The Darkest Skies
in New Mexico

"Narrative: Haze to NW compromised transparency"

"Zodiacal light strong early, with Venus, but light dome of Whites City most prominent feature. Fairly clear at first and breezy, wind dies down somewhat but sky appears to get somewhat hazy. Few high clouds early, none later. SQM 21.76 1st, 21.65 last . ZLM 7.3 (Dan), 7,1 (Kate) later. Whites City appears to diminsh significantly late, El Paso seen faintly, reflecting off clouds early. Direct lights of Carlsbad seen from this vantage point, Whites City blocked by hill. Drilling rig and two bright lights to the southeast. Otherwise pretty dark, zodiacal band seen through Cancer, gegenschein seen fairly easily near local midnight, but no band east of there. Bortle 3 because of light domes but zenith very dark, with appropriate shielding of distant lights an excellent place for visual observing. Seeing fair, lots of twinkling."

"Strong winds all day long (20-40 mph) have caused lots of particulates in the atmosphere. Moderate haze up to 10° in the east and south and 5° in the west. Last of clouds dissipated by 9:30 pm. The light domes of Gallup and Grants easily visible, but do not hinder night vision. Numerous single source light sources on scattered homes to the south and SW. Zodiacal light is strong and easily visible to 45°. The Milky Way is visible from 5° above SE horizon to 15° (just above Cassiopia) in the north. Lots of highway traffic late in the evening returning from Grants (?). Overall, the surrounding artificial lights do not degrade the quality of observations at this site."

"Very clear night, calm, seeing good, transparency excellent. Few faint light domes to the south, brighter than last night. Wonderful sky."

"Albuquerque is a large light dome to the E-NE, with Sante Fe smaller to the north of Albuquerque, and Grants pretty bright almost due north. Only a few lights off in the distance for point sources. A few red tower lights to the northeast. To the northwest Gallup is visible, but much smaller than seen from El Moro. Milky Way very good tonight running from Cassiopia to Scorpius. Very wide - 10 degrees at Saggitarius where there is a lot of detail. Dark lane in Signus and prancing horse visible."

"Very good trasparency, clear night no clouds. Slight layering of Las Vegas light dome in first set, improving to third set. Taos and Sante Fe just visible west of visible west of visitor center"

"Good 360 degree view of horizon. Two bright lights to the east coming from RV park. To the south a line of 20+ blue green lights coming from Ramah Navajo/Zuni lands. The lights are approximately 10 miles away towards Pine City, not harsh glare, but visible from the park. Gallup light domeis very visible to the NW. Due west is Winslow/Hollbrook, smaller domes, but still visible. Phoenix is just visible to the southwest. Sagittarius is bright w/ definition of prancing horse. Dark lanes extend barely into Casssiopia through Sagittarius and just into the tail of Scorpius. At its widest, Milky Way is about 12-13 degrees wide."

"Excellent conditions for stargazing. Visibility is again possible to 100+ miles in all directions. Very stable atmosphere, with stars visible to less than 5 degrees above horizon. Nice detail throughout the Milky Way, which is visible almost to the horizon in the SW and down to 10 degrees in the NE. At sunset there were some low clouds to the south over Farmington area and some residual clouds to the NE over the San Juan Mtns. Would easily be a Bortle Class 2 sky if not for the the numerous distant light domes. Still this remote backcountry location is free from any local glare sources and provides the observer with a beautiful night sky. Durango easily visible to the east and brighter than Cortez."

"Grants is very bright from this location. Clear night. Above Ave transparency. Cirrus on W horizon almost all night."

"Sky quality measurements were recorded at Crater Rim in Capulin Volcano NM on 10/17/2004. The site demonstrated a scientific darkness reading of 21.45 SQM."