Day 4511

I woke up early this morning and against my better judgement I got dressed and went outside one last time for a look at the pre-dawn sky. Who knows when I'll have a chance to see the milky way again. A couple of other Astronomers Lodge guests were wandering around in the dark doing the same thing. I showed them how to find some of my favorite objects in the pre-dawn May sky. Hey, I'm making progress. A couple of years ago, Astronomy Lodge guests would be showing me how to find things.

When the sky started to lighten, I went inside and fixed myself breakfast. I was still hoping to get an early start on the long journey back to Dallas. A couple of guys invited me to join them at their table. One of the men had been a writer for Texas Monthly for over twenty years. He was freelancing now but was still writing for a wide range of very familiar magazines. I was impressed. The writer's friend was a pilot who had a goal of landing at every small airport in Texas. They had flown to Marfa in the pilot's plane while I was inching along toward the observatory on I-20. We had an enjoyable time trading stories about writing, flying, and living in Texas. So much for my plan to leave early.

Eventually, I hit the road and began my long journey back to Dallas. When I'm driving toward McDonald Observatory, the traffic gradually gets lighter as I head West. When I return to Dallas the opposite happens. The journey starts out as a pleasant drive through the Davis Mountains with surprise views of deer, javelinas, and occasionally even elk around every corner. When you hit the freeway, the wildlife are replaced by eighteen wheelers, and then once you get within a hundred miles of Dallas/Fort Worth the roads become clogged with city traffic. I thought that things would be better on Sunday, but there were still way too many cars for my taste. In the mountains I could drive for ten minutes without seeing a single car. In city traffic I am passed by ten cars in a single minute.

I thought I could avoid the construction in Arlington and the perpetual traffic jam near Fair Park by taking a different route from Fort Worth to Dallas. I didn't save any time and ended up getting lost instead. By the time I discovered that the road wasn't the one I was thinking of, I was well on my way to Shreveport. Oops. I turned around and headed back West again. Jeez. I've lived here for over thirty years and still can't find my way around town.

It took a little longer to get back to the house than I thought it would, but I'm finally home. Dawn not only remembered me, she seemed happy to see me. I haven't bothered to unpack yet. I used the remaining daylight to take a short walk so I could satisfy my Fitbit's desire for a minimum of 10,000 steps.  The walk was such a contrast to my daily walks on Mount Locke. The silence was gone, replaced by police and fire sirens, airplanes on final approach to Love Field, and the perpetual background noises of city life. 

I'm already missing the quiet of Mount Locke. Was the trip worth it? You bet. Would I make the long drive again? The jury is still out on that one. I think I'll go sleep on the idea. It's been a long day and I'm very tired.

Betsy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4156

I made it out to the observatory in one piece. What a long drive. Every time I travel to West Texas I'm reminded what a big state Texas is. I felt like I drove halfway to California today. I traveled through every type of weather imaginable. Parts of the state had clear skies. Other parts had thunderstorms with lots of thunder and lightning. Towards the end of the drive I even encountered a small dust storm. The weather is nice at the observatory this evening. Who knows what it will be like tomorrow. I guess I"ll have to wait and see.

The worst part of the trip was a construction zone around Odessa where the freeway was shut down to a single lane for almost 40 miles. Traffic was backed up for miles. I was stuck between two eighteen wheelers and there was no place to get off the freeway. Luckily I'd gotten gas just before the construction zone started. This was no place to worry about running low on gas. My rental car was a huge SUV that gets terrible gas mileage. It was the only thing I could find with an in-dash navigation system and blind spot warning lights. When did gas get so expensive? It was over three dollars a gallon in most places.

I think I'm the only one staying at the Astronomer's Lodge tonight. It's kind of spooky up here. The manager and the cook were leaving when I arrived. They showed me my room and got my dinner for me and then they left. I think some more people are arriving tomorrow, but for now it's just me. Luckily the WiFi password hasn't changed. The password is so long and complex that I needed help getting online the last time I was here. Meals are amazingly good up here. I don't know how this place managed to snag such a good chef. 

One of my astronomer friends stopped by to say hello while I was eating dinner alone in the dining room. He invited me to join him later this evening to look for Red Sprites on the horizon. I'd never even heard of Red Sprites until recently, but they are a spectacular form of lightning in the upper atmosphere. Often they are hundreds of miles away when they appear.  Red Sprites only last a fraction of a second, so they are very difficult to photograph. Maybe I'll see a Sprite tonight. Maybe I'll see nothing. I'm pretty tired after today's drive. I see a pillow right now and a nap is pretty tempting.

I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. The workshop doesn't begin until later in the afternoon, so there's plenty of time to go exploring. I didn't get a lot of exercise today, so I really ought to take a long walk in the morning. I took a short walk after dinner and was very tired. My feet hurt too. Going to bed early tonight is starting to look better and better.

We did end up looking for Sprites around 10:30 this evening. The storms were too far away though and we didn't see anything. The sky was pretty though. The Milky Way was just starting to rise and the sky was alive with stars. I stayed outside for about an hour trying to identify constellations. I wish I was more familiar with the night sky, but that's what I'm here for. Tomorrow should be a busy day. Maybe after a good night's sleep I can finally figure out how to put my star tracker together.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3950

I was a little better organized today. Instead of lugging all my heavy gear all over the mountain, I left most of it in the car and just walked back to the car when I needed to change lenses. I figured out how to program the Prude Ranch into the GPS, so it was easy to find my way home tonight. We learned a lot at the afternoon workshop sessions. I think I understand the principals of stacking now and took long sequences of picctures to assemble later when I get back to Dallas. We went to new locations tonight. The stars were the same, but the surrounding were different. It's still a little hard for me to find my way around in the dark without a flashlight. I almost fell in a hole, but I survived the evening without a mishap. I didn't drop or lose any equipment tonight. Like I said, I was better prepared.

