We shortened our stay in Flagstaff since all the national parks were closed.  The morning when we left it was snowing!  Brrr!  Not a lot, but it was also windy which made it feel even colder.

Here are a few pictures – you can see the snow falling on our neighbors RV if you look closely.

Since all the national parks are closed while we’re in Flagstaff for this visit, we went up to the Lowell Observatory instead.  This is one place neither of us has ever been to…and while Jeff’s been to Flagstaff once, I’ve been about a dozen times so I’m surprised I never came up to the observatory before.  Too many other great things to see here I guess.

The observatory that visitors can see is the original dome, built in the 1890s by Percival Lowell.  He was from a wealthy family and built the observatory with his own money, in order to study Mars.  He was convinced that there was a civilization on Mars, as was the popular belief in that time (have you ever read A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs?).  He put in a 24-inch lens (common for the time) and studied Mars for many years until his death in 1916.

If you look at the attached pictures of the inside of the observatory, you’ll notice a row of tires around the rim.  This was an innovative solution to a problem from the early years of the observatory.  As you many know, the dome has a thin slit through which the telescope can see the skies.  The whole dome rotates to give the view desired by the astronomers.  The dome on the original Lowell Observatory was rotated on a series of metal wheels which would stick a lot.  Inserting the tires allowed the dome to rotate easily and smoothly.  Periodically the tire pressure is checked and inflated as needed, and also periodically the tires go bald just like on a car and have to be replaced.  Since they are 1954 Ford truck tires, it’s not easy to find replacements any more!

The observatory continued to function through family money and in 1930 Pluto was first seen through that 24-inch telescope!  You couldn’t see any details – they discovered it by filming that section of the heavens over several nights and observed something that moved in a trajectory that had been theorized as “Planet X” based on the gravitational pull that was exerted on other bodies in our solar system.

Today the working observatories are a few miles away from the original, due to lights from the city.  They are currently building a new Discovery Channel Telescope which will see what today only the Hubble telescope (built in space) can see.  WOW!

We had decided a few months ago that when we headed east we would go north from Casa Grande and visit Flagstaff again.  We were here back in 2000 and saw many of the great natural sights in northern AZ – the Grand Canyon, the Meteor Crater, the Sunset Crater volcanic area, the Wupatki Indian ruins, and others.

Well, the government shutdown has closed all of the natural wonders in northern AZ, right at the time we showed up!  Dang!

We know we’ll be in northern AZ again someday, so we’ll get another chance to see all the great sights here.