Benson, Telescopes and Tombstones

Benson, Telescopes and Tombstones

After nice visits with friends in the Phoenix area, we left for Benson. I had originally planned on staying at the SKP Coop but the office was closed so we went to Butterfield Resort. This place is on the top end of our budget, but they do have a beautiful telescope, a sixteen inch Meade, and it is a really nice park.

So when we arrived the desk told us that the telescope was broken so I told her that I have worked on telescopes and so we made a deal. If I could fix it we would get a free night. Soon after we setup up the manager showed up and we went to see what the problem.

We never did figure out why the scopes computer drive went screwy, (some theories but we didn’t want to recreate the problem), but I did suggest that the scope should be polar aligned and when that selection was picked the scope soon was back to normal. That night we got a private star party and it was really amazing to be able to quickly see Messier objects, as quickly as you could give the scope commands and move the dome cover.

The manager offered us a job doing star parties but Florida calls and we would rather do rock. It did turn out that the managers, Mark and Leanne also do lapidary, make jewelry and so we spent a pleasant afternoon showing each other our collections and our work. How funny to think that they operate a telescope, do star parties, make cabochons and jewelry, and that his first name is Mark!

Anyway we stayed an extra day and decided to visit Tombstone. Now the town itself isn’t much, basically a series of tourist shops, but the graveyard was a real hoot. WE had to try to keep a straight face as we read how the residents had been murdered, hanged, killed by Indians, or just plain died from gunshots. One poor person was killed while playing cards so all you card players out there be aware of your backside!  

New friends are one of the joys of traveling and so we had a nice time in Benson and plan on spending more time here again. However the road beckons and we need to cover some miles as we need to stop in Livingston, Texas before driving the final thousand miles to Florida. There we plan on hanging out till late December, when the shows and our wire wrapping classes will call us to Texas. Clear skies