We got there around 3:00, set up the tent and scouted out a place to go stargazing near the campsite. Had some beans and bread for dinner--the cookstove is really quite nice, much better than cooking over a campfire. As we ate, we heard an owl calling; looked around and found it perched atop some rocks in the distance, silhouetted against the sunset.
Stargazing
I brought the telescope and binoculars to try them out on some pretty ideal viewing conditions. There was 4 hours between sunset and moonrise, and a lot of stars came out in the darkness. So much so that otherwise-obvious constellations became difficult to find in the star clutter. And once you found something by eye, looking for it in the binoculars and telescope introduced progressively more decoy stars to throw you off. Things we found to look at:
- Jupiter The moons form such fine points of light in the telescope! And I'm still amazed that we can see its stripes.
- Pleiades SC first noticed it by eye, and then we pointed the telescope to it. So many stars in one place!
- Cassiopeia I tried using Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy. This worked for the binoculars, but not the telescope. In the process, though, I got pretty good at finding α (Schedar), γ (Tsih), η (Achird), υ1, and υ2 Cassiopeiae.
- Andromeda Actually just two of its stars: β (Mirach) and μ Andromedae. These two stars are roughly collinear and equally spaced with the center of the Andromeda galaxy, so this ended up being how I found the galaxy in the telescope.
- Andromeda galaxy Spent a lot of time looking for this! Just barely visible to the naked eye, it's pretty clear in the binoculars. In the telescope it's a big oval cloud, not too much detail.
For most of these the 25mm eyepiece (24x) was the best for viewing, though the solar system objects were amenable to the 9mm eyepiece + 2x Barlow (133x). Back at the campsite, setup the tripod and took some long-exposure photos of stuff at night. Wishing now that I'd kept an exposure log.
Camping
Set up a campfire with a starter log and a bundle of firewood from the supermarket. So nice! It burned for a good long time and provided many warms. We heated some pre-cooked sausages and then toasted some marshmallows. If you're careful, you can also heat chocolate on the skewer; softened chocolate + toasted marshmallow is a great combination.
Later the moon came out. It was mostly full and it is unbelievable how bright it is when your eyes are dark-adjusted. We could walk around without a flashlight, and the dimmer stars disappeared back into the sky.
Went to bed at 10:30; it was a pretty restless night. The sleeping bags were generally warm, and the foam mats worked really well, but we kept waking up intermittently. SC had cold feet; I kept turning in my sleep and exposing my head to the cold air.
Sunrise
We got up around 5:00 to do some more stargazing. Saturn was the main attraction, and it was spectacular. The view from the telescope is much noisier than the stock photos, and yet it is so obviously round and unmistakably ringed. Seeing it firsthand like that was quite a shock actually; it was only then that it made the jump from "science fiction cover artwork" to "holy crap that is a thing that exists for real".
Set up a campfire with a starter log and a bundle of firewood from the supermarket. So nice! It burned for a good long time and provided many warms. We heated some pre-cooked sausages and then toasted some marshmallows. If you're careful, you can also heat chocolate on the skewer; softened chocolate + toasted marshmallow is a great combination.
Later the moon came out. It was mostly full and it is unbelievable how bright it is when your eyes are dark-adjusted. We could walk around without a flashlight, and the dimmer stars disappeared back into the sky.
Went to bed at 10:30; it was a pretty restless night. The sleeping bags were generally warm, and the foam mats worked really well, but we kept waking up intermittently. SC had cold feet; I kept turning in my sleep and exposing my head to the cold air.
Sunrise
We got up around 5:00 to do some more stargazing. Saturn was the main attraction, and it was spectacular. The view from the telescope is much noisier than the stock photos, and yet it is so obviously round and unmistakably ringed. Seeing it firsthand like that was quite a shock actually; it was only then that it made the jump from "science fiction cover artwork" to "holy crap that is a thing that exists for real".
Took some photos of the sunrise, made some soup for breakfast (vegetables, water, and cheese; I was disappointed that we forgot to bring eggs for what I deemed to be a "cowboy" breakfast, but the soup was surprisingly good and a satisfactory substitute), then struck camp and headed out of the campsite.
First stop was 49 Palms. It's a bit of a walk. Dry, rocky mountains with sparse, scrubby vegetation as far as you can see (well, except for a suburban development by the highway), and then bam! Palm trees! I'm glad that oases are a real thing. Just like Saturn.
We were the only ones there. There were signs telling us to keep to the path, so we didn't go farther down into the valley, but we could hear running water. Watched a pair of crows fly about. They're quite big! We could hear the sounds of the air over their wings as they flapped.
Joshua Tree National Park
Next we went into the park. A $15 entrance fee (separate from the $15 campsite reservation fee from yesterday).
