Breakfast Club
An
Affiliate of the
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Visits
Safford,
Visits
Large Binocular Telescope Facility
8-9 May 2010
by Warren McIlvoy
Every once and while, the crack(ed) Breakfast Club event committee hits a “home run” when compiling the next year’s
fly-in schedule. Only this time, they
went “back-to-back” with the Safford
overnight event being a “grand slam” (not to be confused with Denny’s). Not only was the Bagdad fly-in with the accompanying tour of the copper mine,
outstanding in itself, but the Safford
fly-in with the side event of touring the telescope site on top of Mount Graham was literally “out of this world”(pun intended).
The day’s activities began with an east
departure from Deer Valley Airport
to GRINS intersection with a slight
right turn to the San Carlos Globe
Airport. From Globe, we traveled over the eastern shores of
After landing and turning off into the ramp
area, I noticed that the Ponderosa
Aviation folks ushering the aircraft to their parking spots. After securing the aircraft, I was met by Jon Johnson, Assistant Editor of the Eastern
Arizona Courier newspaper. Jon did about a five minute interview
and some film footage that you can view from the links later in this
story. The Ponderosa folks had offered a discount on their fuel in honor of
this event so they were there to take your fuel orders as well.
As we arrived at the terminal building where
everyone was gathering, I was greeting by a number of folks from the City
administration. Among them were: Mayor
When all of the picture taking and greetings
were finished, it was time to load-up the “herd” for the ride into town and a
cowboy cook-out and the City Hall Annex. The folks who prepared the breakfast do not
charge for their services but rather count on donations where they donate the
proceeds to local charities. Our cowboy breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs,
biscuits & gravy with the biscuits made in a Dutch oven, sausage and bacon,
juice, and cowboy coffee. After a hearty
breakfast, the transportation was lined-up for our trip “up the hill” to tour
the telescopes on top of
We made two stops before beginning the climb up
the mountain. One stop (important) was
to pick-up box lunches for everyone in the tour group. The second stop was to pick-up our tour guide
(very important), John Ratje, Site
Manager for Mt. Graham International
Observatory. John’s office was at a
place referred to as “base camp” on the outskirts of Safford. From there, it was
about an hour + forty-five drive to the top.
The first 2/3's of the drive was on winding paved roads that, for a
while, provided occasional panoramic views of the valley below. The further up the mountain that we went, the
forest would get denser. We did pass
several locations where homes and cabins were situated but it did not appear
that any were occupied at this time. But
that might be expected as the road had only been open for a few days.
We came to a place where we stopped to allow John to open the locked gates that
marked the end of the paved road. Once
all of the vehicles cleared the gate, John
then closed and secured the access.
Although the road was clear of any snow, in many locations, it was piled
high along the sides. The winter snows
and constant grading had taken its toll on the road as the pace was relatively
slow due to the roughness of the dirt and gravel road. Small streams were very common and an
occasional water fall could be seen from the road as we ascended the mountain.
As we neared the summit of the mountain, you could clearly see vast areas of
fallen trees that had been cut down due to the devastation caused by the bark
beetles. I am only guessing that this
was done to mitigate the effects of potential forest fires.
We arrived at a location where there was a turn-off
from the main road that was just a single lane in width. The narrow, winding, road was bordered by
burned areas and the now common log strewn landscape until we were just short
of reaching to top of the mountain. Once
the road leveled-off, we got our first glimpse of the telescope towers that
dominated the scene. We made a brief
stop to allow John to check-in with
the guard. We then continued on a short
distance to the parking area along side the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope).
You can get more detailed information regarding this site by visiting
their web site at LBTO.org
When we exited the vehicles, the now cold air
and spirited winds were a stark reminder that we were now at an elevation of
over 10,000'. I was very thankful that
we had the foresight to bring jackets with us.
