The Arizona Marathon Observing Site:
Salome Emergency Airstrip -- The Hovatter Airstrip

The Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) gives the following hints for the Arizona Messier Marathon:

• This site is an abandoned airport.
• This is a REMOTE site. Please plan accordingly. Bring you own food & beverages (no alcohol please) and any other supplies you may need to get you through the night.
• There will be a Port-O-John set up in the middle of the field for your convenience.
• The site is open desert; Keep in mind dust can be a problem. Protect your equipment when not in use.
• Bring proper dress. Although this is Arizona, the desert gets cold at night. Expect temperatures to drop into the low 40's by midnight. Remember, it is best to dress in layers, adding as the temperature drops.
• The marathon is not Friday night, the site will be available for those who wish to get in an extra night's observing.
• For those of you with computerized telescopes or who are just curious about these things the site's coordinates are:

    N 33 deg 34 min 50 sec
    W 113 deg 35 min 53 sec
    El: 1378 ft (420m)
    

Getting to the site:

• Hovatter Airstrip. Travel time from Phoenix: About 2 hours.
• Directions: From Phoenix, go west on I-10 to Hovatter Rd at exit 53 or about 40 miles west of Palo Verde Nuclear Power Generating Station. Turn left over the freeway, drive over the canal. When you cross the canal, turn hard left. Go 1.1 miles to a bend in the road. As the road veers to the SE, look for a road running due south at the same point --- VINEGAROON ROAD. Take it for 1.8 miles. You will come to a small left-right zig-zag, then see a chain link fence enclosing an area about 20 ft by 20 ft. That's the airfield entrance.

This site has been recently renamed to "Steve's Antennas Observing Site," to the honor of SAC astronomer and long-term observer Steve Coe (1949-2018), who had once discovered this site for deepsky observing, and had spent a lot of time there.

Messier Marathon Home

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Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
[contact]

Last Modification: April 27, 2019