The Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona has been evacuated due to a nearby forest fire. Everyone was able to get out safely.
It doesn’t look like the fire is too close to the telescopes, so that’s good, but details are sketchy. In the image above, taken from a webcam on the 2.1 meter catwalk on the afternoon of July 8, from the 4-meter telescope’s catwalk shows smoke from the fire. You can get the most recent info on the Kitt Peak webpage. Update: July 9: I switched the webcam image and link from the 2.1 meter to the 4 meter; the latter points more toward the direction of the fire. Thanks to Rob Sparks for pointing that out.
There are rich ironies here. I recently wrote about the fires at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, and in that blog entry I talked about visiting the Australian observatory at Mt. Stromlo in 2004, and how it was recovering from a fire. Just the other day, a friend sent me a newspaper clipping saying that another part of Stromlo has reopened, including a new solar telescope:
I never used a big ground-based telescope; I went from my 10″ Newtonian to Hubble. But touring these giants gives you a real sense of the care and love that go into them, and a tangible sense of awe for what they can do. I hope everything goes well at Kitt Peak.
Tip o’ the dew shield to Rob Sparks and Richard Saunders.
July 8th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Here’s to hoping the fire will be stopped ASAP.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:14 am
“I went from my 10″ Newtonian to Hubble”
That must have been such a hardship!!
July 9th, 2007 at 4:47 am
B.A. says “I went from my 10″ Newtonian to Hubble.”
You say that like it’s just an every-day event…
::turns green with envy::
–
July 9th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Tell us more about your use of Hubble.
July 9th, 2007 at 7:51 am
[...] “Fire at Kitt Peak Observatory“. Ainda no mesmo blog, “Dawn launch postponed to September“; [...]
July 9th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Just wondering you are planning on addressing the Discovery Channel special on “Doomsday 2012″
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/2012/video/x1ci1n_doomsday-2012-preview
The claim is that in December 2012, the sun, earth, and galactic center will all form a straight line and cause the poles to suddenly flip on the earth, wreaking havoc and basically destroying civilization.
Any comment?
July 9th, 2007 at 8:07 am
May the FSM , bless those at Kitt Peak and spare those great scopes.
Also , yes PLEASE tell us more of your Hubble experience!!
July 9th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Unfortunately there is not going to be a solar telescope at Mt. Stromlo. The old, and now restored, administration building did house the telescope of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory (CSO),
but Mt. Stromlo is not going to host scientific telescopes in the
foreseeable future – that’s left for the Siding Spring Observatory
(http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/about_us/sso_anu.php), which experiences less light pollution.
- Regner
July 9th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Actually, I went from a 3″ telescope to HST to a 6″ telescope…
We visited Mt. Stromlo last year (2006) for a day and it was amazingly sad at how damaged it was, but also amazing at how it’s being rebuilt, with an eye toward student telescopes and the solar facility. We have pics here: http://www.lochnessproductions.com/mandc/australia/canberra.html (scroll down to see Mt Stromlo pics).
Griffith was actually in no danger of burning down per se, as it turns out. But, smoke damage was a very real problem they faced, as well as increased heat that could have set off the building’s sprinkler system. I would have felt very bad if it had been damaged; it’s a great facility, a beautiful building, and I have good friends working there. I worked with them for more than a year, writing their exhibits, and I get back there every chance I can to visit with them and see how things are going. Griffith Park is just a tinder box, and I was astounded at how much burned in the fire.
I hope Kitt Peak weathers the fires. The world can’t keep losing its astronomy facilities.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Wow, I knew about the two fires that burned 20-some acres last Friday, but I hadn’t heard about this one that’s burned 3500 acres as of 2 PM yesterday. Maybe because Kitt Peak is like 60 miles away and the Catalina’s are only 20 or 30.
It sucks though, because this area is so dry just about anything will start a fire.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:38 am
El Guapo: yes. It’s crap.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
sigh… the only one of our observatories that *hadn’t* been in danger of burning in the past 6 years.
I heard about it on our department email yesterday and then went to the dining room window and looked out at it. Yep, there’s a big haze covering the mountains to the south of Kitt Peak.
And I need to use the 90″ for my postdoc! sigh…
Here’s the update from the Tucson paper:
http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/190964
July 9th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
“The claim is that in December 2012, the sun, earth, and galactic center will all form a straight line and cause the poles to suddenly flip on the earth, wreaking havoc and basically destroying civilization.
Any comment?”
Yes…doesn’t this happen, like, twice a year?
Rob
July 9th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
http://www.shop34614110.taobao.com
July 10th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Early Tuesday in Southern Arizona:
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/191094
J/P=?
July 10th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Yikes, I spent 150 nights at MDM observatory which is also on Kitt Peak. I’ve wondered at times when I was observing what would happen if there was a forest fire.
Phil, didn’t you use UVA’s telescope for your master’s thesis? What size is that? I distinctly remember a rather humorous story you wrote involving the Exorcist and that telescope.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Thursday morning, 7/12/07: Eighty percent containment, with North (toward KP) not one of the problems:
from the Tucson Citizen:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/57257.php
J/P=?
July 12th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Looks like it’s over
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/191529
J/P=?