We entered the building into a lobby area where the walls were amply
covered with photos and narratives of the construction of this facility. John
added some insights from his perspective and took questions from the
group. We exited the lobby into a short
hallway and entered a very large room that contained maintenance equipment and
served as a storage area. Above the door
where we entered the room, was a set of rollers that were about 40' above the
floor area where we were. These rollers
are part of the mechanism that allows for the rotation of the tower that houses
the LBT. In a corner opposite where we
came in, was a large container that looked like a pressure cooker on
steroids. John said that this piece of equipment was used in the re-coating
process for the huge telescope mirrors that is done about every two years. John
said that it takes about two weeks to prepare the mirror and container. John stated
that when all is ready, an aluminum coating that could be contained in a soda
can, is released into the container and the time required for the re-coating is
no more than the blink of the eye. If
you were to sneeze at that moment, you would have missed all the fun.
Retracing our steps to the lobby, we got on an
elevator and went to the fourth level and exited into a hallway. We proceeded down the hallway only a short
distance where we boarded another elevator for a short ride to the next
level. Upon exiting the elevator we
found ourselves in a glass enclosed room that overlooked the huge telescope
structure. There was a door right in
front of use with a key pad on the locking mechanism. At this point, that lock appeared to be a
very good idea as the next step was at least 4-stories down. John said that when the staff is doing
maintenance work on the telescope, the framework is rotated so that a ramp is
aligned with this door opening thus making that first step a little less
exciting. After John explained what we
were viewing, we descended the metal stairs to the main floor to perform a
closer examination of this mind boggling device.
The LBT
is housed in a huge box-like tower that is about 150' high with sliding doors
on one side. Since the tower rotates,
they only needed doors on one side. The
two telescope mirrors are 8.4 meters in diameter (about 27.5') and about 50'
center-to-center. They work together
just like a pair of binoculars that form a single image on the screen. There are several cameras and lenses mounted
on “arms” supported above the reflector mirrors that serve different
purposes. There is also a Gregorian foci
that is mounted on the back side of the primary mirrors that receives the image
through a lens that is mounted on one of the arms, that reflects the image back
through the hole in the center of the primary mirrors. This telescope also employs adaptive optics
to compensate for the blur of light as it passes through the Earth’s
atmosphere. If those features aren’t
enough to whet your appetite, they also use a device called “Lucifer” (who says that scientists
don’t have a sense of humor). This
device is an LBT Near
Infrared Spectroscopic Utility
with Camera and integral Field Unit for
Extragalactic Research. I think that
I prefer Lucifer instead.
The telescope and all of its supporting
structure and bells and whistles, weight about 650 tons and is supported by two
“C” rings just inside either of the two primary mirrors. These “C” rings are in turn, supported by
four “oil bearings”. These “oil
bearings” are supporting blocks with an angular plate that has a film of oil
and cradle the “C” rings. Obviously, the
oil is under high pressure and is constantly oozing out where the C rings and
oil bearing meet. Since the oil is under
high pressure, the C ring does not actually make contact the oil bearing. The oozing oil is collected in a drip pan and
is filtered and returned to the reservoir for further use. John
said that there are three 3-horsepower motors that rotate and turn the telescope
as well as turn the tower structure. He
also stated that they never open the doors with the mirrors in position during
the daylight hours because “the mirrors
can bake your lunch 150-miles away”.
With the telescope mirrors in an upright position, they did open one of
the doors that allowed us a spectacular view of the
Following our rather thorough examination of the
telescope, we went down to the second level where, as I recall, that John said was the living quarters for
the scientists that were working with the telescope equipment. Since the telescopes at this sight are actually
owned by a consortium of universities, there is a constant rotation of
scientific people coming and going.
While on sight, they have living quarters that I would guess are similar
to hotel rooms. There is a central
eating facility and dining area along with a lounge area with a wall mounted
TV. This is where we were able to chow
down on the sandwiches that we had picked-up earlier. After lunch, we went down to the lobby level
where we used the “relief” facilities before heading-out to the Vatican Telescope site that was about
200 yards from the LBT.
As you might guess, the Vatican Telescope is housed in a considerably smaller structure
with only a single mirror telescope.
