It back over to ms. I to. But why . Some say the moon . Why choose this as our goal . And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. 535 years ago fly the atlantic why does race play texas . We choose to go to the moon we choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon. And this decade and do the other things not they are easy, but because they are hard because that goal well served to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills because that challenge is one that were willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win, and the others to. In early 1960s, president john kennedy said, we want galvanize our country to, do something very bold. And it the space race. So we wanted to do something bold to beat the russians. Lets beat the russians by sending humans to the moon and returning them safely before the end of the 1960s as the country to think about going to the moon. One of the questions we had was, you know, how do you know where youre going . Because if you travel to a foreign, you take a map with you to out where youre going. If you travel to a foreign world, you better a map so you dont hit the of a mountain or run into a crater or Something Like that. So it was a critical part of preparing to go to the moon. Were inside the historic clark 24 inch refracting telescope dome and lo observatory. The observatory was established in 1894. That was well before arizona was even a state. And so when Percival Lowell came out here. He had grown up back east, came from a very wealthy family. He got interested in astronomy, but realized if he is going to build an observatory back east, it wasnt ideal because in the 1890s you had the proliferation electric lights that were shining and looking at the skies and making it more difficult to see stars and planets such and so what he decided to do is go to the american southwest. He sent an assistant out here, andrew douglas. He tested sites around the territory and chose flagstaff and flagstaff very dark skies. It was at a high elevation, 7000 feet. The higher the elevation, less air you have to look through and, the less distortion you get, because air is kind of like, you know, a swimming pool. When you open your eyes in a swimming pool, everythings kind of fuzzy because the water is bending. Light air does the same thing. So the more air youre looking through, the more distorted stars are going to. And so the higher you go, the less area flick through. So theres some higher elevation, dark skies here is a great location. You drive around in flagstaff, you look up on whats called mars hill, where lobes water is located, and you see the of the telescope standing 40 feet tall like a big birthday cake on top of the hill. And so Percival Lowell decided to set observatory up in here in 1894. And in 1896 had this telescope build a 24 inch diameter, 32 foot long refracting telescope, refracting telescope means it uses lenses instead of mirrors to collect the light. So he built this in 1896 and it was used in mexico for for about a year, then brought back here in 1897 and has been here ever since. And this is really a classic instrument, classic as part of scientific history. American cultural history. The first evidence of the expanding nature of the universe was collected using instruments on this telescope, pluto, although wasnt discovered with this telescope, it was important in certain in that search and and study after the it so theres been a lot of really Great Research with this over the last several decades not used for research anymore but we it for education outreach the last Major Research done with this was the moon and thats really a unique thing that was with this. I think its something that really captures our especially as we are approaching the 50th anniversary of the first manned missions to the moon apollo eight flew to the moon in december of 1968, and then neil armstrong. Buzz aldrin took the first steps on the moon in 1969, july. All of those astronauts, plus every other one who walked on the moon, every other one who traveled to the moon, all trained here in flagstaff. And they learned geology they tested instruments. They they also about reading maps. And that was something that was important and done here at the observatory with this telescope. So the mapping was the critical thing. The law was involved with with preparing to go to the moon but then low in this telescope were also involved in another way. In 1962, the second group of astronauts were named, you know the mercury seven that had been named they they flew up and did the mercury flights just showing that we could get up into space. Alan shepard, the First American in space, rode for 15 minutes, came back. So in 1962, the Second Group Came along and when they came on, jean shoemaker here in flagstaff, who had brought the branch of astro geology here specifically to prepare for the moon missions, he talked to nasa and he and some other scientists and said if were going to plan to, send people to the moon, should do more than just plant a flag and back. We should do science. What better way to learn about the origins of our planet and who we are then . By studying another body in the solar system, very similar to ours, kind of our partner, as it were. And so in january 1963, the next nine astronauts, its the second group thatncluded armstrong, jim lovell, frank, borman and others. They came out here on a very cold, flew into flagstaff airport. They flew on two planes in case one crashed. Not all the astronauts would have perished. That the thinking. Then they flew. And these guys were rock stars. They were met by the mayor. They were met by cheering fans autographs. But they went to Meteor Crater because. You know, if youre going to go to the moon and do geology around, this pockmarked, cratered of the moon, why not study and prepare for that . At the best impact crar there is, which is Meteor Crater right down the road from where we are here, a litt observatory. And so they went to Meteor Crater to see what an actual impact crater looks like. And then they went to low observatory to to study the mapping and see how these features are on maps because theyre going to have to be able read these maps and and to what theyre seeing on the map to the real and then at night after dinner up here, the group broke up into three each group one with some folks some of them stayed here at loebs retreat with this telescope. Some went to Northern Arizona university, their telescope, and then others went to the us naval observatory, flagstaff station, located about four miles from here. So those three different groups using, those three different telescopes, the astronauts each looked through the telescope to see the moon and where they would be going. So in one day they could see what an actual impact crater looks like, how impact craters are depicted on maps and what they what moons impact craters actually looked like. So the upshot that that first trip was very successful. Nasa realized the value of training the astronauts to do geology and. All the future groups of astronauts who went to the moon came here to flagstaff to train. Were now out in the field where several miles from downtown flagstaff. Not very far from Sunset Crater, which was a volcanic feature that erupted tens of thousands of years ago. So this entire field were on our cinders from that explosion when the astronauts were training out here, they went to Sunset Crater and Meteor Crater and grand canyon and other places. But nasas realized they wanted another place to to train something that there was even more occurred for the lunar surface in terms of the craters. And so in 1968, the usgs, on an image of the from a lunar orbiter, created this crater field that were the middle of. And so they they looked at this image from lunar orbiter and dug holes with the backhoe, a different depth, fill them with explosives to create different sized craters. And it was 400 plus craters that were made out here. And so they they set the charges blew it up in this just cataclysm make explosion of cinders, blew up in the air and then settled down. And they took some aerial photos, realized this was really effective it really did look like the craters on the moon in terms of not necessarily exact geology, but the orientation of the craters and the and the layout of those and everything. So from 1968 through the end of 1972, really, astronauts came here for training for the earlier missions before they had rovers. They came out here again to practice carrying their tool carriers, described the rocks and survey the landscape. Later missions when they developed the rovers for the last three missions, they brought those out here and practiced them. Today. This area protected. Its got a fence around it. This is National Forest service land. Theres a second field that they created a mile away. Its in the open on a recreation area. And a lot of the craters have been worn down. But this one is still in nice shape 50 years after it was created. And again, we can see this nice crater and you can see kind of a little bit of a rim going around it from when it originally exploded. Like i said, this is the largest one. Were kind of to the north west corner of the field. And then a lot of other craters around here that we can see. Its really kind of a neat thing that anybody come out here and see. Our observatory founded by an amateur. He wasnt a professional astronomer. He was a guy interested in doing astronomy. He put his money. His mouth was clyde tombaugh, who discovered pluto. He was an amateur astronomer. He grew up on a farm in nighttime in kansas. What did it what was there to do on a farm in kansas . He looked at the sky. He built own telescopes. And at 24 years old, he discovered a planet. All trained astronomers, other places find this. He did. And so while our professional astronomers are of course making such great and inspire us, astronomy is in the realm of, not just professional astronomers. Its all of us. If you have an interest in it, you can really do a lot with it. And and just look up and you can be excited about well, good evee both so i thank you so much for coming tonight. Thank you to everyone here at the lyceum. And then thank you for everyone on zoom and joining through cspan as well. Before we start i