Flagstaff Arizona (Science Teacher Edition)

We stayed in Flagstaff, Arizona in December 2012 for a couple days just because we were driving across the US at the time. I had no idea about the plethora of Science Teacher attractions were in the area. Besides the nearby, and obvious Grand Canyon, we stopped by The Lowell Observatory and Meteor Crater.

Lowell Observatory

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Clark's Telescope - 24 inch lens, and 22.6 ft focal length, built in 1890s. It is so well balanced/constructed that we saw two little kids were able to move it with a tug of a rope.... A very historical telescope built by Percival Lowell on his life's quest to locate a hypothetical "ninth planet" in our solar system... Also used to train Apollo astronauts about the moon... Also was used to first discover "Red Shift" in the universe.

Another view of the telescope.

Blink Comparator that Clyde Tombaugh used in 1930 to discover Pluto - This is placed on display at Lowell Observatory. You can see the photo of Clyde. It was Percival Lowell's life ambition to find the illusive 9th planet. Clyde took up the work after Percival passed away.

My daughter using the Blink Comparator to "discover" Pluto. When you look into the device you see two alternating negatives of a section in space. It flickers back-n-forth between the two images so that you can quickly "compare" the images. Anything that CHANGES/MOVES in the image is relatively easy for your brain to pick out. In the two images you can see one of the "dots" jumping from one spot to another, indicating the yet-to-be named planet Pluto moving across the sky.

Slipher Spectrograph - this was used as part of the Clark's Telescope while viewing distant galaxies. It breaks light up into its spectrum... It showed how all galaxies have a "red shift" in their spectrum, indicating that they are all moving AWAY from the observer... Giving some of the earliest evidence that our universe is expanding.... (Important concept in the newer, NGSS Science Standards)

Meteor Crater

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This capsule was used to test the recovery system for the Apollo space program. It is the basic exterior of the actual capsule... Three men in that thing falling through the atmosphere??? Crazy! The astronauts used Meteor Crater to train for part of their moon walks.... Moon = lots of craters...

That's me in the bottom/right corner! - Meteor Crater AZ - "The most well preserved crater, from meteor impact, on our planet" and it's right here in Arizona! This was an important sight for the training of the Apollo Astronauts so they could practice walking, driving, and working on the moon's surface.

One of the metallic meteorite chunks from the Meteor Crater impact... This "rock" hit the Earth over 50,000 years ago... I was surprised at how DENSE it felt. It was literally a solid chunk of metal.

Great place to visit. Maybe a little out-of-the-way for most people to get to easily. But if you are ever in Arizona, it is definitely worth a day-and-a-half visit.

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Colby's Recommendation Rating: 80% (Nice Trip!)

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