I was in southwestern Utah, again, for the Southwest Astronomy Festival. My wife and I came up to volunteer with a telescope, again. We were last here over the Fourth of July weekend, which was capped by a nice aurora display. No such luck, this time, around!
This summer, Cedar Breaks has been having an astronomy program every Friday and Saturday, which I think is great. You're above 10,000 feet, and, despite Cedar City being in sight, the skies are still pretty dark, much darker than my usual stomping grounds of Joshua Tree. Sky's the Limit is about 4.4 on the Bortle scale, while Point Supreme in Cedar Breaks is about 3.5. By contrast, the parks around Moab (not in Moab, itself, but from some of the observing points within Arches, Canyonlands, and Deadhorse Point are between 2.5 and 3.1 on the Bortle scale (a lower number means darker skies).
You can get from the LA area to Cedar City in about seven driving hours (less, if you stop less frequently), so it's doable to leave LA in the morning and get to Cedar Breaks with enough time to set up for dark sky observing. Obviously, it's also possible to get back in a day, as well. But it does wear me out.
The Southwest Astronomy Festival runs three days and nights, with a variety of talks, a day or so of solar viewing, and three nights of dark sky viewing. So I left Friday morning, volunteered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, then drove back Monday. No solar set up for me, which is fine. My 14" dob takes a lot more car space that my previous setups. I'd probably need to use the roof rack if I wanted to bring another set up.
I'm still sleep-deprived, but wanted to get this posted reasoanbly, quickly, if only to get the leaf photos posted.
These were all taken on the morning of Sunday, September 13, 2026. The leaves were just starting to chage in spots, which means, by now (Sepember 16), some of those areas will be at or near peak, but most will still be a week or two away from that. These photographed areas, in particular, were east of Cedar Breaks, off of UT-143. It's the same area I visited on September 22, 2024, so that about tracks.
A couple of obligatory shots from Point Supreme, here. Point Supreme is where they do the astronomy programs. It's a nice, relatively open overlook, with a fair amount of parking. The only time they didn't use Point Supreme as their observing spot was when they were working on building the new visitor center, when we set up at Northview Point. Also good visibility, but a smaller parking lot. Still, it was the best they had available, and its near the "Breaks," so it's a dramatic backdrop.
That's actual Brianhead Peak, the prominent point at the top left. The structure in the first two shots of this post is there. The same point is visible as a silhouette in the aurora shots in the previously-linked post, above, from July, 2026.
The structure also appears in some Milky Way shots I took in 2021.
In November, 2022, the structure's roof was destroyed in a windstorm. Replacement happened just this year, wrapping up just in time for the Fourth of July weekend, although the formal ribbon cutting was not until the next weekend.
Got another sticker to add to my water bottle. Funny story, by the way: There was a thin metal pin that held the lid on, so you could unscrew just the top part, flip the top back, and drink from the growler. The pin fell out during our July 4 visit. I'm pretty sure we found that same pin on this trip, when I thought I lost a small rubber cap forthe end of my finderscope, and about a half dozen people with flashlights looked for that, at the end of the night. Didn't find the cap, but someone did fine that tiny pin, so my growler lid stays put, again.
Took only one short hike, on September 12, 2026. I'll try to get that one posted relatively quickly, too.
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