Tour of Arizona Observatories — Part II. Tombstone, AZ; Veritas at Mt. Hopkins; Titan missile and Pima Aerospace Museum: Hurricane Rosa clouds out observing at Mt Lemmon and Kitt Peak

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well, we had a very good time in Safford, AZ and on our tour of the three observatories on Mt. Graham, and now it was time to get back on the road and drive down to Tucson area for tours and observing nights on Mt. Lemmon and Kitt Peak.
But on the way down to Tucson, we had to drive right by Tombstone, AZ, so Resident Astronomer Peggy suggested we stop there and have lunch and maybe witness a gunfight in this old wild west town.  So we stopped and had lunch and saw a gunfight reenactment in one of the local saloons and then got back on the road without staying for the probably more historic reenactment of the gunfight at the OK corral.

Historic street in Tombstone with covered boardwalks and gunfights pretty much every day

We arrived in Tucson and it was too early to check into our hotel and we had some free time because our two observing sessions, on Mt. Lemmon and on Kitt Peak, were scheduled for the next two nights, so we took a chance and drove down to Mt. Hopkins to see we see some of the observatories there.  Well, I knew that the visitor center would not be open, but I didn't expect that the gate would be closed, but that is exactly what we found.  At least we could see one of the Cherenkov light telescopes that make up the VERITAS array, which is used in cosmic ray research.  I've talked about how the Cherenkov array is used in cosmic ray research before and if you want some of those details you can check out the February 24, 2018 blog.

One VERITAS Cherenkov light telescopes is visible beyond closed gate at Mt. Whipple Observatory Visitor Center

So we checked into our hotel, which was just below Mt. Lemmon and about an hour drive up to the top.  It looked like it was going to be a nice clear day but then we got notice about our night of observing there had been cancelled due to bad weather.

Checked into our Tucson hotel with clear skies and view of Mt. Lemmon in the background (Source: Palmia Observatory)

Darn!   We had looked forward to getting up on Mt. Lemmon and now it just was not going to happen.  So we planned to spend some more of our "free" time to see some of the local tourist sites in the Tucson area.  Just outside Tucson is the Titan II Missile Museum where you get to go into one of the last available actual missile silos and tour the launch complex.

Getting ready to go underground with our retired AF docent at Titan Missile Museum (Source: Palma Observatory)

We met up with our guide, a retired Air Force officer, and went down the stairs to the underground complex.  We had to walk through several blast resistant doors and cross walkways that separated those areas that were firmly mounted in the ground and those areas that were suspended on and among giant springs and shock absorbers.  

Resident Astronomer Peggy makes her way deep into the ICBM silo complex (Source: Palmia Observatory)

Finally, we arrived at the launch center, where one of the lucky visitors got to act out the ICBM launch sequence, from receiving the coded message, to comparing it with the 2nd officer and then turning the launch key.  It was pretty neat being there.  Hmm, as scary as the whole concept seems, it seems to have actually worked and we have not blown everything all up!

Inside the Titan II missile silo launch control room (Source: Palmia Observatory)

We then walked down another long tunnel to the actual missile launch silo.  The Titan II missile there is actually a real missile that had been used for training.  Resident Astronomer Peggy found a way of looking through the viewing portals to snap this pretty impressive picture of the Titan II.  When we returned to the surface and looked down on the missile silo, we could see that a wide opening had been cut in the re-entry vehicle nose cone so that it was obvious to every inspector that the missile was inoperative.

One of the last Titan II ICBMs, now decommissioned (Source: Peggy/ Palmia Observatory)

When we returned to our hotel room, the sky was indeed starting to show some of the predicted clouds, confirming again why our observing plans were cancelled.  We had hoped that our next night observing session on Kitt Peak would still take place, but before long we learned that that event was going to be cancelled too.

Back at our hotel, it seems the Mt Lemmon cancellation was accurate (Source: Palmia Observatory)

So, with that cancellation we headed off to take in some of the sites at the Pima Air Museum.  They have hundred of airplanes, in hangers and out on the field, from very new to some old planes.  I got to try my hands at the controls of this little airplane!

Resident Astronomer George indulges his inner child at the Pima Air Museum (Source: Palmia Observatory)

One of the things I looked for in the museum was some of the airplanes that my dad flew during WWII.  He was too old to fly bombers when the war started, he was like just 25 years old, so he was a flight instructor for a while until they had enough pilots and then he was part of the China-Burma-India theater  where he flew cargo planes from India to China.

One display showed Resident Astronomer Georges' father's area of WWII service (Source: Palmia Observatory) 

He flew a lot of C-46 and C-47 aircraft and even some C-54 and C-109 aircraft.  His flight logbook had many entries where it would say something like, "#2 engine quite, had to turn back" or "#3 engine failed, had to turn back."  It was hard time making it over the Himalayas missing an engine.

I managed to find a C-47 style aircraft and a C-46, but did not find a C-54 or C-109.

The C-47 was one type of aircraft my father flew in WWII (Source: Palmia Observatory)

I even managed to spy one of the missiles that I actually worked on and did a lot of development work on.  I spent four of my early engineering years working on and testing the SM-2 autopilot.

Hey, they had an old Standard Missile 2, which I spent 4 years working on its development (Source: Palmia Observatory) 

When we returned to the hotel, we finally get to see what storm is causing all of the rain and cloudiness.  Hmm, it seems that Hurricane Rosa, still in the Gulf of Mexico, is causing all of this bad weather.  Most people we talked with in restaurants, etc., were glad to see some clouds and more rain, but for us astronomer wannabes it was just plain bad news.

Now we see why our night on Kitt Peak was also cancelled, as impact of Hurricane Rosa continues (Source: ABS News)

So, with our nighttime observing session at Kitt Peak cancelled, we just walked across the driveway from our hotel to Flemings and had a fantastic consolation dinner with martinis.

Resident Astronomers console their clouded out nights with martinis at Fleming's Steakhouse (Source: Palmia Observatory)

We still plan to return to Tucson to try a repeat of our observing sessions there.  We started off with the goal of visiting three observatories in Arizona, and now with the successful completion of the Mt. Graham International Observatory, and with the addition of the Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, where many scopes including the 6.5 meter Multi-mirror Telescope (MMT), we still have this one and the two old ones, Mt. Lemmon and Kitt Peak, to complete.

Until next time,

Resident Astronomer George

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