[APML] Fun With Satellites [was: California Desert Night Sky]

["Jim Vineyard" <deepskyphotos@hotmail.com>]

Hi Chris,

  On Sunday, April 10, 2005 at 9:27 AM Chris Cook wrote:

> 20 miles north of the MOFN puts you around Rice, truly even more into the
> great MOFN.  The burned out buildings, refrigerators and washing machines
> laying out in the desert is the true sign of a ghost town in the MOFN.....
> <G>  Btw, did you ever see the "Shoe Tree" in Rice?  A must see if you're
> out that way.  I have pictures somewhere, I'll dig 'em out and post a few.

  Don't think I encountered Rice.  Refrigerators and burned out buildings 
ring a bell.  But nope, no washers.
  Missed the tree too, but'd love to see any pic.  Is this one of those 
trees where pass'ers through customarily take several throws, until they 
land a pair of "whatever shoes tied together at the laces" over a limb as if 
to say "I've been here, and survived" as their semi-permanent calling card 
and testament to their tenacity.  ;)


> You must have driven down Box Canyon Rd that goes down to Mecca?  During a
> trip down this canyon, Jim and I found a couch, cabinets and another
> refrgerator.

  Ahh... I can see you're a man who knows his MOFN well.  No though, just 
before the freeway south-side right-hand curve leading down the 100mph drive 
to Mecca, one can just instead scoot to the left, catching a dirt road and 
wash-board bumps all the way to the mountains and then bounce till your head 
hits the roof all the way up.  You know, out toward the Air Force bombing 
range where they over-shot a few years back and hit some RV campers on the 
shores of the Salton Sea.  Fine astrophotography over in the desert the 
other side of that Sea.


> Sunglow Ranch (a once popular astrophoto place) is just SE of Kansas
> Settlement at the base of the Chiricahua's.  It is darker than you know 
> what
> out there and another MOFN area.

  Now, Thanks for the Meat and Potato"e"s there!!!  This is right on target, 
what I was looking for!

  Additionally, I had some excellent off-list help too, from a great 
astrophotographer, who knows the area better than one of old Chief Cochise's 
braves.  Along with his excellent council, I decided to go high-tech.
  I'd seen some topographic maps and low-rez USGS aerial/satellite photos 
last week but they were of limited use.  But today, um well, yesterday now, 
I found some better resolution and color photos from the "Ikonos" satellite. 
They sell images accurate to 1 meter per pixel for quite some coin.
  But the public browseable low-rez images provide enough to find the 
property I was considering, though it is much like searching for a needle in 
a haystack.  Anyway, I found the needle and decided to post a small and 
lower-rez yet jpeg image of a jpeg to which I added some detail 
identification.
  The Realtor told me he didn't remember any neighbors so I might as well 
make the 1000 mile round trip to see it, since it'd been on the market since 
last September.  Gee when I think of it, that's not so far, that is for a 
quality MOFN experience you know.
  Due to not having found and read their copyright policy I'll just post the 
following lower-rez jpeg for 2 or 3 days at most, you know kind of like 
Google does with their low-rez cached versions of everybody's images.  Here 
it is:

www.deepskyphotos.com/Fun_With_Satellites.html

  Too much light potential for me.  BTW, I really liked the "Cholla Cactus 
getting ready to bloom" photo along with many of the others.  But hey, you 
guys didn't show them the Flintstone's rocks!


Thanks Very Much for the knowledgeable help Chris,

Jim Vineyard


(I do wonder what happened to Sunglow Ranch though, I remember their ads 
when I used to take S&T.)



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Cook" <ccook@cape.com>
To: "Discussion of Film Astrophotography" <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2005 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [APML] California Desert Night Sky


> Hi Jim -
>
>
> > Hi Chris,
> >   Nice to hear you were back ...*home*... out in the much Fabled,
> Legendary,
> > and Great Eternal MOFN!  I see there's those pesky and very distant 
> > light
> > domes in pretty much every direction though, but a very nice all-sky
> Chris.
> >   I made several trips out to (and northward a good 20 miles also) that
> > general area back when comet IZ was around, got a shot of it passing M31
> out
> > there as both set in the low west at dusk.  Not very good though, 
> > shooting
> > out over Indio and Palm Springs on that trip.  And I couldn't believe 
> > it,
> > but a very visable hazy smog layer (or maybe particulate dust) did not
> > improve my effort.
>
>
> 20 miles north of the MOFN puts you around Rice, truly even more into the
> great MOFN.  The burned out buildings, refrigerators and washing machines
> laying out in the desert is the true sign of a ghost town in the MOFN.....
> <G>  Btw, did you ever see the "Shoe Tree" in Rice?  A must see if you're
> out that way.  I have pictures somewhere, I'll dig 'em out and post a few.
>
>
> >   Man, I was out there in an absolutely raging wind-borne sand storm too
> > once, really unbelievable.  I finally headed back, exiting I-10 at the
> > Joshua Tree National Monument exit and headed exact due south, out the
> dirt
> > road and scrambled up the mountains in the rough and wild off-roading
> > Accord.
>
> You must have driven down Box Canyon Rd that goes down to Mecca?  During a
> trip down this canyon, Jim and I found a couch, cabinets and another
> refrgerator.  Heck, one could make a nice little cabin in the desert with
> all the appliances out there... ;-)
>
>
> >   On the way back home west through the nothingness of bleak dark 
> > desert,
> I
> > managed to reel in a center divider parked CHP radar for a citation of
> 91mph
> > in a 70.  Though enjoining a cluster of vehicles ahead netted me a 
> > "Thank
> > You Judge" and a scott-free walk from the courtroom on the latter trip 
> > out
> > to Indio.
>
> Instead of clocking you for 91mph, they should ticket some of the truckers
> who think its funny to pull out in front of you and pass while going up 
> the
> Chiriaco Grade.
>
>
> >   Of importance though, have you or ANYONE had a chance to shoot or
> observe
> > south of Wilcox, AZ. in Cochise County but still north of the Chirichua
> > (likely spelled wrong) Mountains?  It's a small world sometimes.  I have 
> > a
> > chance to purchase a relatively decent 20 acre retirement property out
> there
> > in the desert 30 miles slightly southwest of Wilcox, AZ. (specifically
> about
> > 10 miles due east, as far as I can tell, from "Kansas Settlement".) 
> > It's
> a
> > 1000 mile round trip out to view it.  Anyone know if it is a good dark 
> > sky
> > area?
>
>
> Sunglow Ranch (a once popular astrophoto place) is just SE of Kansas
> Settlement at the base of the Chiricahua's.  It is darker than you know 
> what
> out there and another MOFN area.  The only thing that I might question is
> that the Wilcox Dry Lake bed is in that region and I would think, could 
> kick
> up a fair amount of dust when the wind is blowing.  In the times I was
> shooting from Sunglow though, I don't remember dust from the lake being a
> problem.  Just a thought...
>
>
> > Take care out there with the rattlers and them-there glow'in scorpions,
>
> None found on this last trip....... to the pleasure of my wife..... <G>
>
> Chris
>
>
> -----------------------------
> Chris Cook Photography
> www.cookphoto.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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