Whipple Observatory, Arizona

Whipple Observatory

Dad and I decided to check out the Whipple Observatory. If anyone is interested in checking it out, make sure and schedule a reservation. They bus you up and only take so many people. It takes most of the day. You start off with some videos at the base station. While at the Base station you will see 4 Telescopes called the Veritas, built to observe gamma rays and then take a slow bus ride up. While on your way up you make a couple stops at other stations. I am not going to try and even remember everything so you will have to just go check it out. Around noon we stopped for lunch and we meet a couple folks from Alaska and Wisconsin, Mike and Mari. After lunch you get in a suburban and drive the rest of the way up to Whipple.

View from Whipple Observatory

Elephant Head

Up at Whipple you will see the snow plows on the 4 corners of the Observatory. The building actually rotates so when it snows they have to rotate to keep the snow from building up.

You can see the massive doors on the left that open side to side.

This is a picture from the 4th floor. The scope wasn't covered so we had a rare chance to see it. The telescope is called the MMT6 and is about 6.5 meters

 The rails you see rotate the scope and have brakes similiar to a car.

 The 10-meter reflector for gamma-ray astronomy

Drive up

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