Friday, March 13, 2009 - City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM
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Observatory, City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM, February 19, 2009
Time to hit the road again, back to City of Rocks State Park for a few days.
First State Parks Observatory
A quote from the City of Rocks State Park website:
City of Rocks was first to receive an observatory in the Division. The observatory consists of a 12’ x 16’ building with a roll-off roof and is permanently equipped with a 14" Meade LX-200. The entire facility is solar-powered and will include a 20-inch monitor, which will enable many visitors to simultaneously view the jewels in the night sky, as images are transmitted through the telescope. Click here to find out more about upcoming star parties.
Saturday, March 21
08:15 PM - 10:00 PM
City of Rocks
Star-n-Parks
Join National Public Observatory astronomer Matt Wilson for a guided tour of the spring constellations and planets. Sunset is at 7:15pm and Saturn will be well presented.
Fees: Regular Entrance Fee
Contact: Gabriel Medrano 575-536-2800
Night camp
Site 12 - City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM
- Verizon cell phone service - fairly good signal - best on west side of the park
- Verizon EVDO service - faster than many places I've camped
- Go to City of Rocks State Park website
- Locate City of Rocks State Park on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Writing From the Inside Out
A young writer, if he is unknown, can be at a party and watch what everyone is doing. If he has a marveluos ear for dialog, he can wake up the next morning and remember all that was said and how it was said. He is a bird on a branch. Sees like a bird and writes books that are extraordinarily well observed. But once he is successful, especially if that happens quickly, it's as if the bird were now an emu. It cannot fly. It grows haunches and foreshoulders and a mane: lo and behold, it is a lion. And everyone is looking at the lion, including the birds. But it is a lion with the heart of a bird and the mind of a bird. So there is a terrible period when the transmogrified emu is trying to live like a lion and has little talent for it. Then the beast begins to experiment. When it runs, it now sees other animals scamper. It takes a while - often years - for the writer to get to appreaciate his effect on others, and even longer to begin to understand human beings again. In the old days, he could write about friends, enemies, and strangers by intuition, by induction; now he puts it together by deduction. Of course, he does have more material on which to work his deductions.