Lowell Observatory worth it?
 

We will be staying one night in Flagstaff on our way to the Grand Canyon. I was given free tickets to Lowell Observatory. We could have a quick dinner and then go to the evening program at the Observatory or, if it really isn't great or if it gets really crowded (end of September), we could skip it and just have a nice relaxing dinner. Any thoughts?

I have not done the evening program, but have done the tour in the daytime. Very interesing. You get to see the actual charts that led to the discovery of Pluto. I think at night that you get to look thru their huge telescope.

I would certainly go.

We enjoyed the daytime tour as well, but haven't been on the evening tour.

Lee Ann

A resounding yes to the Lowell Observatory. We went in the daytime and loved it. An evening program sounds really good!

We also visited during the day (last year just before Pluto was downgraded from planet) and thought it was a very interesting tour. It wasn't very crowded then (early July) If you have any interest in astronomy, I'd go

Thank you all. I think we will change our plans around and go to the observatory during the day since it will be very close to a full moon making nighttime observation difficult.

You might want to call the observatory before giving up on the evening tour. The air in the Flagstaff area is very dry and clear and the full moon might not degrade the viewing as much as you might think, plus the observatory might make that part of the program.

Another thought (further complication?): the Museum of North America in Flagstaff has an excellent set of exhibits on native american archeology, geology and biology of the area. If I were picking only one museum in Flagstaff I would choose this over Lowell Observatory.

It turned out that the one day we had in Flagstaff was very, very rainy. We ended up spending some very enjoyable time in the Museum of Northern Arizona which is not very big but full of very interesting and well-presented information. We did the day tour of Lowell Observatory and managed to get in to see the telescope before the lightening storms hit (when they suspend the tours) and that was also an interesting way to spend some time. Thank you all for the suggestions.

I took 4 teenagers with me to the Lowell Museum and an evening tour (I think it was even a full moon). And as notoriously bored as teens are, even they had a great time! So I would give it a chance. Obviously not the same as the day tour and perhaps not quite the quality of star viewing with the full moon, but the city lights and the tour in general are very enjoyable!

Has anyone been on an evening tour during Covid? Did you take the 1 hour or 2 hour tour?

This tread is 14 years old -- might be better to start a new/timely thread of your own.