Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Joani had the idea to get up early and watch the sunrise over Goblin Valley.  Needless to say, her resolve was tested when it was time to get up in the dark.  With a bit of prodding, we were able to get to the Observation Point before the sun.  The glowing reds, oranges and yellows creeping into the deep blue/black sky make the early wake-up worthwhile and there's always the afternoon nap to make up for any lost sleep!

The sunrise was nice, but I was ready for some breakfast.  I can't see the early morning trips becoming a habit anytime soon.

We re-charged our batteries and waited until after lunch to explore Goblin Valley.  There was no real delineation between Valley 1, Valley 2 and Valley 3, but we are pretty sure we hiked far enough to see them all.  It was a strange hike in that there was absolutely no trail.  It was virtually impossible to get lost since the 300 foot high(?) butte next to the campground was nearly always visible.

Is the Donkey Kong Ape sticking his tongue out?

As we hiked along one of the stream beds, Joani found a path of soft mud.  I think she sank in a good 6-8 inches and lost her flip-flop before she even realized what was happening!

The shapes of the rocks were wildly varied and seemed to defy gravity as they sat perched upon tiny columns of soft sandstone.

I think David is nose to nose with E.T.

In talking to John, I found he had an extensive background in astronomy and he was a guest of the park to help them establish a night sky interpretive program.  He asked me to help out for the evening by setting up my telescope.  He had a program in mind where he would talk to the guests about the constellations and have me find different objects that he mentioned so that folks could step over and look through the telescope occasionally to see an example of what he was discussing.  This allowed the Rangers to see exactly how the interpretive program might go.  

I was extremely surprised and pleased that 19 people showed up to hear John speak about the night sky when it had only been posted that afternoon.  He later reminded me that there was not a lot of competition for their attention.  With no hook-ups, nobody was watching TV and being so far from any town there was no place to go for dinner or any other entertainment - still, I thought it was a very good turn-out!

I think the program went well and the rangers seemed to agree.  I only wish I could have heard more of what John was saying.  He kept their attention for well over an hour and I don't think a single person left until he finished.  He had me turn the telescope towards several objects I realized I had never before seen in my telescope.

After everyone left, John evaluated my telescope.  I had never tried to collimate it but thought it was probably good.  He confirmed the alignment was good and suggested looking an Epsilon Lyrae, a double-double star.  John tried a 3.5 mm eyepiece (yielding 570x magnification).  We could easily separate the close pairs of stars.  Then he pushed it up to 800x using a 2.5 mm eyepiece.  The stars, 1.5 arcseconds apart, were clearly separated with nearly perfect diffraction rings around each.  John seemed pretty impressed which I took as a good sign.  Although I had no experience with these levels of magnification I was surprised we could see the two stars separated so clearly at all.  I think John was surprised as well.

Monday, September 22, 2014

During the night, it started raining again, this time with a vengeance. The ranger told me it rained almost an inch overnight.  Of course, Sam, who gets nervous hearing a few drops on the roof, was a complete basket case most of the night.  I sat up and held him for about an hour in the middle of the night.  I could just make out flashlights in the tent across the street.  The next morning I saw that that tent was in a puddle of water 6 inches deep.  Once again, I was thankful our tent camping days are behind us!

The morning started off with beautiful lows clouds and fog hanging over the distant peaks as the night's rainfall evaporated in the day's heat.

Not in any hurry, we headed out for a drive around 10:00.  Little Wild Horse Canyon Drive, just outside of the park, was highly regarded in reviews.  I thought it would be an unpaved road,  but was pleasantly surprised to find it was very nice pavement.  When we arrived at the canyon trailhead, the tiny parking area was packed.  I was a little concerned the canyon would be full of water after last nights rain anyway, so we decided to come back earlier on another day when we were in the mood for a good hike.  

All along the Little Wild Horse Canyon road, there were opportunities for artsy shots of the quickly drying mud and the standing puddles.  I'm not sure the color in the landscape around us was really captured in our pictures, but it was stunning!

It was so quiet that you could hear the whoosh of the birds' wings as they flew overhead.

Back in the park, we headed up to Observation Point.  One of the Goblin Valley State Park's most iconic landmarks was named the "Three Sisters".  We were not sure why, what should have been the fourth member of the group, was slighted.

In the background, you can see the feature that towers over the campground.  From this angle, it looks like a huge block.

From the observation point, there were many placards introducing visitors to the geology of the region and its unique landscape.

If this looks at all familiar, you might be remembering a scene from Galaxy Quest that was filmed here.

Visitors were encouraged to walk among the goblins in the valley.  We were able to climb around, through and even up on any of the formations. It all looked like mud, but I assure you, the rocks were solid.  It was a little unnerving to get right under some of the rocks that appeared ready to fall at any moment.

Come on!  Do you see the grumpy Gus on the right?

As sunset approached, we drove the Little Wild Horse Canyon road again to see the changing light

This is the backside of the monolith that towers over the campground...

...and this is the side.  It is just a sliver of a triangle.

We quickly returned to the Observation Point to capture a few goblins in the setting sun.

I got my telescope out and set up just in front of the coach.  It was not ideal since the restrooms had a few lights on the doors, but with the dark sky and a moonless night, it was still better than almost any place I had ever observed.  I was feeling pretty good that I remembered how to set up and operate the telescope after nine months without using it.

The Milky Way was awesome, stretching from horizon to horizon.  Two young ladies from Germany stopped by for a while.  They had just seen a night sky presentation in Arches National Park but needed a little help remembering the constellations.  They appreciated a tour of some of the night's deep sky objects including M31, M57, M13 and several others.  Unfortunately, the nearby mountains were blocking our view to the west so we could not see Saturn or any of the fine deep-sky gems in Scorpius or Sagittarius, but it was still a great observing session.