From Planet Earth to the Heavenly Stars!

Can we just say WOW?  okay, we will... WOW!

Just returned from our visit to Mt Lemmon and the University of Arizona's Star Gazing program.  We weren't sure what to expect of the day... and trust me, we were not disappointed at all.

We left just after lunch for a leisurely drive to the summit.  So much to see, take pictures of, an unsuccessful geocaching attempt, and then reaching the snow at the summit.  So many pictures, as you can imagine... just a few of them below.  There are rock formations everywhere and most of them, if you use your imagination, look like caricatures of make believe characters. 

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Then at 4 o'clock we were met by Travis who was to be our guide and all around star gazer nerd (his description of himself)... who was really fun and knowledgeable!  We looked directly at the sun through a telescope and didn't hurt our eyes... and saw sun flares & spots... spectacular... Sorry, no pics, as my camera is not built for that stuff.  Learned lots about the observatory up there and all the telescopes.. The area and facility used to be used during the cold war as a radar facility.  None of that stuff is there anymore, but many of the buildings and domes are now be used to further Astronomy and teaching folks... regular folks, not just PhD's and astrology students.  Pretty darn cool.

 How bout this rock... looks like a face...

 Hunting for a geocache... Jerry goes down the steep hill...

 I'm yelling at him to get back up...he's trying to assure me that he wouldn't put himself in danger... mind you, later he was hanging on one of the limbs... btw, we never found the cache...

Thimble Rock on the left... and the Canyon below called Bear Canyon 

 I see this as a sculpture of people... hugging... and then a monster on the right... weird, I know...

 One of the signs we were no longer in the desert!

 The winding road!

 Jerry, always out on a limb!!!!

 Snow Ball Fight!

At the summit of Mt Lemmon

 Snow is melting... no skiing, but folks ride the chair up for the views...

 Travis, our host

 The telescope was phenom

 This smaller telescope let us view the sun...

  Sunset

 This is how my camera took the pic...

this is what it looked like through the telescope... and even when using binoculars...It's called the Pleiades (or Seven Sisters)  This is only a tip of what we saw and learned!