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Sharing Astronomy in the Comfort of
a Private and Personal Setting
By Ian Dodd
the keywords “Flagstaff bed & breakfast asStargazer’s checklist: telescope, eyepieces,
tronomy.” The first hit that popped up was
star charts, red flashlight, thermos of cofhttp://shootingstarinn.com/ and a quick pefee/cocoa, warm jacket, knit cap…bed &
rusal of Tom’s friendly website convinced me
breakfast. Now, that last item doesn’t regularly
that I had found a great place for the vacashow up on an equipment list, but you may
tioning stargazer.
want to consider adding it and spending a
A Shooting Star Inn sits at the edge of a
couple of nights at A Shooting Star Inn outside of Flagstaff, Arizona.
Flagstaff, of course, has a long and
rich history in astronomy. It is the
home of the well preserved Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered
in 1930, and was named the first International Dark City in 2001 by the
International Dark-Sky Association.
The 7,000 foot elevation and 300 plus
days per year of sunny weather provide
a regular diet of clear night skies and
combine with its history to make
Flagstaff a mecca for astronomer, amaOriginal inscription on the vintage Joseph Dann
teur and professional alike.
brass refractor
But not far outside of the small
meadow about a quarter mile off a lightly
city, amateur astronomers will find a unique
used two-lane highway 19 miles from
bed & breakfast/observatory, owned and opdowntown Flagstaff. The peaks of the San
erated by innkeeper/astronomer, Tom Taylor.
Francisco Mountains shadow the Inn from
While making plans for a summer family vaany glow of the city’s lights to reveal a nearly
cation in the area, I did a Google search with
180 degree view of some of the darkest skies
you’ll ever find. Tom spent five years
designing and building the Inn before opening it to guests three years ago. But this is no
Thoreau’s cabin on Walden Pond. Instead,
imagine a 4,200 square foot log home with
three private bedrooms and baths, a cavernous living area and a kitchen that
looks straight out of the pages of Gourmet magazine. But, of course, the feature of most interest to readers here will
be the observatory built just off the front
porch and that houses a 14-inch Meade
ACF mounted on an Astro-Physics
1200 and steel pier.
After enjoying dinner in Flagstaff’s
charming historic downtown, we
headed out of town just as the sun was
setting, arriving at A Shooting Star just
after dark. Tom had obviously seen our
headlights coming up the road, because
he met us outside with a welcoming
handshake and hello. Leading us inside, we
were introduced to another couple staying
there and Tom’s neighbor from across the
meadow. John, the guest, Rob, the neighbor,
and Tom were playing guitars and bass, enAstronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
35
A SHOOTING STAR INN
treating John’s wife and my family to an impromptu concert of acoustic blues and folk
music, a semi-regular occurrence, but not one
advertised on the website. We dropped our
bags in the Cassini Room, our private space
for the next couple of nights, helped ourselves
to a glass of wine and sat down to enjoy the
music and wait for the sky to darken completely.
About 10 o’clock we ventured out to the
observatory and Tom fired up the AstroPhysics mount. Using his green laser pointer,
he directed us to several constellations and features of the sky usually hidden to his urban
dweller guests. We took a quick peak at Saturn
before it set and then the moons and bands of
Jupiter. The naked-eye expanse of sky enthralled my wife, while the view through the
14-inch ACF, as compared to the 6-inch Dobsonian back home, was leaving me with a serious case of aperture fever. Unfortunately, at
just that moment, the cable connection to the
mount developed a short and would require
some minor surgery during daylight hours.
Undaunted and determined not to disap-
36 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
point, Tom pulled out an 8-inch Dob and
pointed it at a few more objects, including star
clusters and the Ring Nebula, M57, giving me
my first view of the supernova remnant.
The next morning I woke up early and
was enjoying the first rays of sun when Tom
came out and asked if I had noticed the elk
feeding in the meadow behind the house. He
pulled out his 100-mm Saturn III astro-binoculars, as well as a pair of 7x42 handheld
binocs, while I woke up my wife and 12-yearold son and we watched the five handsome
animals for about 15 minutes as they made
their way across the back of the property before disappearing into the trees. After that, we
enjoyed steaming mugs of robust coffee and a
hearty breakfast that Tom cooked up at his ten
burner stove.
