Flagstaff was the first official dark sky city. That means that there are strict ordinances in place for outdoor lighting in order to maintain minimal light pollution in the night time sky. It makes driving at night a real challenge, but it makes the stars pop out of the sky. There's a gorgeous view of the celestial heavens just from the back porch.
The Lowell Observatory is one of several research observatories in Flagstaff. The observatory's claim to fame is that it discovered Pluto. I didn't see any mention of Pluto's recent demotion from planet status. But, regardless of Pluto's classification, it was still discovered at Lowell.
A few nights a week, they open the facilities for night time star gazing. Through a 'portable telescope' (portable, I think, because it was on wheels; it was yoooge), I got a close up view of the moon, which was unreal. Just standing at the top of that mountain, they skyscape was really spectacular.
As I was heading to the main telescope, much to the chagrin of everyone on Mars Hill, an unscheduled group of preteens on a school trip arrived. Ugh. They charged up the hill to get in line for the big telescope. Super. I got in line behind them, then a tour of people from a church group got behind me. If I'd been there 5 minutes earlier, I would have been in and out of there in just a few minutes. Instead, I got to spend 45 minutes listening to the incessant chatter of 13 year olds, and thoughts on the effectiveness of the Gospel of John in converting the gentiles.
It was worth it though. Through the main telescope, I got to see Saturn. What profundity escaped my lips when I saw it? Viewing an object that's 900,000,000 miles from Earth, and all I had was "Geez Louise!" Deep, huh?
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