Entered through a single entry door and into a living area that was not unlike
you own home. There was a living room
that adjoined the kitchen area with two small bedrooms at the end of the
hallway. The bedrooms were quite small
and somewhat Spartan in their decor. We
then ascended a staircase to the second level that had two additional bedrooms
that I would assume were identical to those on the first floor. From the second level we took an elevator to
the “observation” deck. This telescope
was about half the size of the mirrors of the LBT and was housed in the
traditional “dome” that one would associate with a telescope. John
described the various pieces of equipment and then responded to questions from
the group. As you might guess, the
inevitable question came up about why the
After all of the questions had been answered, we
descended to the first floor and exited the building. We headed in the direction of the LBT but quickly made a left turn to
what was certainly an area that was clearly support facilities for the
site. There was a huge water tank with
water treatment equipment (the water is trucked in), a large diesel generator
and fuel storage tank, and other maintenance equipment. There were also areas that were roped-off
that contained nothing but trees and untouched landscape. John
said that these area were “off limits” to human travel because these areas were
supposed to be inhabited by the red tailed squirrel.
Our next stop was to be the radio telescope that
was currently in operation. But by now,
it was nearly 3:30 and some of our folks were not planning on staying the
night. With the hour and a half ride
back to town and a brief stop and the city hall annex to pick-up gear, it was
decided to skip this part of the tour and head back to town. After retrieving our gear from the City Hall Annex, we headed over to the Spring Hill Suites in Thatcher where we would spend the
night. We informed our hosts that we
would be ready for pick-up at around 6:45 for dinner at the Ice Cream Company.
The
Ice Cream Company is owned and operated by
Jerry
& Nancy Grout invited us up to their room to share in some spirits of the
day. Phil Goddard and Nadine Davis were also there and we all sat in the
sitting area and shared some
The breakfast that is put on by the hotel was
sort of a Continental breakfast but far beyond that. You had your choice of hot oatmeal, various
dry cereals, sweat rolls, bagels, fresh fruit, coffee, milk, juices of your
choice, and you could even make you own waffles. All-in-all, a very nice breakfast offering
prior to heading out to the airport.
After our breakfast, we returned to our room to
finish packing and make one last “pit stop”.
Our group had gathered in the hotel lobby and promptly at 0830, our
hosts arrived to take us to the airport.
Upon arriving at the airport, we unloaded our gear and headed out to our
respective aircraft to get them loaded and perform our preflight inspections. Ponderosa
Aviation was there in a golf cart to fill-out the credit card slips for the
fuel that they offered at a discount price for our fly-in group.
On behalf of all of the Breakfast Club members, I want to thank
- James Kouts, Vice-Mayor
- Jerry Hancock, Councilman
- Ken Malloque, Councilmen
- David Kincade, City
Manager and acting Airport Manager
Also at the airport to greet us was the reigning
The Safford
Group
- *Warren & Jeri-Ann McIlvoy in 93MB, BC-1 & 1.5
- Roger Whittier &
- *Jon & Lisa McLin
- *Jerry & Nancy Grout with *Phil Goddard and Nadine
Davis in 1129T
- Jerry & Diane Kapp with Rachel Davis and Peter
Culin in 5658K
- *Adam Rosenberg in 4372J, BC-72
- Rich Kupiec and Austin Erwin in 6693M BC-47 & BC-99
- *Bob Ivory & Donnie Rosenberg in 4840T
- *
- James & Debra Abraham
*Stayed for the evening
What’s Next?
The June Event for the Breakfast Club will be a return engagement to Show Low and Aunt Nancy’s
Café. July will see us take a short
trip to Payson and the Crosswinds Restaurant. That’s all for
now but remember, fly safe.
Click on these links to read the Eastern
Arizona Courier article about our fly-in and the 2nd link to
the video of our event.
http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2010/05/14/news/doc4be9c83277fb0790965341.txt
http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2010/05/19/news/update/doc4beacf7f710c2589795954.txt
To view photos of the Safford event, click on the link below.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=ciigunav.727he2r7&x=0&y=-fctlg9&localeid=en_US