canyons and telescopes

(continuation of trip report)

I took the photo above when Jeff and I decided to check out the Grand Canyon at sunrise. The high-res version is now my laptop desktop. :-) I was pretty surprised when Jeff suggested the early morning canyon visit since he is definitely not a morning person, figured he would bail at the last minute. But I was wrong, and when he woke me up at 5:00 a.m. (as I had asked) to see if I wanted to come along, there was no way I was going to say no. -I- was supposed to be the perky morning person, after all!



Sara and Jeff at a lookout point.


So we sat for a couple of hours, just watching the morning sunlight gradually spill over the rock, warming grey shadows into pale rose and sandy browns, breathing life into the canyon.

It's a morning I won't soon forget.



Me in front of the canyon at sunset. Photo by Ruth.


I'm not a hot weather person, so initially I wasn't crazy about visiting Arizona during its hottest season. What I found when I got there: while it was definitely HOT (it got up to 109 deg Fahrenheit in Phoenix during our visit), it wasn't the hell that I had been expecting, probably because of the lack of humidity. So little humidity, in fact, that after leaving the women's washroom in one hotel with wet hands because the hand dryer wasn't working, my hands were COMPLETELY DRY by the time I got outside less than a minute later.

Kinda freaky, but it inspired me to drink a lot more water. I think the person who came up with the "eight glasses of water a day" rule must have lived in Arizona.





Seeing the Grand Canyon was the highlight of this trip for me; sadly, my photos don't do justice to the incredible experience of seeing the canyon in real life. I was still blown away by the breathtaking view despite the cliche/tourist factor. Someday, I'd like to come back during cooler weather and plan a trek to the bottom.



My brother-in-law Kaarel.


In Flagstaff, we visited the Lowell Observatory, which is a privately owned astronomical research institution founded in 1894 by Boston mathematician Percival Lowell, best known for the discovery of Pluto as well as his theories about canals on Mars. Other noteworthy Lowell Observatory discoveries include evidence that the universe is expanding, discovery of the rings of Uranus, and the continuing search and discovery of numerous asteroids, near earth asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt Objects, and extra-solar planets.

We had a chance to look at a double star and the M-5 cluster through the 24-inch Alvan Clark refractor telescope which Lowell used to study Mars around the turn of the century. Sara and Annie used a small stool so they could look through the eyepiece of this telescope:





We also got to check out the telescope used to discover Pluto:





I had no idea that Pluto was named by an 11-year-old English girl. Those interested in finding help more about how Pluto was discovered should check out this link.

(tomorrow: cabin near Sedona!)

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