First, a word of advice. If you even happen to find yourself on a unlit dirt road, in the middle of Arizona, in the middle of the night, and you're standing outside, searching through your camera equipment, wearing only sandals... well, you should look where you're standing first with a flashlight. Here is a note of interest from something I was reading last night:
The fire ant is a wingless member of the order Hymenoptera, which includes wasps and bees. The fire ant uses its mandibles to grasp its victim. It arches its body and drives an abdominal stinger into the skin to release venom.
I was reading this after I got home, as I tried to determine if I was having an allergic reaction. (Don't worry Mom, I seem to be ok today.) It turns out that I managed to find the one red ant colony on the entire mile-long stretch of road, and I don't fancy they appreciated my presence, so I left with a couple bites on my feet. But man, do they sting. Anyway, I'm telling the story in the wrong order, so let's step back in time, shall we?
I was on the road to Tucson (I keep wanting to spell it Tuscon) by 7:30 in the morning, amazingly, and hit the
Saguaro Nat'l Park after 9. The roads leading into the park are pretty cool... they appear to be modelled on a complex sine and cosine function (Carolyn, you would love it!). The staff at the park were very helpful (especially after I flashed them the National Parks Pass... thanks Ryan!), and showed me where some good photo spots would be.
I decided to take a short hike around the area, around 10am. I had apparently missed the blooming season for most flowers, but there were still some. (Hmm... I was going to try and impress you all by naming this flower/cactus, but I can't find it anywhere.)
Anyway, it was hiking along the trails that I gathered more evidence that people were just not meant to live in Arizona. Well, I didn't so much gather the evidence, as the evidence embedded itself into my leg. Big trail, at least 3 metres wide, and no cacti near me, and suddenly a feel something attack my leg with dozens of sharp teeth. I instinctually try to shake it off, and I see the cactus leaf go flying. The needles, I've discovered, are specially designed to hook into the flesh, making it less than pleasant to remove them.
Around 11:30 I head out towards the
Kitt Peak Observatory, hoping to catch the 1:30 guided tour. The observatory is not terribly far, but the last dozen miles goes up about 4300 feet. The drive wasn't nearly as terrible as I thought it might be; certainly not terrifying like the drive up the
Colorado National Monument, which didn't have enough funds to put guard railings on the hair pin turns.
I got there early enough to check out the 2.1m telescope, and the solar telescope. Here are some picture of the solar telescope, outside and inside.
The guided tour was pretty cool, and I learned many very interesting facts:
- The mirrors used in refracting telescopes are made of glass, and they are coated with a thin layer of aluminum. To coat the glass, they put it in a vacuum-sealed chamber, and then insert a drop of liquid aluminum. They cause the aluminum to evaporate, and then condense. It condenses on the glass evenly, like morning dew, in a layer about a few atoms thick.
- The telescopes themselves do not touch any part of the building they are housed in. This is more impressive when you see it, because they look fully integrated.
- CCD technology (the stuff you have in your digital camera), was originally supposed to be used as a general storage device, but they discovered that it was way too light sensitive, which was corrupting the data. Hence, they are used as the light sensors in most digital cameras you find today. They've been used in observatories for about 25 years now, instead of photographic plates.
The tour itelf was of the 4 metre telescope, which was quite impressive. The view from the observation deck is quite impressive, and you can see Tucson and much of the surrounding area. It also provides a nice view of the 25 other telescopes at Kitt Peak.
Around 3:15pm, I found myself at the base of the mountain, unsure of what to do next. I wanted to check out
Organ Pipe National Monument, but it looked to be at least 2 hours away, so I wouldn't have much time to enjoy it. So instead I decided to head to Tucson, grab a bite to eat, and then head back to Saguaro Park for some sunset pictures.
I don't like Tucson. I got lost in Tucson. That's all I'm going to say about Tucson.
I didn't get back to the park in time to hike the trail to the good sunset spot (well, I couldn't even find it), so I just parked somewhere, pulled up my socks, and headed deep into cactus country. I was disappointed at first because of the poor vantage point, as well as the fact that my tripod re-broke (I had super-glued one of the leg attachments a while ago), but as the sun began to dip, I did get a few good shots.
After the sun went to sleep, I headed back to the car to pick the needles out of my socks and feet. At the time, changing into sandals seemed like a good idea. I stopped about halfway between Tucson and Phoenix to take some night photos, and I had enough time to take one photo before the red rash on my feet prompted me to go home.
And the rest is history.
These snowflake photos have been digitally manipulated (oh, the horror!) in Picasa to increase the contrast.
I imagine I must have been a peculiar sight for the neighbours. Picture me on a snow-filled balcony on a Sunday morning, equipped with my camera, tripod... and ironing board?!? In order to do macrophotography at this scale, the lens needs to be only an inch or so from the subject, and it turns out that an ironing board is at the perfect height for my tripod/camera setup!
After freezing my fingers for a while, I decided to move my operation indoors for some more action. The (unaltered) image on the right is of two caraway seeds.
Here we have the edge of one of my excellent knives. Sorry Dad, I promise to sharpen them right away!
And finally, a fine twenty-dollar bill. Oh right, I was supposed to mention how I'm taking these photographs. Essentially I'm taking a 50mm lens, reversing it, and attaching it to the end of my telephoto lens. And that gives me something like 4x magnification! Neat eh? Hopefully more images to come in the following weeks.
Around 11:30 I head out towards the Kitt Peak Observatory, hoping to catch the 1:30 guided tour. The observatory is not terribly far, but the last dozen miles goes up about 4300 feet. The drive wasn't nearly as terrible as I thought it might be; certainly not terrifying like the drive up the Colorado National Monument, which didn't have enough funds to put guard railings on the hair pin turns.
The tour itelf was of the 4 metre telescope, which was quite impressive. The view from the observation deck is quite impressive, and you can see Tucson and much of the surrounding area. It also provides a nice view of the 25 other telescopes at Kitt Peak.
I didn't get back to the park in time to hike the trail to the good sunset spot (well, I couldn't even find it), so I just parked somewhere, pulled up my socks, and headed deep into cactus country. I was disappointed at first because of the poor vantage point, as well as the fact that my tripod re-broke (I had super-glued one of the leg attachments a while ago), but as the sun began to dip, I did get a few good shots.
