Field notes from the Sonoran Desert — hikes, night skies, small tools.
Started up the Hunter Trail at 4:40 with a headlamp and no particular plan beyond beating the heat. The cable section is shorter than it looks from the parking lot, and the saddle catches a steady breeze that makes the last scramble feel almost cool. Sunrise lit the Picacho Mountains to the east first, then rolled down into the flats where the interstate was already busy.
Lesson for next time: bring gloves. The cables hold the morning chill longer than the rock does.
I finally wired a small stepper to the old equatorial mount so it can keep up with the sky for a couple of minutes at a time. It is not a serious astrophotography rig, but it turned thirty-second exposures of the Lagoon Nebula from streaks into something I would show a friend. Notes on the gear ratio and the drift test are on the gear page.
The first storm came in from the southeast with a wall of dust and almost no rain. The second one skipped us entirely and flooded Tempe instead. The third arrived at midnight, dropped an inch in forty minutes, and left the washes running until breakfast. The palo verdes looked pleased.