Stoneman Lake, Arizona (Dark Sky Site)
2003/09/26-27
Sirius Lookers of Sedona

Ahead: that’s one of my favorite sayings. And planning ahead is just what I had been doing in preparation for the dark sky site in Stoneman, Arizona. I was looking forward to seeing Thom & Ellen and also the other Sirius Lookers. But of course, Mother Nature wanted to toy with me first. A huge Hurricane threatened the area during the first part of the week and miraculously it dissipated and completely retreated to the east. My next hurdle was to be when I could leave. I had planned on leaving after John got out of school. Then I realized we would never make the 5+ hour drive in time to get to Stoneman before darkness set in. I was not thrilled about driving on Elk infested roads and on dirt roads I had never traveled before. On Thursday night I decided not to go to Stoneman but to go to Lovell Canyon instead. Luckily for me my friend Sparky (Charles) came over to the house and asked why I was not going. When I told him the reason, he suggested I ask if John could skip school. I knew that would probably never happen but I called and asked anyway. Amazingly, both John and Leigh said it would be alright. Now things were looking up and we planned on leaving early Friday morning sometime around 9am.

I had been observing in my backyard but after the good news, I cut my night of Urban Observing short and started packing up. I didn’t get to bed until 4am-ish and sleep was very erratic. Sometime around 7am I quite trying to pretend I was sleeping and started packing all my equipment into my truck. Besides the regular odds and ends and camping stuff, I chose only to take the Meade 16” Starfinder and the Orion XT10” for our stargazing enjoyment. Everything fit into the truck better then planned. I left Sierra at home this time to guard the fort. Besides, Sparky would be stopping in from time to time so I wasn’t worried about her being alone to much. I got to John’s house sometime around 9:45am and by 10:30 we were well on our way leaving Las Vegas in the dust.

Our route took us across Hover Dam (Lake Mead is very low and sad looking) on US93 and down Detrital Basin towards Kingman, Arizona. From there we headed east on Interstate 40 towards Flagstaff. As we neared Williams, we got delayed due to highway construction and even closer to Williams we noticed the beetle problem had turned for the worse. Many of the tall pines stood in ruin. To the east of Williams the trees compared to our last journey this way looked much healthier. In Flagstaff we got off the highway and refueled the truck. At the gas station a nice Indian inquired as to our load. He thought we played in a band and that we had musical equipment in the bed of the truck. Leaving our friend behind and driving around in a few circles first, we finally found the road that would take us to Stoneman. The road is called Lake Mary Road and it was a very, very beautiful road. For the first part, mountains run to the left-hand side as you drive along Lake Mary to the right. Here too, the water table was very low but there was very little sign of the beetle infestation. After Lake Mary the road takes a climb and the trees thin out. Driving along a high bluff, to the right you can see a large lake called Mormon Lake that was all but a pond at this time. As we came down in elevation, the trees once again thickened with intermittent meadows in the valleys. After about 30 miles we came to our turn-off to Lake Stoneman.

Leaving the pavement we headed down the dirt road. This is the road all the others coming would be driving but they would enter it from the other side exiting off of Interstate 17 which runs between Flagstaff and Phoenix. The road was marked “213”. Our leg would only be 1 mile while the others would travel it for about 10. Just a little past the 1 mile point we came to our turn to the right. Thom had beaten us there and luckily for our sake, he had put signs up that said Sirius Lookers. Of course, when you turn off one dirt road onto another, it is only certain that it will be worse then the first. And it was. I don’t think I would try and take a car down this road. Four-wheel drive is not necessary but I would drive it with nothing less then a truck or jeep. There are some nasty rocks in the way and at times I’m sure the road can get pretty muddy. We did pass a few spots where water was standing in the road but we were able to drive around them. The distance from 213 to the site is probably only 2 miles at the most but seemed like much further. Once at the end, you come to a beautiful meadow that is probably about 50 acres in size. The whole meadow is tree-lined and is more depressed then the surrounding terrain. I’m sure at one time in the not so distant past it would have been a lake. As we drove around the road the skirts the meadow we finally saw the others off to the northeastern corner. They flagged us in making sure we didn’t run into a random rock that was buried in the high grass.

