Here is the entrance to the observatory at the top of Mars Hill. The symbols on the post on the left side are the symbols for the planets in their orbital order with Pluto at the top and Mercury at the bottom. The symbol for Pluto is made from Percival Lowell's initials as Pluto was discovered by an astronomer at this observatory.
Percival Lowell was born in Cambridge, MA, on March 13, 1855 and was a member of the wealthy Boston, MA, Lowell family. He was educated at Harvard University where he graduated with a distinction in mathematics in 1876. After graduation, he worked in his families textile business in Lowell, MA, but after six years decided that was not what he wanted to do with his life. He then joined the Foreign Service and was posted to Japan and Korea at the time those countries were first coming out of their isolation and was involved in negotiating some of the first trade agreements with them. He returned to the US in 1893 and shortly thereafter dedicated himself to the study of astronomy in particular the study of Mars. In 1894, he had a friend survey a number of possible sites for an observatory in the west, and Flagstaff was selected because of its elevation and clear skies.
Lowell looked for someone in Flagstaff to build a dome for his telescope and found a pair of brothers running a bicycle shop who claimed they could build or fix anything and so he contracted with them to build the dome for the 24" refractor telescope he had Alvan Clark and Sons of Cambridgeport, MA, building for him. The dome was built and telescope delivered and started operations in 1896. Here is a photo of that dome.
And inside the dome you can see the original telescope. This it the top end of the telescope and you can see the wooden construction of the dome.
And here is the bottom end of the telescope with our guide who was explaining the construction.
When the dome was originally built they had these metal wheels that allowed the top half of the dome to rotate.
However, they were very noisy and made the dome hard to rotate. In the 1940s, one technician bought a bunch of these wheels and tires for a Ford sedan and installed them in place of the old metal wheels. He also installed a motor drive and that made the telescope and dome much easier and quieter to operate.
During Percival's lifetime the telescope was dedicated to the study of Mars as Percival believed that there was life on Mars and spent many hours mapping the "canals" on Mars. After his death the telescope was used for a lot of important research including pioneering studies on the expansion of the universe. In the 1960s this telescope was used to create detailed maps of landing sites on the Moon for the Apollo Program. It is still operational, but today it is only used for education.
In 1909 a much larger 42" reflector telescope and dome was built, also by Alvan Clark and Sons. It remained in use until the 1970. It was removed from its dome and set up as an exhibit in 1999 and here is a photo of the steel frame of that telescope.
The other important telescope at this site is the 13" refractor that was used by Clyde Tombaugh in the search for a predicted ninth planet. On February 18, 1930, Clyde made the first recognized sighting of what would be later be known as Pluto. Here is a photo of the dome of the Pluto telescope.
And here is a photo of the telescope.
The facilities on Mars Hill are currently used for research studies and administration as all of the new telescopes have been built at sites southeast of Flagstaff as the light pollution from Flagstaff was impacting observations. There are currently four telescopes up to 72" in operation at Anderson Mesa 12 mile away and a brand new 169" telescope at Happy Jack 40 miles away.
Approximately 50,000 years ago a chunk of nickel-iron about the size of a commercial airliner slammed into the Colorado Plateau about 35 mile east of Flagstaff. It left an enormous crater 3/4 mile in diameter and 570 ft. deep and it the best-preserved meteor crater on earth. Here is a panorama shot I took when Pat and I visited the site back in 2011.
In the visitors center of the observatory they have on display the largest piece of the original meteor that created this crater. It weighs 535 lbs. and was originally found in the late 19th century and for over 80 years was displayed outside a souvenir shop at the Grand Canyon. In 1988, it was moved into the shop and then in 2008 when the souvenir shop closed, the Verkamp family that had run it for 108 years donated the meteor to the Lowell Observatory. It is now on display in the gift shop. Here is a photo of it.
Percival Lowell died in 1916 and he is buried in a mausoleum on the observatory grounds. Here is a photo of it.
Today the mausoleum is encased in a protective dome. Originally it was not enclosed but exposure to the ultraviolet light from the sun damaged the glass of the dome. The color of the glass tiles was originally the same color as the planet Neptune, a rich blue. Today as you can see from this photo looking up thru the mausoleum dome, the color is badly faded.
The observatory is still owned an operated by the trust that Percival Lowell set up in his will and is overseen by a single trustee who for the last 100 years has been a member of the Lowell family. The current and fifth trustee is William Lowell Putnam, IV who is Percival's great grand nephew.
Here is a photo I took as I was leaving the observatory showing downtown Flagstaff at the base of the hill.
Pat's knee has been giving her so much trouble that we have decided to cut this trip short and tomorrow we will start our trek home with a stop in New Mexico, two stops in Texas and a stop in Alabama.
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