(Sung to the tune of Old McDonald Had A Farm...)
Old McDonald had a farm,
E I E I Oooo...
And on that farm he had an Observatory,
E I E I Oooo....
With a star over here and a star over there,
Here a star, there a star, everywhere a star, star...
.....
Now, you won't be able to get that tune out of your head for days!!!
Our Brother Warren called while we were still back in New Mexico, in fact, Brother Warren calls most every day.
We kind of look forward to it in a special, masochistic way - just waking up, 1st cup in hand, quiet, reflective, peaceful, 2nd cup in hand, making plans for the day, curtains raised, birds singing, spectacular sun rising, 3rd cup in hand...and then Brother Warren's call!
Everyone should experience it - at least once!
No honestly, we really DO like it, seriously, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.
Warren sees the world "differently" and it is refreshing, and generally hilarious...and he's usually spot on, except when he tries to rewrite Jumper history or guess Gary's age.
And Warren is currently accepting requests to schedule your own personal phone call with him. Kindly note, we have him daily between the hours of 8a and 10a, plus Gary and Bern have him scheduled daily between 4p and 6p for Happy Hour.
So do plan accordingly and call quickly 1 800 4 WARREN. Call now...his availability is limited and only a few openings remain.
But back to this specific call with Warren while we were in New Mexico...
New Mexico has stars...lots of stars...as many as the fire pit on the land in Woodhull, except on Saturday nights when the Woodhull Race Track is running...then you can only see the moon - maybe.
So on this morning while in New Mexico, we talked of stars, of constellations and of telescopes...and I was surely wishing we had loaded up the Fox with that big reflector telescope Judy gifted me for Christmas a few years ago...but it's banished to the land of storage. Look for it on an upcoming episode of Storage Wars.
And as we talked about it, Brother Warren lamented there were not a lot of stars in south Florida these days, unfortunately.
Seems the bald heads (it's OK, I are one), seems the bald heads in Florida are reflecting a lot of light back into space.
This creates light pollution and is a major source of global warming, which is why Florida is hot (lots of bald heads) and why there is increasing global warming, since bald people are living longer (it is true, look it up!).
So the stars all packed up and moved out of Florida because of the light pollution. They're just gone, not in the sky any more...
And then later, a few days after our call, we left New Mexico and went to stay for two nights at a great little RV park on an old ranch in Ft. Davis, TX!
Whooo hooo - we now know where the Florida stars moved to, along with the California stars, the Jersey stars, the Chicago stars and the Dallas Stars...well maybe not the Dallas Stars.
Dry is the air, dark is the night, and BRIGHT are the stars in Ft. Davis!
And that is the reason that the McDonald Observatory was built there. It has desert like dry air, high elevation (the road to the observatory is the highest elevation road in Texas at nearly 7000 feet high) dark skys with very low population and no light pollution (no exposed bald heads in the area, seems that Texans all wear hats)!
This was taken at the entrance of the Observatory.
Now everybody stops at Ft. Davis is on their way to Big Bend National Park. They say it's to see the old fort (see the Buffalo Soldiers, Old Forts and Statesmen post) but it's really just so they can get another site stamp in their National Park Passport Book.
But adding a visit to the McDonald Observatory while in Ft Davis is pure Serendipity!
And I am amazed at what $9 gets you!
In this case, it was an enthusiastic astronomy expert, leading a 4 hour tour of the McDonald Observatory, including real-time viewing of the sun (it was daytime) for sunspots and solar flairs, plus a detailed discussion on one of the current hot focus areas of astronomy, using spectroscopy (think table of elements) to identify the makeup of stars and to search for other galaxies with solar systems and planets similar to earth.
The McDonald Observatory is the real deal, with three large, globally recognized telescopes on the property. First started in the 30's, they have continued to maintain currency and the most recently completed telescope ranks in the top 3 largest in the world.
The one pictured below is a reflecting telescope with a 107 inch primary mirror. That makes it almost 9 feet in diameter. It's like looking at a 9 foot wide Pringle's Potato Chip can. When built, it was the largest of its kind.
The most surprising thing of all - direct access to the telescope...
...not ogling behind visitor glass
...but on the floor of the Observatory
...with visitors adjusting the azimuth and elevation - on the $10,000,000 scope
...rotating the ~120 foot diameter dome (all 8 tons)
...up close, hands on and personal.
They are also working on trying to decipher "dark energy" - a phenomenon observed, but not yet understood - look it up!
The astronomers at the facility are working with NASA on GPS systems to measure within a 1/4 inch accuracy.
They are shooting green lasers at the moon, measuring distances down to millimeters.
All kind of geeky...but the tour is successfully structured to be wonder-full (full of wonder), interactive and hugely enjoyable.
The stars in Ft. Davis - spectacular - more and brighter than you can ever imagine.
And the McDonald Observatory tour - so far, the unplanned highlight of our entire trip...highly recommended!
So Brother Warren...this post is for you. Thanks to you, we started to search for a telescope...and we found it!
Now we just need to find room in the Fox to store it (and perhaps someone to pay for it???!)
Let the adventure continue...
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