We were greeted by Thom & Ellen, Ara, and Ron. Hey, is it really Ron! We had about an hour of daylight left and we quickly set up our camp and our ‘scopes. I could tell this was going to be the darkest skies ever as even before the sunlight and completely left the sky; my digital camera was already picking up the Milky Way. At about 8pm, Thom called us all for dinner. Even though we are miles and miles for civilization you’d think we were at the Waldorf-Astoria or something. Thom had made us steak and shrimp for diner with plum wine to boot! The only thing lacking was musical accompaniment but the coyotes yapping and the elk whistling made up for that. I couldn’t believe how close they were to us! After diner I took the time to snap a few shots of the Milky Way with my digital camera.

(The pictures posted here are in no way near the quality of the originals. They have been reduced in size in order to fit on these pages. The camera was a Canon Powershot G5 taken @ f/2 with a 15" exposure. Only the brightness and contrast had been changed.)

I spent most of the first night just in amazement of the darkness. To the south just barely discernable along the horizon is a faint glow from Phoenix. To the northeast, if you pretend, you can see the fainter glow of Flagstaff. Dennis had shown up and also John. Neither one could stay as they had prior arrangements. I believe Adam had made plans to come but at the last minute had to abort them. For the most part we spent the night looking in each others ‘scopes at things that the dark sky does justice too.

I did manage to find two new objects for myself. One was the “Box” nebula in Ophiuchus. I had seen it at GCSP but only after Dennis found it for me. This time I found it right off the bat but it was so small, I past it off as just a double star. After checking and rechecking my location about 7 times, Ara concluded with me that indeed the object did have nebulosity about it and that it was irregular in shape. I did not notice any color in the planetary at all.

The second new object for the night is another planetary nebula named NGC 6781 in Aquila. I had tried to find it from my backyard the night before with no luck. After some moderate searching I understood why I did not find it. The object is actually rather large but is not like a planetary like say the Blue Snowball or the Cat’s Eye. It’s more like the Dumbbell Nebula as the cloud is spread out evenly and it is irregular in shape with no color.

John on the other hand, where most of us were standing around talking, was busy knocking out objects one after the other in the Orion XT10. It appeared from the angle of this ‘scope that he was spending a lot of time in Sagittarius and also on the other side of heaven in Cassiopeia. John stayed up later then most everybody else. Dennis had left for Sedona, John for Flagstaff, Thom & Ellen had gone to bed in their trailer and Ara was sleeping in his truck. Ron was still up and he brought his O-III (Oxygen 3) filter and a 2” eyepiece over to my ‘scope. We spent some time looking at the Veil and then at Orion when it had climbed to a decent height for viewing. He also had an UHC filter that we compared the objects with. The objects were much improved by each filter in their own way. I’ve decided the next filter I will get will be the O-III. Ron also showed me where the Horsehead, Flame and Running Man Nebulas were located. I did not see the Horsehead but I did see the two others.

Sometime around 1am I ran into a problem I have only read about: dew. The dew had actually started accumulating much earlier but up until this point, had not been a real problem. Now, as fast as I wiped it off, it returned. Plus, I kept fogging up the Telrad with my breath. Ron and I concluded that viewing for the night was at an end even though the sky was still crystal clear. We went and sat under the awning at Thom & Ellen’s trailer. Thom had his portable propane heater going and its warmth was a welcome gift for me. Ara came over and said that he was too cold in his truck and was going to head for home and that he would return in the morning. Ron and I sat up talking for a couple more hours. Actually, I did more listening then talking and was thankful to have somebody to tell me of the things I’d been trying to learn. Mostly we talked about Cosmology; from the differences between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics and onto the Unified Theory and String Theory. He gave me a better understanding of Planck’s Constant and of how light works. Nothing that I could ever quote again but it added to what I have already read. We also talked of Newton and Tesla, mass and gravity, electricity and magnetism finally moving onto and ending with Ancient Cultures of the world. I’m almost ready for Jeopardy! At 5:30 we decided to call it a night. Orion was very high in the sky and I wished my ‘scope was not wrapped up for the night. The sky was so clear and dark, Orion’s Sword looked like a continuous band of light and not the three distinct points one is used to looking at. Ron still had his ‘scope set up and we looked at Saturn at VERY high magnification. I was knocked out of my sox as it was the first time I had seen Saturn with this much power on a quality ‘scope. I was going to put my sky-chart away but I decided to leave it lay as frost had developed on it. The tent was freezing and John fast asleep. Luckily, Thom had given us his wool blankets to add to our sleeping bags and I quickly warmed up and fell asleep myself.

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THIS SITE WAS CREATED ON OCTOBER, 03, 2003