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

[stephen pitt <lthuedk@pe.net>]

What a great report, Jon.  You're in print.

Stephen
=================================

Jon Kolb wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
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