Day 19 - Mc Donald Observatory

Today was a really good day! I would place it on the top best 50 days of my life, because I got to move a 160 ton, 107 inch wide telescope just with the touch of my finger.

But let's wind back to the beginning. The McDonald observatory is located 48 miles north of Marfa just after Fort Davis. We were supposed to visit Fort Davis, but it was closed because of the government shut down. It was an old fort operational from 1854 to 1891, to protect the emigrants going from San Antonio to El Paso from Comanche attacks.

So off we went to the observatory, which sits on top of  Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains, and it is part of the University of Texas at Austin. We knew of this observatory from the Star Date program on NPR and the warm voice of Sandy Wood. I was hoping to meet her, but at the reception they told me that she is really lives in Austin at the university.

           


We enrolled in every possible tour for the day. In fact, around here, you really have to plan your visit because many sites are open only three out of seven days a week.

So I learned a bunch of stuff. I am going to write it down here as I understood it ....

The nebula is a dense 'cloud' of gases that twirl around until they concentrate so much that a star (or stars) is formed. That's why nebula are called star nurseries.

The sun does not have a magnetic field like the earth because portions of its surface rotate at different speeds causing the magnetic field to become wound many times around. This causes the creation of many small magnetic fields that shoot plasma out from one pole and catches it from an other. These small magnetic fields cover the sun surface. The surface of the sun looks like boiling water due to the convection of heat from the core to the cooler surface, and then back down to the core. Sometimes the magnetic fields are so wound up, that the don't allow the plasma to go down again so they cool off from 9000°F to 6000°F and become sun spots (because they shine less). Some magnetic fields are even more wound up like a rubber band ball that they explode popping their cap and shooting out plasma into space. Sometimes the earth is at the right position to be a target, but luckily our super awesome magnetic field protects us and dissipates the rays like the Enterprise shield in Star-trek. At the earth poles some of the lower level radiation makes it in and causes the aurora borealis. What else? Oh yeah! One of these days (it happens every 150 years) there will be a flare that is so big that our shield will be powerless and it will wipe out all our electrical grids, generators and everything that has current running through. Get ready!

Then I got to drive the super ginormous telescope, the Harlan J. Smith Telescope.

Then we went to see the latest and greatest, the 10-meter wide Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET). This is made of  91 hexagonal segments, and because of this design the cost was greatly reduced. The telescope does not move like the others. The giant composite mirror rotates and the surface is analyzed at the focus by instrumentation that moves on a rail and around. You can't get pretty views of stars with this telescope, it only provides spectroscopic data. In fact they told us that 50% of astronomical research nowadays is in spectroscopy. Their latest big project is to determine what is causing the universe to expand. To do this the telescope repeatedly captures millions of data points in the sky and all this information is analyzed in software. They told us that half the scientists involved in the project are software engineers. They will also use this equipment in the search for earth-like exoplanets.

The twilight presentation was more for family, but nonetheless it made you think about stuff that I never busied my mind to ponder. For example, Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, has an orbit of 88 days, while Mars' is 2 years and Jupiter 12 years. That causes Jupiter to be in a different zodiac sign every year. In fact the zodiac signs are lined up in the celestial vault and they become visible to our eyes according to the month. Also from earth we get to see Mercury and Venus only at dusk and dawn. Why? Because they are always behind us at night when we look away from the sun, since they are closest to the sun. Neat hey? 

It was a cloudy day, and the Star Party was a pooper; well not completely. We got to have a nice presentation by a real astronomer (I forgot his name). He showed us the constellations and various objects that we could see at the Star Party as we were waiting for the clouds to clear out. And they did! So we went out in the bitter cold and we got to see through the dome telescopes and other fancy telescopes: Mars, the Orion Nebula, Andromeda galaxy, the Pleiades 7 stars cluster and Messier 15 globular cluster.

The cherry on top was a spectrometer demonstration. I am almost glad it was cloudy.

We were given special glasses to look through a light source. This tool separated the light in the different colors like a prism. We saw the different patterns of light color according to the element. For example hydrogen is only three vertical lines. We were able to identify the element contained in an unknown light source. Very cool! I freakin' love science!

Day 18 - Marfa and Alpine

Today  is Martin Luther King's day and everything is closed.
Bill went on a run and there was a celebration in front of the courthouse and teachers, superintendent, and few students from the local school read speeches from famous people like Dr. King and Angela Davis. When I arrived they were reading 'Beyond Vietnam' by Dr. King. It was a very powerful speech for such a modest town. It was an amazing atmosphere. I was impressed.

In this afternoon we went to visit Alpine, a small town 26 miles west of Marfa.
We walked around a bit but even here everything was closed. On a positive side, the town had many beautiful murals

guns are not allowed in the bank

historical cattle brands

small art galleries/aribnb/cafe'

displayed in an antique shop

Day 17 - Las Cruces to Marfa

We did not stop in El Paso. We'll probably regret it. Maybe on the way back, if we have time, we'll swing by.
We are in Texas! Yippie Ya Yey!

The RV resort is basic but the internet is awesome! Finally! This is the first time from the beginning of this trip. I want to stay in Marfa forever.

Tonight there was the moon eclipse, so as soon as we saw it happening, we drove to the McDonald observatory, in the hopes that maybe there was someone with a telescope.

