off for Night #2.  They 
eventually unscrewed the two attached to the lodge, but left on a terrible 
light on the building to the east that cast harsh shadows.  I don't know if 
that has been taken care of as I write.  It singlehandedly destroyed what would 
have been incredble dark-sky views.  With these lights off, the porch is a 
great site for up to a dozen telescopes or so.  By the way, during brief 
periods between wind gusts on the porch, seeing was very good, despite the 
nearby hole in the ground!  In general, though, *all* of the lighting at the 
North Rim is among the least astronomy-friendly I have seen. 

On Monday night, we were given permission to observe at Cape Royal, which is at 
the end of a faraway, isolated peninsula at 7800 feet elevation.  I wouldn't 
try this without ranger approval, as we were told that night by a ranger that 
staying there even without at tent in the back of the truck was "on the margin" 
for visitors.

Due to an unforgiving wind, we looked at zero telescopic objects while at Cape 
Royal.  Taking a look around in the huge parking area, however, it struck me as 
the best large-star-party site I have visited in the state.  The parking lot 
could easily fit as many telescopes as we have at the Arizona City site.  The 
vegetation quickly drops to low junipers approaching Cape Royal, so the horizon 
is lower than 5 degrees for the full sweep of azimuth.  The sky is as as dark 
as it gets but for two very small light domes from Vegas and Laughlin (I 
think).  My guess is that the local seeing might be good, as this is not our 
usual basin or meadow setup.  The downside is that there are no facilities, and 
it's a very tortuous 15-mile drive back to something resembling civilization.  
I wonder if we could get permission for a group to use the lot if we give the 
Park Service enough advance notice.

We made a slow return trip from the North Rim.  The 3 1/2-hour drive back to 
Flagstaff is one of the most scenic in the Southwest.  We made a return visit 
for dinner with Chris Luginbuhl, and it was back to Phoenix, where it's not 
even 100 degrees.  What's the deal?

Almost forgot to mention that the star party was led by SAC's Margie Williams 
with Chuck Schroll from Tucson.  Bill Dellinges made the trip from Apache 
Junction.  Otherwise, the scopers were from other states, and in one case, 
England.

Tom

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