Tucson Bucket List // 02

Every time we go up Mt. Lemmon, Steven is sure to point out Kitt Peak way in the distance. I knew that Kitt Peak was home to some great telescopes and astronomy, but until April 4 I never understood the scale of what goes on up there! Steven completely surprised me for this date (I kept asking if we were driving to California) and our inner nerds rejoiced!

We missed the solar telescope tour because we took a little longer getting out of the house than we expected (such is life with a baby), but we were able to tour the 2.1 meter and 4 meter telescopes. Our Wildcat pride was showing when they explained that the mirrors for these two telescopes were crafted at the UofA mirror lab (which is below the football stadium...imagine that!). We also were able to watch the calibration process for the 4m telescope, which is done by pointing the telescope at a bright white square and then running an analysis on each pixel looking for inconsistencies.

The best anecdote of the day came from the beginning of the 4m telescope tour. At the beginning of each tour the guide will give a history of Kitt Peak and the specific telescope you're about to go see. This is done in the visitor center, which is set up into three openly connected rooms: the main hall, a small theater, and the gift shop. Elijah was due for a feeding right when the tour began, so I sat in the small theater listening to the beginning of the tour. He ate quickly and I began patting his back to burp him. I had only been doing so for maybe 15 taps when the tour guide's presentation stopped mid-sentence and he said "What is that noise? That is the weirdest woodpecker I've ever heard!" I stopped immediately and after a few moments of silence the guide said "Well that didn't last long." I sat in conflict for a little bit...do I keep burping my son, and interrupt the tour again? or do I allow the tour to continue but Elijah might have a tummy ache later? The answer was pretty obvious to me, so I tried to quietly burp him. "Our woodpecker friend is back!" the guide said. It was all Steven could do to keep from laughing.

Day sleepers! Does it get any more astronomer-y than that?! I find it slightly romantic, in the nerdiest way possible. The 2.1m telescope is currently undergoing some changes in management, so it had a yellow cover over it for safekeeping. Once everything settles it will be used to study dark matter!

This cement ring is the same size as the 4m mirror, and was used in the building process of the telescope as the "dummy" mirror. It's painted to represent the Tohono O'odham tribe to which the mountain still belongs. Kitt Peak is their second most sacred mountain, which meant that building the telescopes on top of the mountain took some negotiations. The story goes that the tribal leaders were invited to the Steward Observatory at the UofA campus, and upon seeing how close to the heavens the telescopes could take them, they allowed the use of Kitt Peak for astronomy-but only astronomy. That's why there are absolutely no restaurants to be found nearby and you are encouraged to bring your own food; they didn't want Kitt Peak to be commercialized.

To say I don't understand the science going on within these domes is an understatement, but I could sit and listen to explanations all day. And the images procured by these tools are mesmerizing. Who wants to go get an astronomy degree with me?

ps. I totally busted out my new ankle boots for this trip. Come on, aren't they dreamy?