Barker Dam
Cholla cactus garden
Cottonwood spring closed due to flood damage
But we were able to see the Andromeda galaxy by the naked eye.
Camp Joshua tree
Ccan't sleep 2 am went to bed at 1030ish. The fire as nice. Had marshmallow s and chocolate . Sleeping bags warm but still had cold feet: must lie close to kevin or feet will be cold again. SuppoSed to get up at 5 I think but I don't think I can fall asleep. Saw an owl at sunset. He sat on a rock and called. Was backlit to didn't get a good look. Rocks and weird shrubby plants!
Am going to make a soupy breakfast since I forgot the eggs. We're going to look for Saturn and then watch the sun rise. I am wondering how we're going to stay warm. Maybe should restart the fire.
Metrolus suitcases for hikers??
Saw Saturns rings. Clear with Barlow. Also saw Andromeda (last night, fuzzy ellipse cloud thing) with binocs and barely with eyes, hard to find with telescope. Saw Orion nebula, some dots in a cloud. 9mm was good for that.
Had a soupy cheesy veggie stew then struck camp and entered joshua tree park proper.
First stop 49 palms. Walked over a mountain and TA-da there were all these palms suddenly. Good to know the movies weren't lung about oases. All this scrubby dry stuff and them lots of palms and sound of running water. Weren't supposed to go down. Watched a pair of crows call and drink from a puddle and fly around.
Very sleepy. Fell asleep while Kevin drove.
Looked at Joshua trees.
Barker dam trail. Very pretty. Had a rock scramble.
The most photographed chipmunk at cholla (choy-ya) garden! Also, chollas are ridiculous! I imagine would be v creepy in the dark. And so many of them. Like an army of zombies.
They reproduce almost Completely vegetatively. Just drop of bits that roll away and grow. Weird.
Despite my violent aversion to the cold, we camped in Joshua Tree for a night. I had a lot of nostalgic girlscout flashbacks to the word campfire and FF's dorm regulation-sized twin extralong is not wide enough for our mature forms, so AWAY! To the call of adventure!
Which is to say I booked campsite 25 and FF rented 20-degrees-rated sleeping bags, tent, and propane camp stove. We even bought our firewood (but that's because you can't gather and burn, it's a national park). We started late and got there with about an hour left of sunlight, so we pitched our tent (so proud of ourselves!) and climbed around on the rocks.
I wasn't really expecting boulders like this -- I was imagining more of a road-to-Vegas type desert, with nothing for miles and miles. There was actually quite a lot of vegetation and these god-sized piles of gravel lying around.
The main show started after the sun set; FF had brought his telescope and binoculars. We stumbled around in the dark until we found a flat rock we had found earlier and then I prepared to freeze my ass off.
It was cold. But not too cold. No pictures since it was too dark, but the more you peer into the dark areas between stars you realize there are stars there too. With the binoculars you can see stars between those stars...I suppose if you were sensitive enough it would just look like a solid dome of brighter and dimmer lights. It wasn't properly dark (there was a ridiculously bright little town nearby) but it was still awesome.
The main stars of the evening (heh heh, pun intended, pun intended!) was the and the nebula. As from Kevin's porch, we could see Jupiter's moons and stripes (can you believe it? You can see the moons of Jupiter. With a telescope. That FF owns. What. It is in OUTER SPACE.)
After climbing back down, we had a campfire (finally!) and ate (precooked) toasted hotdogs on sticks, marshmallows on sticks, and (in FF's case) chocolate on sticks. Clearly FF's predilection for food on sticks is primal in nature, although it usually manifests itself at fairs and carnivals. All those sugary calories were very necessary since the space-age sleeping bags proved to be thin in the toes, and I couldn't fall asleep. Thankfully we didn't have to lie there bored and cold for too long -- we got up at 5ish to look at Saturn and wait for the sunrise.
Totally worth it. The half moon was so bright we cast shadows (I had no idea. It is like a little cold sun) and we could see the rings on Saturn. The rings. For serious. Amazing.
The sun rise failed to impress us properly since we were in a valley and the sky was midmorning-bright by the time the sun peeked around the gravel pile, but that was okay. Exploring time!
The oasis was surprising the way I had expected oases to be surprising from movies. It's great when you discover the movies correctly conveyed something. (You think, maybe they got other things right. Maybe you can believe in true love now) The palms just came right out of the desert, and you could hear running water. There were these two crows hopping around on the palm trees, sharpening their beaks. Like, using them for whetting stones, running their beak along them, one side then the other. Very odd.
A forest of zombies! This would be so creepy at night!
This guy greeted all the tourists. He'd run out and get really close and stare at you.
Unfortunately the was closed, but it was a great trip anyway. We had two leftover logs we had to bring home, so that means we have to do more of this stuff in the future. Maybe...Yellowstone?
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