Final week at Bryce Canyon

by Darrell Lee

Wednesday we had over 100 tourists for solar viewing, and the Interpretation staff had apple pie and ice cream for Visitor Center Information Desk volunteer Ron and me, since this was our last week. Lead astronomy volunteer Jim was in on the surprise, as he rushed me back from solar viewing to get back to the VC on time. They gave me a certificate, mug, a book on legends of the night sky, and a Bryce Canyon pin for my observing hat. Ron’s wife was a seasonal feetaker, and they were headed for Death Valley National Park, where Ron will be paid for being a seasonal Ranger.

During Wednesday’s evening viewing, I showed Ranger Jenny how to input target names into the CPC 1100’s Nexstar hand controller and how to get target information from the device. Jenny will substitute for me on Friday after I leave. We had an enthusiastic crowd to see the usual night sky objects. Since the last quarter moon didn’t rise until 11:00 p.m., our viewing was done under dark skies. I saw two objects new to me, Kemble’s Cascade and the California Nebula, using my 8X42 binoculars. I tried my SQM, and only got a reading of 20.52 in the VC parking lot.

Jim and I had an evening program at Kodachrome Basin State Park on Thursday night. I’d prepared a PowerPoint presentation on summer constellations, and presented it to a crowd of about 60 people. But before we got there, Jim had a run-in with a Mule Deer in the park’s Prius just outside of Cannonville on Utah Highway 12. Nearby US Highway 89 has a reputation as Deer Kill Alley, as I’ve seen a couple of dead deer on that road every time I’ve driven on it. We saw a doe standing in the road facing left, so Jim slowed down and steered right. The deer turned and ran into the left front bumper of the car, which was still slowing. I heard the thud, felt the impact, and expected to see a dead or seriously wounded deer. Instead, the deer got up and ran off, apparently uninjured. I had that happen once before, when I tipped a fawn over in California, and it got up and ran away with no apparent broken legs, and no loss of blood. Once again, a deer was extremely fortunate. The car wasn’t so fortunate, suffering a dented area about 64 square inches in size. Jim is probably still filling out the paperwork to explain the damage to the park’s vehicle.

After my program, people couldn’t find the correct parking lot, so Jim flagged them down as they drove by, while I gave a constellation tour. Jim set up his 4” Takahashi refractor while I gave another constellation tour with my green laser to latecomers. Usually the USNPS Rangers did the constellation tours, but I managed quite well, since my talk covered that topic. I pointed out the northern circumpolar constellations (all but Camelopardalis, the Summer Triangle stars and their constellations, Andromeda, Perseus, Pegasus, and Hercules, and finally the center of our Milky Way galaxy in Sagittarius and Scutum. My talk included a couple of binocular objects, Brocchi’s Coathanger and Kemble’s Cascade. Of course, I also pointed out M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, the most distant visible naked eye object. I set up my scope at the end, taking some of the pressure off of Jim. He said nearly 60 people looked through his scope. We stayed up to 11:30 p.m. showing sights to the people, returning home about midnight.

My astronomy volunteer time at Bryce Canyon was over. I left the park on Friday the thirteenth, driving to San Diego for two nights at my 45th high school reunion, followed by a flight to Phoenix for my niece’s wedding, and a couple of nights visiting my mom in southern California en route home. I peeked at the night sky in downtown Tempe, and only saw the three Summer Triangle stars and two dimmer stars (maybe gamma and beta Draconis?). It was quite a letdown from the great viewing at Bryce Canyon, but it did end my trip emphasizing the marvelous blessing of having dark, high altitude skies for a full month.

Darrell Lee