17 days in Arizona and California
With "VSW" club team colleague Julian Braun,
from March 12 to March 29, 2015
This was a great trip ! Travelling nearly two and a half weeks with a Camper Van,and with an ambitious travel plan we altogether drove about 2500 miles. Including
two observing nights under excellent skies in the mountains near Flagstaff, and a
successful Arizona Messier Marathon in good weather conditions. We met renowned
American observers, Tom & Jennifer Polakis and Brian Skiff, who received us very
friendly and helped in many ways. And as tourists we also visited some well known
National Parks of the American Southwest. And, also important, Julian and I got on
well together, and nothing happened during the trip which could be called a bigger
problem. It were so many different impressions, so that at the end - on looking back -
the start seemed to be a long time ago. A very interesting experience !
Due to the many images and various topics I split the report into four pages, in the
chronological order. Two of them are purely "tourist", while in Part 1 and Part 3
astronomical activities are dominating.
Part 1: Tempe, Flagstaff, two great nights at Anderson Mesa
Part 2: Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Arizona Meteor Crater
Part 3: Arizona Messier Marathon at the "Hovatter Airstrip"
Part 4: Palm Canyon, Sequoia Trees, Yosemite, San Francisco
