iOPTRON - Astronomy Technology Today

NEW MEXICO SKIES ASTRONOMY ENCLAVE
tory are both located just south of Cloudcroft
in Sunspot, N.M.), my sense of connection to
the area grew even stronger. Why all this extraneous
personal background? So you’ll know to
consider the source. When it comes to reporting
on Cloudcroft and any of the wonders that
surround it, including the New Mexico Skies
Astronomy Enclave in neighboring Mayhill,
N.M., I’m irretrievably biased. Cloudcroft is
among the long-standing list of three cities for
which I subscribe to permanent weather feeds,
and I consult the N.M.-Skies Clear Sky Chart
almost daily. So now you know.
Delayed Gratification?
Eating your brussels sprouts first still
makes sense to me, so long as there’s a finite pile
of them on your plate, but slogging through
them endlessly as a self-imposed condition to
enjoying the luscious steak and potato they surround
is a fool’s strategy. Tom and Marla Simstad,
N.M. Skies Astronomy Enclave’s
developers, had long ago invited the ATT team
to tour their Astronomy Enclave, and I kept
telling myself that I’d do so just as soon as I had
the time to truly enjoy the experience … which
means that time went by, and it still hadn’t happened
and may never have, given that nebulous
plan.
So, when daughter Rachel and I represented
ATT at the November 2012 inaugural
edition of the Arizona Science & Astronomy
Expo in Tucson, we resolved to make a couple
of extra days available on the return trip. Responsibilities
back home would have to wait
and, of course, they did without incident.
Oh, I apologize to brussels sprouts and to
those of you who, as do I, actually like them. I
just couldn’t think of a more clichéd vegetable
or better analogy.
With Neighbors Like These
Just 16 miles west of Cloudcroft, 3 miles
east of Mayhill, and 32 miles from Alamorgordo,
the Astronomy Enclave offers the convenience
of frontage on the area’s major
thoroughfare, US 82, which forms its northern
boundary, and the pristine isolation of the more
than one million-acre Lincoln National Forrest
that borders it to the east and south.To its west
lies Mike and Lynn Rice’s famed New Mexico
Skies Observatories, which offer world-class remote-observatory
services as well as on-site
guest accommodations.The region presents elevations
from 4000 to 11,500 feet, displaying
five distinct vegetation zones that range from
Chihuahuan desert to sub-alpine forest.Two of
these zones are observable from various points
on the Astronomy Enclave, which is situated
within altitudes of roughly 7000 to 7500 feet.
We stood at one of the more open vantage
points in the Astronomy Enclave and studied
our surroundings. Back home, views of this rare
distance would reveal pump-jacks, drilling rigs,
tractors and other signs of such commerce,
whereas here at the Astronomy Enclave we
counted little other than private and professional
observatories, some scattered singly and
others arranged in clusters. Our count passed
fifty, and with aid of binoculars, we were still
counting more observatories. Unlike the drill
sites and farming operations of our Louisiana
Sizes for SBIG, QSI, FLI
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68 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY