I: Kitt Peak National Observatory

My home page shares that I had the great experience of working on Kitt Peak during my undergraduate years. This mountain is home to twenty-six optical and radio telescopes that observe everything from our Sun to distant galaxies. Some of these were the first public telescopes in the country, meaning anyone could apply for observing time regardless of whether or not they worked at a university. Kitt Peak mountain holds a special place in my heart for many reasons.

It was here that I renewed my childhood hobby of photography. As a kid, the only way to get me to behave during long hikes on family vacations was to put a camera in my hand. I didn’t know what I was doing, and the photos weren’t particularly interesting, but I do remember being very concerned with getting different angles and viewpoints. (I also remember being very excited about capturing a mountain reflection in a lake.) When I started working on Kitt Peak and saw all of the amazing astrophotography my coworkers were doing, I immediately wanted a nicer camera than my point-and-shoot, one that could take longer exposures of the night sky. One of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever seen is the full moon rising over Tucson, a sight to behold in a nice pair of binoculars. Two years after I started working, I finally got the opportunity to compose that shot, and you’ll see it further down.

The other thing I’m particularly thankful to Kitt Peak for is the soothing environment it provided me with during times of high stress in school. Exams, homeworks and projects are impossible to stress about when you’re walking around after a program has just ended, in the brisk chill of the mountain air with starlight being the only thing to guide your path. I’ve spent quite a lot of time on this mountain in the past three years, so my pictures will only be the best of the best. However, you too can participate in a nighttime adventure on Kitt Peak: Kitt Peak Nightly Observing Program. My photos in this post will take you through a typical evening, starting once you drive about an hour out into the desert onto the Tohono O’odham Nation, where Kitt Peak is located.

The arrival time for Nightly Observing Programs changes throughout the year based on the sunset time. As you begin driving up the mountain, there are several great views just hiding around corners, which makes the twelve-mile ascent both scary if you have a fear of heights, and inherently interesting.

If you arrive to the summit early enough, you can visit the Mayall 4-meter and take the elevator up to the observation deck, just below the 18-story high telescope. This again overlooks several of the most famous telescopes on the mountain, including the WIYN 3.5-meter again, and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, the largest solar telescope in the world (the solar telescope is not in my picture).

After eating a simple boxed dinner and receiving an introduction to the mountain, the first thing guests do is go up to a mountain overlook to view sunset. Everywhere you look during sunset provides spectacular views (don’t forget to take the time to turn around as well)!

As I stated previously, one of my favorite sights to behold on Kitt Peak is the full moon rising over the city of Tucson. It’s pretty rare, but sometimes we’re able to show guests this sight. It has to be just a day or two after the full moon to catch it. On the night of the full moon, it rises right just as the sun sets, when it is still bright outside. The next two nights, the moon rises later and later in the dark, but still looks almost completely full. We don’t view moon rises past about 9:00 because we’re already at the telescope by then and guests start the drive home shortly after. With about twelve full moons per year, there are really only about 24 days that guests could view an almost full moon rise in the dark. The rising location also changes throughout the year, not always over the city lights. So there are probably less than 12 nights per year that guests can catch this sight.

Once the Sun has set and it has gotten sufficiently dark outside, guests are shown how to orient themselves in the night sky with a planisphere (star chart), and how to locate some deep sky objects with binoculars.

The final part of the night, and most guests favorite part, is about an hour to an hour and a half of telescope viewing time, on one of the three public 16-20″ telescopes. Each telescope has an advantage – the 16″ Little Dome is intimate and includes a ride in the “moon van” across the observatory grounds at dark; the 20″ Visitor Center telescope is the largest offered, and right by the warm visitors’ center and bathrooms; and the 16″ Roll of Roof observatory can be extremely frigid in the middle of winter and windy during any time of year, but you can have phenomenal views of the night sky while waiting for your turn at the telescope.

As a previous employee, I personally liked to show guests at least six objects of different classes: a binary system (double star), an open cluster, a globular cluster, some type of nebula, a galaxy, and a planet and/or moon (I group the planet and the moon in the same class as they are both within our solar system). Some of my favorite images through the telescope are shown below, in the order I would present them:

The night wraps up shortly after the telescope viewing ends, and the last adventure you will encounter is the drive down the mountain. You have to see it to believe it. Don’t let the astronomy fun end there though; I frequently see amazing meteors and moon rises on the horizon when driving home at the end of the night. Although I’m clearly biased, I truly hope you are able to visit Kitt Peak one night if you are ever in Tucson.