[sac-forum] A wild and crazy night out observing

Well;

 

At 4 o'clock it was clear, honest.  David Fredericksen and I talked on the
phone and said "let's go take a look at the site we found west of Phoenix
off I-10 and see how the lights are, and do we want to have a club star
party at that location?

 

So, we climbed into David's big new truck and made our way to Hovatter road,
about 100 miles from the central Phoenix.  We had bought sandwiches at the
Subway at Tonapah, we set up the table and chairs and started eating and
chatting about the clouds.  The site is to the south of I-10 at Hovatter and
then 2 miles on the dirt road, past some antennas and then you can't miss
it.  There is a large, white washing machine that someone has abandoned on a
huge desert pavement.  This is on the left once you come out of a wash, just
look to your left.  If you get out onto the flats you went too far.  

 

Because there are three telephone antennas at the site, we decided to call
it the "Three Towers" site.  David and I found that this will make a fine
site for a distant, dark location.  The hills block off the Phoenix very
nicely.

 

Now, the fun began.  We packed up about 9PM and started back into town.  As
we did so the most amazing light show started up.  Lightening like we have
rarely seen in Arizona started shooting off in all directions.  We decided
to turn onto Sun Valley Parkway since I-10 was obviously a mess.  However,
soon the Sun Valley path was no better.  Raindrops the size of a meatball
were hitting the windshield and the roads in Sun City were flowing rivers.

 

But, we got through.  It took a while to crawl along and try to avoid
getting water spray to go OVER the ford F-950 truck (I made that up).

 

It was a memorable evening, one of the most powerful storms I have ever seen
in 30 years of being an Arizona weather watcher.  Wow.

 

Clear Skies to us all;

Steve Coe

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