It's weird being up on the mountain at night. It's so quiet that you can hear a human voice from five miles away. At some point during the evening the coyotes began to howl. One coyote would howl and then other would answer from all over the place. There were dozens of them. We were surrounded by coyotes. The astronomers why live ion the mountain seem used to the wildlife. Everyone has had an encounter with rattlesnakes and one of the workshop leaders said he opened his back door one evening and a bunch of Javelinas tried to come inside.

One of the hardest things about astrophotography is trying to keep your camera focused in the dark. Autofocus doesn't work on stars and sometimes lenses focus past infinity. It's easy to bump things in the dark and there is no reliable way to check your focus until after your exposure is taken. You hate to take a sequence of twenty pictures and then discover that your focus was off a bit. Stars are supposed to be crisp little points of light. Even a tiny mistake will make them go soft. I had plenty of perfect exposures, but as you might expect, I had my share of failures as well.

I went back to Indian Lodge for breakfast this morning. This time, instead of taking my meal back to the ranch, I walked over to a little picnic table overlooking a small canyon and ate my breakfast outside. It was a beautiful morning and a bit warmer than yesterday. The Davis Mountains State Park is a bird sanctuary and it was peaceful to listen to all the birds sing while I ate. It's amazingly quiet up here I like that.

It's kind of sad that there are no real plans to reopen the observatory to the public. They've started having star parties again, but nobody can look through telescopes anymore. Attendance is really restricted as well. My astronomer friend opened up one of the domes for us tonight so we could photograph a telescope looking out at the sky through an open dome. Everyone wanted to look through the telescope, but that was off limits. I have a feeling that it's going to be a long, long time before I get to look through the eyepiece of one of the large telescopes again.

We all had an opportunity to stay for a third day and do some more photography Sunday night. I've already photographed everything I can think of though, and I'm very tired. I've really enjoyed my stay, but two nights on the mountain is enough. I'm always the oldest person at these type of events. My age is starting to show, but I'm still hanging in there. I'll make the long drive back to Dallas tomorrow. At least the traffic will be a lot better on Sunday. There are still a lot of people on the road though. Now that nobody is flying, they're all taking road trips instead. The Indian Lodge is completely booked through December. 

There may be another workshop out at the observatory later in 2021. I'll probably go to that one as well if it ever happens. I don't even care what the topic is. There's something special about The Davis Mountains. I just like being out here.

Diva is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3948

What a long day. I wanted a little activity before starting the long drive to West Texas, so we took Dawn on a four mile walk before I left the house. I ate a light breakfast, finished packing my bags, and off I went. I wanted to be on the road before 9 AM, but it was closer to 10 before I was on my way. This always happens. It is next to impossible for me to get an early start.

I thought I"d remembered everything this time, but as the miles rolled along, I kept remembering little things that I'd forgotten. I forgot to take shampoo. I forgot a nail clipper. I forgot a ball point pen to take notes with. I'm sure I'll think of other things I forgot as I go to sleep tonight. Usually there is shampoo and pens at the hotel. Not this time. The little ranch cabin I'm staying in only has the bare necessities.

It's such a long drive to West Texas. Most of the drive is on I-20 which is always filled with large trucks. I find myself passing eighteen wheelers every few minutes. The highway between Midland and Odessa is filled with even larger oilfield trucks. There always seems to be construction too. Traffic really backs up quickly when the freeway becomes a one lave road. I wish there were scenic backroads I could take to the Davis Mountains, but basically the middle of Texas isn't very scenic and I-20 is the only choice you get.

I was making pretty good time today until I stopped for gas at a place where the pumps wouldn't accept my credit card. The logical thing to do would be to just drive on to the next station. Never mind. My tank was low and I wasn't sure I could make it to the next station. I finally got the station attendant to get the pumps working, but the whole process made me thirty minutes late. I need to fill up more often on the trip back.

With the exception of the gas stop, I drove straight through. I was hoping to catch the Prude Ranch manager before she left work at 5 PM. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I arrived around 6 PM and the place seemed empty. I went from building to building until I found the office. The place was dark and empty, but a map of the facility and my room key were waiting for me on the front desk.

I'm glad I took a cooler with sandwiches and water. There definitely wasn't any place to eat as evening approached. I brought one beer with m so I could relax after the long drive and immediately wish I'd brought more. Janet made me an excellent ham and cheese sandwich, which I ate in my room. Actually, eating in my room was probably a lot smarter than trying to find a restaurant. The observatory will be serving us some sort of an outdoor dinner tomorrow evening, so all I've got to worry about is breakfast.

Hopefully, the skies will be clear tomorrow night. I drove through a major dust storm getting here. I couldn't even see the David Mountains until I was about thirty miles away. It was very windy today, so maybe the dust will blow away. I can't hear any wind now. It's so quiet out here that it is kind of spooky. There is no traffic noise. No planes overhead. No police sirens. And no barking dogs. It seems unnatural for it to be this quiet. I should sleep well tonight. On the other hand, if I do hear a noise, it will probably break me out. 

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day