DAS26miles wrote:
Coming back to LA from Quartzsite, we spent a night in Joshua Tree. On the way out of the park we decided to go to the visitor center at the Oasis of Mara. Passed a solar observatory just outside the park but before the Oasis. Anyone been there? They were open for observations, but we were running so late, we had passed it up.
Boy it was so dark at Jumbo Rocks, you could see your feet. Stars were unbelievable.
used to tent camp at Jumbo Rocks as a teenie bopper. It's pretty dark out there, but Quartzsite is pretty good, at least off Plomosa.
Several years ago we ran across a guy with one of the largest reflectors I've seen.. At least 16" across. He spent all afternoon putting the entire system together, I have a picture of it somewhere . Turns out he was the producer of a Canadian PBS type astronomy show and said it was one of the clearest spots he'd been in cept for all the air traffic. That's the approach corridor to LAX..