After a day of touring Flagstaff, including
a stop at the Lowell Observatory and a late afternoon pick-me-up at Macy’s Coffeehouse (a
local landmark Tom had directed us to), we
headed back out of town just before sunset.
While the previous evening’s guests had traveled on, we were joined by two couples from
A SHOOTING STAR INN
Shooting Star Inn’s Great Room
The Giovanni Cassini Guest Room
A guest enjoys views through the Meade
14-inch ACF on its Astro-Physics 1200 Mount
Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
37
A SHOOTING STAR INN
About Tom Taylor and A Shooting Star Inn
until he decided to accept a position at Kitt Peak
National Observatory where he ran the observatory’s Public Night Program until taking a
staff position with the Steward Observatory of
the University of Arizona. While so employed,
Tom was permitted to satisfy the astrophoto bug
using a number of telescopes at Kitt Peak, including the 24/36 Burrell-Schmidt Camera of
Case Western Reserve University, the 2.3-meter
reflector of the University of Arizona, the 4meter reflector and the McMath-Pierce Solar telescope and spectrohelioscope of the National
Solar Observatory.
Tom envisioned A Shooting Star Inn as an astronomical facility and retreat space suitable for
any level of astronomy interest. The facility includes a fabulous collection of antique as well as
new, state-of-the-art telescopes, binoculars and
support equipment, and is located under the
most near-perfect skies that Arizona has to offer.
Current projects include an observatory to house
Tom Taylor seated next to the 100 Year Old Joseph Dann 6-inch f/13.5 refractor.
the Joseph Dann antique brass refractor that is
The refactor is shown on an Astro-Physics 800 Mount.
one-hundred years old this year and Tom is
working with fellow astronomer and glass guru,
Tom Taylor, owner and operator of A Shooting Star Inn,
Mike Spooner, on a new 36-inch instrument.
has worked as a professional photographer for more than 25
Tom was inspired to create A Shooting Star Inn by the exyears, but has been doing astrophotography for much longer.
ample
of his friend, Dr. Eduardo Vega, who established SkyHe first experimented with photographing astronomical objects
watchers Inn outside of Benson, Arizona. Tom and fellow
while in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades grinding the
astrophotographer, David Moore, first visited Skywatchers Inn
glass and building the scope with which he undertook asin 1995. As Tom describes it, “We were enamored by the joy of
trophotography in earnest. Tom describes himself as a selfsharing astronomy in such a private and personal setting. It was
taught astronomer, although the first few of his seven years at
then that I said to myself, ‘I could do this and do it very well.’”
the University of Arizona were spent in its astronomy program.
Dr. Vega would, no doubt, wholeheartedly agree.
Tom holds a Masters degree and worked as a counselor
38 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
A SHOOTING STAR INN
New York who were touring Arizona on
rented motorcycles. Tom had called AstroPhysics during the day for tech support on the
cable problem, and much to our delight (and
his, I’m sure), his mount was working again
just as it should. The other guests got their first
view of Saturn with the typical “Oh, my
gosh!” reaction. After that we viewed M13, the
Hercules star cluster, M57 (the Ring Nebula),
M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), M27 (the
Dumbbell Nebula), and concluded the
evening’s viewing with Jupiter and its Galilean
moons. For the native New Yorkers, a couple
of whom had never before seen the Milky
Way, it was a mind-blowing evening! For my
family, particularly my 16 year old daughter,
who has astrophysics aspirations for college
and beyond, it was the first chance to see the
beauty of faint objects invisible under our own
light-polluted skies in Southern California.
Innkeeper Tom Taylor is an accomplished
astronomer, astro-imager, photographer, musician, chief cook and bottle-washer – and a
gracious host. He opens his home, his observatory and his heart to anybody who cares to
go just a little off the beaten path. All who
make the trip are rewarded with incredible
views of the wonders of the Universe, plus
hospitality they’ll never forget. Every guest is
made to feel at home, either in the kitchen or
under the stars, and leaves satisfied that he or
she has a lifetime friend in Flagstaff. I know
my family will definitely be planning a return
trip to Flagstaff and A Shooting Star Inn. The
next time you get the opportunity to spend
some time in Northern Arizona, you should
definitely plan a stay at Tom’s A Shooting Star
Inn. And don’t forget your knit cap!
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Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
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