KITTS

While we were in the gift shop buying our KITT PEAK BM pins, we asked about the mark, and we were told the area was off-limits. We’ll see about that! Before exploring, though, we took a tour of the solar telescope. It turns out that our tour leader was quite familiar with benchmarks; in fact, he had recently gone out with a few friends to find some in the area, and he had also found the Kitt Peak station before he was told by his supervisor that the area was off-limits.

We were still interested in attempting it. The tour guide pointed out that the station was near the 4-meter telescope under the radio tower, and indicated the best route for us to take that would keep us mostly concealed as we climbed. We ascended onto the huge rock outcrop and easily found the station disk and two of the reference marks (RM 1 and RM 3) using coordinates and the original descriptions. Unfortunately RM 2 is gone, but we knew to expect this because it was reported missing as far back as the 1959 recovery note. There is still obvious evidence of the drill hole and cement to mark the location.

Once we were on the ledge, we knew we could be seen the entire time, so we were very cautious with our movements and tried to work quickly. We went inside the telescope afterward, thinking we might be able to get a view of the mark. We weren’t, but we still had one of the most stunning views imaginable of the surrounding landscape!