Day 12 – Natural Bridges

Up at 7. Have coffee, check email---part of my daily routine now. At 9:30 I take the H-alpha scope to the visitor center. Dottie Hartman sets up the white light scope and we have 2 hours of solar viewing. The sunspot group has rotated close to the limb of the sun and is difficult to see. Not particularly exciting but good nonetheless. The visitors all express appreciation at having the scopes up. It is apparent that most of them have never seen the sun that way.



I don’t have to report back until 4 PM so I go on a road trip on some forest service roads, meaning they are graded and well maintained, but either dirt or rock. I went up through Bears Ears Pass (over 8000’.)
The temperature dropped 8 or 9 degrees. The terrain changed, becoming green with bigger trees, first evergreen then aspens. It is really very nice. I enter the 1.4 million acre Manti-La Sal National Forest. And you have probably never heard of it!



I went to an old, burned down Guard station at Kigalia,
and stopped at one canyon overlook. This is really pretty country. Prior to this trip, I had no idea how lovely southern Utah was.





While I am up the hill, I decide that I need to make a more lasting contribution to the park than just leading stargazes, which I love to do and will thoroughly enjoy. I want to make a multimedia presentation that an ranger can show at any time, night or day, to be a resource for the park. I talked it over with the head ranger and he loved the idea. So my duties for the remaining 3 weeks will be stargazes, solar showings and presentation development. I figure I have enough time to make a 10 minute presentation.
My car after the morning trip.



I went back to the ranch (the trailer where we are staying.) I started making a list of questions I want the presentation to answer. I will have to do some research, develop a story board and make the presentation. It will end up being a computer file, format to be determined later. I am getting excited about this.

We grabbed some dinner. Gordon and Glynna Gower, Bonnie and I are having a terrific time together. They are a lot of fun. It feels like we have known them for years, when it’s been a week. Great stuff.

At 9 I went to the V.C. to shadow Gordon’s star talk. About 26 people show up. Very good. The sky cooperates. There are a few clouds but they thin out and do not interfere very much at all. The talk starts while it is still light and darkens as it progresses. It is so neat to see the sky start to unfold. The first star I see is Arcturus, the 3rd brightest in the sky. (Sirius and Canopus are below the horizon.) The Vega, Spica, Altair, Antares, and Deneb. Regulus is the last 1st magnitude star to appear, partly because it is the faintest of them, clouds are blocking it some and it is low in the west, the last part of the sky to darken. The handle then the bowl of the Big Dipper appears. The form of the Scorpion develops and the teapot of Sagittarius appears. During the next hour the sky darkens completely. The Milky Way ends up bright and clear, its form across the sky distinct and alluring. I love this view. I could watch this all night. Gordon pointed out celestial highlights with a green laser. We used a telescope to view Saturn. We see the rings are almost on edge, making it look like a ping pong ball with a long pin stuck through it (thank you, Gordon.) Some people ask if it is real or just a picture. We assured them it is real. We turned the scope to Albireo, beta Cygni, to show the colors that stars can have. We notice a dawn-like like gradually brightening in the east and realize it is the Moon. It will not rise for a half hour yet, but the skies are so dark here that it can be seen while still below the horizon. I have not witnessed this, at least not to this degree. Amazing!

We quickly turned the scope to M22, a globular cluster, and gave everyone a look before the Moon comes up and washed the Milky Way and faint stars from sight.

The Moon will rise 30-40 minutes later tomorrow. The next 2 weeks will be great.