Saturday, May 20, 2017, Lowell Observatory

The small town of Williams, AZ, had a surprising amount of charm. As the "Gateway to the Grand Canyon," it included the Grand Canyon Hotel and train station. The 300,000-pound beauty below was no longer in service or I might have opted for a train ride. 

Oops, I guess I need to tell David about the Steam Locomotives being pulled out a few times a year for special runs (on the first Saturday-March through October and at Christmas).

As it happened, our timing was just right for the 2nd annual Route 66 Car Show.

Route 66 was the main highway between Chicago and Los Angeles until the completion of the last segment of I-40 on October 13th, 1984. (Good thing it was a Saturday or there might have been a lot of superstitious folks in town.) Williams, Arizona, was the last town (and the last stoplight) on Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40 due to a lawsuit trying to prevent the town from becoming irrelevant. The suits were dropped when they reached an agreement to give tiny Williams three exits on 1-40. The last (and only) stoplight was removed after the bypass was completed and is housed in the Williams Visitor Center.

Look at me wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt near the end of May! It actually was pretty comfortable after the sun broke the overnight chill.

As I was walking by Elvis, I overheard a young mother explaining to her 10-ish daughter "he was a famous singer in your grandpa's day."  Ouch!

The 1936, V-8 Ford convertible with a rumble seat was my favorite. It was absolutely immaculate as if it had just come off of the showroom floor.

I remember my grandparents had a classic Rambler Nash Metropolitan like the one below. It might have even been the same color.

Williams is loaded with good restaurants and shopping for every price point.  Wild west shootouts happen throughout the day when the car show isn't in town. (Sam hates those!)  The town is as busy in the evening hours as it is midday.

After a nap, we headed into Flagstaff for a long-awaited visit to the Lowell Observatory.  The Lowell family was credited with starting the Industrial Revolution in the United States. That wealth allowed Percival Lowell to pursue his interest in astronomy. He commissioned the 24 inch Clark refractor in the 1890's and housed it in the unusual looking dome below.  

Lowell is part of the ASTC Travel Passport Program making it a free stop for us.

Our docent, Kevin, filled us in on the history of the facility as well as the life and accomplishments of Percival Lowell. Most notable, of course, was his belief that there were intelligent aliens on Mars who built extensive canals to channel water from the polar regions for irrigation. 

I liked the observing chair for viewing objects low in the night sky. The entire dome was a woodworking piece of art. It was built by two bicycle builders who said they could build anything. Percival said "build me a dome" and they did.

Percival Lowell's remains were kept in a mausoleum on the grounds near the 24-inch telescope. He obviously really loved astronomy to make this his final resting place.

As I recall, the Boller and Chivens 16 inch below was identical to the North Georgia College and State University telescope in Dahlonega, GA, where the North Georgia Astronomers would meet.

A large part of their charter at the Lowell Observatory was public outreach. They certainly offered a variety of activities. In addition to tours of the grounds, there was a talk on the planets in our solar system, a talk about stars and galaxies, a hydrogen alpha solar telescope in the afternoon, and a variety of telescopes set up for observing after dark.

We stayed late with the expectation of taking a look through the 24 inch Clark refractor, but we listened to an interesting lecture on Science and Religion and when it was over there was a long, long, ridiculously long line waiting at the telescope. It was an estimated 45-minute wait, so maybe next time!

I did enjoy meeting an actual career astronomer, Joe, whose field was exo-planets.  He explained what he did and talked about the newly discovered Trappist 1 system that included 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting a star about 40 light years away. Three of the planets are believed to be in the "habitable zone" where temperatures would allow the existence of liquid water. Too bad they are 234,600,000,000,000 miles away.

We headed home around 9:30 to a dog who was very happy to see us. It was a long day, but it was certainly a lot of fun!