It took us an hour, but we made it around 10 pm. The observatory was closed and super dark.

The sky was so clear that we could see the milky way. And then there was the Moon in red, completely covered by the Earth's shadow.

We approached a couple of guys, the only two there and their telescope.

We talked in the dark admiring the firmament, looking at the Moon, talking about Texas and California. It was bitter cold and windy but Tai didn't seem to be phased. He was a first good introduction to Southern hospitality. We got lucky!

At night, back at the trailer, the water was not running. The hose had frozen.

Day 16 - Tucson to Las Cruces

Today, on our way to Las Cruces, New Mexico, we visited Kartchner Caverns State Park.
It was discovered in November 1974 by two cavers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen. They had found a sinkhole in the Whetstone limestone mountain.
After crawling inside the cavern for a length of a football field they arrived at the 'Big Room', the mother lode of all caverns, never to be seen before by human eyes.
They swore secrecy for many years, afraid that the caverns would get vandalized if they became public knowledge. The park story had many ups and downs, that involved the land owners,  James and Lois Kartchner, Charles R. Eatherly, Special Projects Coordinator for the Arizona State Parks Board, two governors and a lot of money, which the state did not have. They were called the secret caves, and at one point of the story Eatherly had to be blindfolded and driven in the middle of the night for a cave tour to convince him that this was really worth it his attention.
For many reasons, it took a long time before the caves became a state park in 1988, and then opened to the public in 1999.

We took the 'Big Room' tour. Pictures were not allowed so we don't have anything to show.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave a healthy slew of jokes. The caverns were amazing.
The tour start with airlocks and a spray of water to remove particles from our bodies. It was like entering a space shuttle before take off! They are really serious about preserving these caves.
We learned about different formations: stalactites, stalagmites, drapery, bacon drapery, soda straws, columns, fried eggs, popcorn... by the end of the tour I was hungry!

The 'Big Room' caves are closed during the summer for the local bat population mating season. I wish I could see them in there. Instead we saw many piles of guano.

My daughter called me from the Women's rally in San Diego, and I felt bad to have missed it. So I did my part in the parking lot :D

We spent the night in Las Cruces, New Mexico. 

In the evening we went out for a drink at La Posta de Mesilla in Mesilla. This restaurant has been around since the town was founded. There were rooms everywhere and a cage with several big parrots, including two macaws. I always get sad when I see birds in a cage, but these guys seem to be well taken care of.

We talked to the bartender to find out what we could see in El Paso. She named few places but at the end we were not too impressed. It looks like Mesilla fitted more out mood.

We also talked to a girl, Tracy from Florida, California and New York. She was a lot of fun, smart and witty. She told us about other places to visit in the south and we took note.

Sopaipillas con miel

Day 15 - Tombstone and Bisbee

We decided to stay an extra day in Tucson so we could visit Tombstone and Bisbee. Tombstone was historically the epitome of a wild west boom town. For a few years around 1880 the town was made up of prospectors, miners, gunslingers, gamblers, outlaws, marshals, sheriffs, immigrants, prostitutes, priests, ministers, Apache, etc., all mixed together in what must havehbeen a very crazy place. We got the lowdown on a half hour tour bus around town. By 1881 it was one of the largest towns between St. Louis and San Francisco.

Boot Hill cemetery. Favorite epitaph: "Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a 44, no Les, no more."

County government building.

Schieffelin (founder of Tombstone) hall-opera house. It is the largest standing adobe structure in the Southwest today.

One of the many shops - lots of boots!

One of the saloons, it has been rebuilt over the years.

The most famous saloon and wildest of the town, The Bird Cage. Non-stop 24x7 poker table lasting years with multi-day waiting lists to get on the table.

Inside the Bird Cage - bullet holes can still be seen in the ceiling and painting.

Tourist stage coach ride.

More of the town.

A funny saloon.

View of the main street.

On to Bisbee!

Bisbee was also a big mining town, but mainly copper. It is located a half hour south of Tombstone.

It was a very successful town in the first half of the 1900's, but then the economics of copper mining changed, open pit mining was more cost effective, so the mines were closed and the town had an economic decline in the 60's. According to our guide, what saved Bisbee was that it was discovered by the hippies! They came, bought the inexpensive houses, fixed them up and preserved the historical sites. Now the city is a mix of old southwest buildings with various murals, paintings and sculptures. The shops have an alternative vibe and it is a pleasant place to hangout.

Getting ready for the mine tour of Bisbee!

A couple of strapping miners!

The town has renovated the main old mine for tours called the Queen Mine. We took the mine train down to 1000 feet under the surface (there are mines under town as far as 3000 feet).

Explanation from the guide how miners will place 27 holes in a wall 7 feet deep, and then pack them with dynamite. The middle hole has 4 empty holes around it, and it is the first to explode. That way the rock gives at that point (rather than have the dynamite just blast straight out the hole). The other holes then explode in order around the center point, and at the end the lowest holes explode to allow the whole wall to fall.

Old elevator to transport workers and materials down.

Heavy duty porta potty!

The newer open pit mine

Another look at the open pit mine. The water is very caustic due to minerals such as copper according to the guide.

View of downtown Bisbee.

One of the alleyways of town with paintings hung.

Art work in town.