You also visited the Grand Canyon, didn’t you?
The reason we went to the Grand Canyon is because Bill Clarke was transferred there, and he informed us of his transfer. He told us to come and we did from about 1978 through 1981. We used sun telescopes by day our larger telescopes by night, usually staying there 16 days and 16 nights. In 1980 we were asked to estimate how many people looked through our telescopes. We estimated about 20,000 people, but we had many telescopes with us at that time.
One time, after most people had gone to bed, a group of Australian astronomers stayed out past midnight at the Grand Canyon and spent the whole rest of the night sketching galaxies at our telescopes because many of the galaxies visible in the Northern Hemisphere are not accessible for night viewing below the equator.
In 1981, we received a letter from a park visitor who complained to the Park Service that we were raising controversial scientific questions with an uninformed public. A ranger at the Grand Canyon copied this letter and sent it to us, with a letter of his own asking us not to return. I’ve never returned on my own to the Grand Canyon. Others, however, have taken me back.
Can you elaborate on this letter you received in 1981?
It’s not nice that things happen like this. People who enjoy looking through telescopes don’t write letters. It’s only those who complain who write the letters. The complaints often come from the fundamentalists and creationists. They do not agree with our teachings. I think the ranger who sent us this letter may have been sympathetic to their points of view, or had even been one of them.
There are some other comments I would like to make as well about our experiences at the Grand Canyon, beginning with Dean Kettleson, who has organized an annual star party at the Grand Canyon and who recognized me as the initial founder of star parities there. He has invited me back several times (1). But the present Grand Canyon Star Party, unlike our sixteen day event, is only held for one week. I’d like to get the Grand Canyon Star Party extended to two weeks. One weeks without the moon and one week with it. When I first came to the Grand Canyon Star Party, I thought that it was a real shame that we didn’t bring our 24-inch telescope, but then I realized that we didn’t really need it. Why, there are a whole flock of telescopes out there for this event.
One another subject, I didn’t like the fact that the exhibits at the Yavapai Museum have been remodeled and apparently “dumbed-down” for public consumption. The original exhibits were among the best I’ve ever seen. I especially enjoyed the original exhibit that showed the ages of the rock strata in the canyon and the evolution of life with time. All of these very fine exhibits have been removed. Also, it upsets me that we can no longer show slide shows in the building itself. All of the slide shows are now out of doors in the wind. That is not so good.
