Kitt Peak Observatory-Arizona

While on our trip in Arizona on the first weekend we were there we went to see Kitt Peak Observatory which is west of Tucson Arizona.

We were so happy when we arrived to find out if you do the self guided tour it was free.. Score!! Also we were really happy to hear they were doing a solar viewing.. We've never seen the sun through a telescope so knew this was going to be awesome. DS10 is doing a study on Astronomy so going to this was a huge thrill for him and for the rest of us. I also love astronomy so was tickled pink to be able to come here.

 

My daughter looking through the solar telescope

Here we all are looking through the Solar Telescope. We were able to see through two of them. One showed us the sunspots and the other showed us the solar flares.

Hubby took this photo through the telescope. You can see the solar flares on the left side and also on the right side but smaller.. This was the highlight of our day...

We were able to go down inside the BIG solar telescope. DS10 here wanted a picture in front of all the planets..

Part of the interior of the solar telescope

Lense of the solar telescope

Hubby with DS13 admiring the view. We were up at 7500 feet..

View of the Solar Telescope from a distance..

Here is another telescope we were able to go inside to take a look at above..

Here is inside the building..



Diagram showing the telescope

View of some of the other telescopes..

This was the largest telescope outside the solar telescope up here at Kitt Peak. 14 inch..

View of three other telescopes

Me in front of the largest telescope that we were able to go inside of

kids in front of the largest telescope

 

Below are some fun photos we took with the largest telescope.. Love optical illusions..

 

I took this one of my daughter

 

Hubby took this one of DS10

 

I took this one of hubby..

 

These above were fun to do.. None of them above were physically touching the telescope and were actually quite a distance away...

 

DD17 is holding up the telescope..

DS10 is trying to keep it from falling over..

Hubby is hanging on for dear life...

The kids found a baby lizard while we were walking back to our car.

This was a fantastic day.. Learned a ton about the solar system, the sun and what they observe up at this observatory. Even spoke with a scientist from Rhode Island who was staying there for 3 days looking at a galaxy.. If you are ever in the Tuscon Arizona area you've got to come check this out.. AND IT'S FREE!!!