HI All,
I have now moved onto the next and last phase of my trip, as I am now in San Diego for 7 days. The weather here is certainly better than the last place.
Flagstaff is a nice town, which sits at 7000 feet in elevation and due to recent heavy rainfall it is nice a green around Flagstaff and its surrounding areas.
The first day was spent at the Barringer Meteor Crater. Although most people think it is just a big hole in the ground, it is what that hole represents that is interesting. It was interesting to see the shock within the rock formations. Because it was hard to get any real scale to this crater, I suggested that they get three identical items and place one close to the viewing platform, in the middle and at the other side, in order to get a better perspective of size. At 4000 across, it is huge and 2 1/2 miles in circumference, just doesn't look it. Nevertheless, it was an awesome sight.
Later that day, I bought a half kilo piece of the Canyon Diablo Iron/Nickel meteorite from a dealer in Flagstaff. I now own a little piece of a supernova. Cool
I also bought a couple of other meteorites from other falls as well, but these were much smaller.
The drive out to the meteorite crater was great too, as I sat on 130kph without the fear of getting picked up for speeding. The Police here give you a reasonable leeway on speed here. The Insterstate speed limit is 120kph and the traffic actually keeps to the inside lane too. The outside lane is for passing only. I never had to slow down....awesome
I blew past a cop doing about 10-12 k's over the limit and he didn't even bat an eyelid. Well, of course I really couldn't see if he did bat an eyelid or not, but he didn't chase me
. Another interesting thing about driving in the US is the ability to turn right at red lights, as long as it is safe to do so or otherwise noted. Great idea, but it couldn't happen in Perth, as the proliferation of Red Light cameras would prevent this.
The second day was spent at Lowell Observatory where I had a personal tour of the facilities, including the Dicovery Channel Telescope (DCT). This came about due to my previous ties with Perth Observatory where I did some collaborative work for Lowell.
The DCT is an awesome RCT design scope, and at USD54 million it would want to be! I thought about putting one of these on Santa's list ythis year, but with an operating cost of nearly 14,000 per day, I don't think so
The delevelopement cost of this scope was actually quite cheap, relatively speaking, as it utilised existing technology, just upscaled. The encoders on the DCT really impressed me with a pointing accuracy of 20,000 of an arc second
And that can be improved further, apparently.
The DCT utilises Active Optics, as opposed to Adaptive Optics. Actice Optics, keeps an accurate shape of the mirror instead of trying to match the wavefront, as it Adaptive Optics. The accuracy of keeping the mirror to its correct figure is astonishing. This telescope also has on site its own vacuum chamber for aluminising, which is an upscaled version of an existing design, thus reducing cost. The vacuum chamber can get an astonishing low vacuum, but I didn't understand the figure quoted, so haven't mentioned it here. But I am told figure quoted is extremely low. Also, it has some neat technology built in to distribute the aluminium coating evenly.
The DCT was clevely designed and built at a much reduced cost. Its called the DCT in recognition of the seed money donated by the Discovery Channel. Interestingly, the discovery channel doesn't get assigned any time either, which surprised me.
The observatory and dome structure was also an interesting design and as a result is much smaller than it would normally need to be. The mounting system is also impressive.
Unfortunately, due to a major power outage in the area it wasn't able to be used. It does have a backup generators, the backup generators also failed, due to battery problems. The DCT uses an enormous amount of electricity to operate it and its instrument packages.
The instrument box can hold five different instruments at once, and each altitude can also be fitted with instruments as well. So, technically, it can have mounted 7 instruments, with mirrors to switch between instruments.
Although this telescope has seen first light and taken an awesome image of the Somberoro Galaxy,k it is still in the commisioning stage and won't be ready for any science for a few more months. Overall, I thought it was an astonishingly nice telescope
I also got to see all the other scopes on Mars Hill and at the Anderson Mesa Research Centre, including the scope Clyde Tombaugh used to discover Pluto. Interestingly, Lowell, in conjunction with the US Navy have an interferometer set up at the Anderson Mesa for acurately measuring bright star positions. The interferometer has three arms in a Y configeration.
It was a very interesting day and I was also interestwed to learn that Lowell now actively seeks pro-am colloboration.
The third day I started out very early for the Grand Canyon. The drive there was great as I drove through forrest and had the road all to myself. The Grand canyon sure is great. I knew it was big, but until I stood at the edge, I had no idea how big it really is. Being there gives you a whole new perspective. But, I have to admit to being a little disappointed too, as the pollution that hangs in the Canyon is quite evident by a blue haze. Apparently, it is like this all year round and is related to pollution.
When I got there I thought I must have taken a left turn at Albuquerque and ended up in Europe! There were French and Germans everywhere i went. I had a hard time finding someone who spoke English to ask them to take my photo.
Mid morning, I decided to leave the GC and head to Canyon De Chelly in the Navajo Nation (on the suggestion of fellow IIS'er Gary). I was advised, by GC staff, that it was a three hour drive, but in reality was a 4 1/2 drive. But, what a drive, I loved it. Driving from the Canyon I went from Ponderosa pine forrest, to thick bushland, (the type I know not), down through mountains to Prairie devoid of anything above about 6" to totally desolate land that had nothing growing on it and then limestone mountains with barely anything tgrowing on it. It surprises me that here and there tuffs of grass clings tenaciously to these rocks. The colours were awesome as was the variety of changing landescapes. Because of recent rains there were different colour flowers blooming here and there, which made for a very contrasting drive.
I arrived mid afternoon at Canyon De Chelly, Chinle, and what an awesome place. I wished I had come here first, as I would have lovged to take a tour into the Canyon, the floor of which was very green. The "house under the rocks" was also very interesting, but from the viewing platform, it looked like a model, giving you a great perspective of how big this canyon is. I ended up sitting on the edge of the canyon in quiet relection until after dark.
I left Chinle after dark and it took another 5 hours driving to get back to the hotel in Flagstaff. It was great driving at night without the fear of hitting a roo.
I thoroughly enjoyed the drive from the GC to Canyon De Chelly and back to Flagstaff and covered over 600 miles. Fortunately, I like long distance driving. Some people here think driving 600 miles is awesome, but I have done more as a Service Manager for an Agricultural company.
The Final day was spent at the Sunset Crater National Park and the lava Fields were awesome, as were the cinder strewn hills, devoid of any life. Hmm I seemed to be using the word awesome a lot on this trip.
Well, there is lots more to tell but I think I have prattled on enough, time to go get something to eat.
Take care everybody.
Cheers Peter
Totally unconnected with astro stuff, but while in San Diego, the safari park there was well worth a visit - at least it was in 2011. 
re: There were French and Germans everywhere i went.
