Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - Grand Canyon, Arizona
When we woke up, Bob showed me the pictures that he had taken on his hike. Susan then went to do the laundry. She wanted to do it early before it got hot. She left at 7:00 and returned at 9:00. When Susan returned, Bob was unpacking his backpack and getting it ready to pack away. While Bob was working, our neighbor, the astronomer, came over to talk. He invited us to go to the Star Party at Yavupai Point. He told us that the National Park Service arranges with his astronomy club to camp free at Mather Campground in return for a Star Party. Since he and his wife like air conditioning, they pay to stay at Trailer Village. We decided to go outside the park to call Bob’s mother and sister. When we called last night, we had to leave a message on the machine. Bob wanted to talk to his mother so she would not be worried. We then went to the backcountry office so Bob could check in and let them know that he had returned early. We rested the rest of the day until evening. Then we went to Yavupai Point to see the sunset and the Star Party. When we arrived, we had to park along the road. Since the astronomers had their telescopes set up in the parking lot, there were not many parking places left in the parking lot. We walked over to the rim and set up our chairs to comfortably watch the sunset. Bob took oodles and oodles of pictures of the sunset. We then walked over to the parking lot to see the Star Show. These astronomers have spent thousands of dollars on huge telescopes. We saw Saturn with its rings and the shadow of its rings. We also saw Jupiter with its four moons. Saturn and Jupiter were the brightest and the first to show up in the sky. |