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 wasn't 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, everything's kind of fuzzy because the water is bending. light air does the same thing. so the more air you're looking through, the more distorted stars are going to. and so the higher you go, the less area flick through. so there's