Kitt Peak February 3rd

 Mosaic on the Kitt Peak National Observatory. 

On the right is the 4 meter Mayall Telescope, to the left is 2.3 Bok Reflector.

 View to the southeast, two Radio Scopes.  Even if you aren't interested in telescopes the drive is worth it for the views.

 Field of Telescope domes.

 To the left is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope

 Inside the 4-meter Mayall dome.  Got very lucky as they were working on the telescope when we were visiting.  They rotated the telescope down and opened the mirror covers.

It was so incredibly cold in the building.  There was snow on the mountain and it was only in the low 40s.  But they were running the air conditioning to keep the mirror as cold as they expected it to be that night.  It was literally warmer outside than in the building.

The sky at Paca de Paja was very clear.  The weather was very cold so the seeing was amazing. A low pressure front had just passed over. The first night we arrived at 8:00 pm and the Milky Way was straight overhead.   It was very cold, I wasn't dress appropriately so could only stay out for a few minutes.  The next night I braved the still cold weather and sat out with my 10x50 binoculars.  I was able to find M31, Andromeda Galaxy.  With a little work I could see it with my naked eye as a slightly fuzzy grayish blue ball.  The Orion Nebula M42 was great as well.  I viewed it before the trip in Denver and then in Tucson.  It seemed twice as large in Tucson.  I also viewed M35 in Gemini, it was very clear.  It was easy to see it with the naked eye.  The Pleiades and Hyades were fun to view.  It was actually hard to find my way around.  There were so many more stars visible than I am use to seeing.