RE: [APML] Dark Site Report - Hovenweep National Monument

["Scott Kindt" <celestialphotons@mindspring.com>]

Jon,

I love shooting from the four corners region.  You were very close to my
favorite site in Utah called Valley of the Gods.  Some of my best photos
were taken there.  I belive it's all BLM land so you can set up and camp.
If you want some really cool landscape, star trail shots, check out the
Bisti badlands in New Mexico.  If you want I can give you the web site a
Santa Fe photographer who does a lot of star-scape photography in Bisti. 

Scott Kindt
http://celestialphotons.home.mindspring.com


> [Original Message]
> From: Jon Kolb <jkolb@datawest.net>
> To: Discussion of Film Astrophotography <astro-photo@seds.org>
 > Date: 1/24/2004 10:09:42 PM
> Subject: [APML] Dark Site Report - Hovenweep National Monument
>
> Sometimes I look at the map, see an interesting spot for
> astrophotography, and wish I had more information.  Here's an attempt to
> provide just that for one place I recently visited.
> 
> ---------------------------
> 
> This past Thursday I had the chance to blow out of the office and get
> somewhere dark, and since the clear sky clocks in my neck of the woods
> were showing poor seeing, an Adventure in Astrophotography (supposed to
> be boomed out verbally like the "Pigs in Space" bit from the Muppets
> show) seemed in order.  With all respect to the folks who shoot from
> their backyard or driveway, in my mind there's nothing to compare with a
> road trip to an unknown place with a pickup load of astro gear and a
> cooler full of film. It's almost more fun than sailing.
> 
> Look at a light pollution map, and you'll see that the Four Corners
> region where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet is still a
> pretty dark place.  Hovenweep National Monument is located in extreme
> southeast Utah, very close to the point where the four states have their
> famous common border.  The monument itself is a collection of small
> dispersed sites that protect on public land a number of fascinating and
> very old Puebloan culture ruins.  The ruin sites themselves stretch back
> into Colorado to the northwest of the town of Cortez, but the main site,
> visitor center, and primary public acces is at the Utah site. This small
> park has a loop trail with a secondary side loop trail that
> circumscribes a canyon containing about eight individual ruins, along
> with a small campground.  The National Park Sevice web site for this
> location has lots more information if you're interested.
> 
> I had originally thought that the ruins might make a good star trails
> subject, so I contacted the visitor center via email to inquire as to
> suitability, access restrictions, and so on.  In response, I was pleased
> to find the lead ranger, Chris Nickel, entirely supportive of
> astrophotography within the park boundaries.  However, since I had made
> my decision to travel on the spur of the moment as it were, I was not
> able to obtain a free "special use permit" to use any of the dispersed
> sites at night, so I had to commit to the main site for my trip.
> Fortunately, the site is so remote that the campground is usually
> deserted this time of year, so it didn't seem like a bad idea to try
> out.  I normally have a strong aversion to campgrounds, since that's
> where people go, and people tend to have things that make noise and
> light and smell and all manner of other stuff that I'm not looking for
> when I go on an adventure.  Although one car did show up at around 1930
> hours in the campground, I otherwise had the place to myself for the
> night.  It's important to note that had I planned farther in advance and
> obtained the special use permit, I would have been allowed in any of the
> ruin sites after dark, even off the trail to get a special shot, as long
> as the specific location had been cleared with Ranger Nickel - and I
> don't think this would have been difficult to do.
> 
> I set up in the campground at one of the few sites large enough to
> handle small (less than 25 feet in length) RVs.  I chose this site
> because I could set up two mounts on the hardpack gravel intended to
> support an RV, and not sink into the tent pad that all of the sites
> have.  There are something like 29 campsites, but all are small and
> really made for tents save for three or four.  The site is at the edge
> of the ubiquitous pinion/juniper forest that covers so much of the
> southwest USA, so although there were trees, they were not a major
> obstruction since the trees are small.  There is a restroom building and
> a couple of homes that NPS staff apparently live in nearby the
> campground.  All of these buildings have lights inside, but the closest
> building, the restroom, has lights that timed out at around 1700 hours,
> which is good since I couldn't find a light switch inside.  The
> residences have a few soft indoor lights, are mostly obscured by trees,
> and were not a factor at all during the night.
> 
> The sky in this part of the planet is exceptionally dark, comparable but
> perhaps ever so slightly less dark than the San Mateo Mountains site in
> New Mexico due south of the VLA that I've used a couple of times, but
> definitely darker than Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona.  I can
> just make out M13 with naked eye averted vision, but I couldn't see M33
> - possibly due to my eyesight getting old, I can't see M33 from anywhere
> anymore.  There are very small, unobtrusive light domes from Cortez, CO
> and Farmington, NM (much farther away) on the eastern horizon, but these
> diminish very well as it gets later in the night and are too low to be a
> factor for deep sky work anyway.  The southern horizon is especially
> dark and low, with stars right down to the mud.  No doubt this is due in
> part to the fact that all the land south of the park is Navajo
> reservation land - sparsely populated and undeveloped.  Since the park
> and the campground are on a mesa - you are either on a mesa or in a
> canyon in this area of Utah - you get most of 360 degrees of dark,
> unobstructed sky.  For deep sky work, this is an outstanding site to
> work from, especially if you favor the convenience of developed
> restrooms, campsites, etc.  I would not recommend the site in the
> summer, however, since the campsites are small and close together, and
> you would be much more likely to have close neighbors at that time of
> year.
> 
> The only bad news is that the Four Corners area is a major crossroads
> for air traffic.  I counted 10 in the air at a time more than once
> during the night, although none were close to overhead at the time.
> This is not really an issue for deep sky work, since you need to be
> ready to cover the aperture on a moment's notice no matter where you
> shoot from (save for Chiricahua or other Mexican border areas) anyway.
> However, the original goal was to get some star trails as part of the
> adventure, and for this purpose the air traffic was just too much.  I
> can remove a few airplanes from an otherwise compelling star trails
> shot, but getting 10 or 15 out would be more than I can reasonably
> handle.   I did get a two-hour shot of magnificent Sleeping Ute Mountain
> to the souteast, having started the exposure well after midnight to
> reduce the chances of aircraft, so we'll see how well that worked.
> 
> All in all, this was a great place to shoot from, as dark as any you're
> likely to find, with stars just about right down to the horizon in all
> directions.  And don't forget the daytime hiking opportunities at the
> park, especially if you're travelling with your family or others who
> don't want to pull an all-nighter under the stars.  Since the star
> trails opportunity didn't pan out, I would prefer to use the BLM land to
> the north of the park next time, to avoid any last trace of
> civilization, but I certainly wouldn't pass on the site if I had to use
> the campground again. With better planning one could get into the more
> remote parts of the park using a special use permit, and thereby still
> have some interesting daytime activities as well.  
> 
> Let's hope at least a couple of the shots come out. 
> 
> Sincerely,
> Jon Kolb
> Adventures in Astrophotography
> http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/
> Life Member, International Dark-Sky Association
> jkolb@datawest.net
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Astro-Photo mailing list
> Astro-Photo@seds.org
> http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo


--- Scott Kindt
--- celestialphotons@mindspring.com
--- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet.



_______________________________________________
Astro-Photo mailing list
Astro-Photo@seds.org
http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo