Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to travel to New Mexico several times for work. And lucky for me I’ve found lots of time to get out and explore the area surround our work site. The southwest is so different from Virginia where I live. The desert is so dry and arid, the land features so foreign. But I find it all so fascinating.
In addition to that my recent fascination with astrophotography had me realizing just how dark of an area most of New Mexico is! So in addition to wanting to find areas to explore off pavement, and wanting to photograph the beauty all around us during the day, I was also seeking opportunities to take astrophotography when the conditions cooperated.
You can read more about many of my outings at their links below.
- Volcanoes Day Use Area in the Petroglyph National Monument
- Sunset Tour of Magdalena Ridge Observatory
- Exploring the Santa Fe and Cibola National Forests
- Quick Trip to the Very Large Array
- Museum of Nuclear History and the San Lorenzo Canyon on the Grand Enchantment Trail
Additionally I had two more small outings that I thought I would mention here. And make sure to check out my highlight video with footage from all my outings over the last few months!
Geminid Meteor Shower at the Very Large Array
During our last trip of the year in mid-December I found myself with a night of clear skies, the moon not too bright, and the energy to pursue astrophotography. I figured I’d go to the Very Large Array and see if I could capture the milky way with the radio antennas providing a unique silhouette.
If only I’d had a bit more time to research… Apparently at the time I was going out that night the bulk of the milky way was literally facing the other side of the earth! I was quite surprised when I couldn’t see it out in the middle of nowhere! Sure enough, according to my PhotoPills app, the milky way was nowhere for me to see it.
I made the best of it though and took some pictures of all the stars I could see. There were tons of them. Then I saw a shooting star. That was neat! Then I saw another, and another. By the time I left I had seen about a dozen in just the last 10 minutes! While I had screwed up my timing to see the milky way I had still managed to put myself in one of the darkest parts of the US the night before the peak of the Geminid meteor shower! I happened to catch one on camera which was cool. One thing I’ve learned is that the most memorable trips are the ones that generally don’t go as planned.
Night Trip to the Magdalena Ridge Observatory
In addition to our evening trip to the Magdalena Ridge Observatory I went again this past week. Well, we tried to at least. Apparently it snowed the day after Christmas and no one has made it to the top of the mountain since. It was so bad we found out that a plow even slipped off the mountain! Sunday night, in the pitch black that we were seeking, a few of us tried to get to the top of the mountain. We hit snow at the base of the mountain. For the first few miles we followed tracks in the snow. But one by one we got to spots where the others had turned around. Eventually the last set of tracks turned around and we were blazing our own path. We continued on about 3 miles past the last tracks. The snowscape was so fascinating, we kept seeing these natural snow balls that had formed and rolled off the steep side of the mountain onto the road. Eventually though, about a mile from the top, the snow got too deep and the ice underneath it stopped us in our tracks.
We ended up having to back down the mountain about a mile and a half before we got to a spot wide enough to turn the very large F-250 around. To make matters more fun we had a sheet of plywood in the back which blocked the view so I had to rely on the camera in the tailgate the whole way. Once turned around we headed down the mountain just a little further until we found a good spot with a view. We hopped out and did enjoy the very dark night sky. I tried taking astrophotography but we were pointed the wrong direction. What I did get by accident, I believe, was an aircraft dropping flares over White Sands Missile Range! The pictures on this trip weren’t great but the journey was quite the adventure even if we didn’t make it to the top.
