New Mexico/Texas Eclipse

Is it already the penultimate day?  We’ve packed a lot into this trip, and today was no exception. Another early start saw us nearly 10,000 feet up at the Sunspot Solar Observatory - one of the premier observatories for ground-based observation of Solar activity.  Standing at 130 feet, it was an imposing site, but the students soon found out that, like an iceberg, the majority of it was underground, pushing nearly 280 feet below the surface as well.  Students were able to look through a telescope and see sunspots on the surface of the sun, as well as be inside the SSO to see the inner workings of it and hear from one of the researchers and operators of the telescope on what was currently being done.

 

Then we headed north along the spine of the New Mexican mountains to the burial site of the legendary Smokey The Bear—yep, he was real. The Smokey The Bear National Historic Site gave us a midday respite to relax and do some observational drawing and art.

 

Then it was down the hill to the city of Roswell, home of the famous 1947 Roswell Incident. We learned a bit more about the incident and the search for life elsewhere. Some of the students decided to reenact the classic dioramas of the UFO Museum—how do you think they did?

 

See you soon!