The New Mexico Skies Experience.

New Mexico Skies is unique in so many ways, it's really hard to describe with just words. New Mexico Skies it not to viewed with the eyes alone, it can be best experienced with the body and the soul. Until you've spent a few weeks or months up here, you really can't begin to describe the peace, the serenity, the "oneness" with nature, and the beauty of the heavens above.

Local Conditions

If you go a few miles in any direction, the weather and sky conditions change dramatically. Go west about 15 miles from New Mexico Skies, towards Cloudcroft and you'll soon understand why they call it CLOUDcroft. The prevailing wind in our area is from the west, and when the warm, dry desert winds raise up from the desert floor to the mountain tops at Cloudcroft, the air cools dramatically, and the little bit of  moisture that's in the air can turn to clouds. It's not unusual for Cloudcroft to be totally socked in with clouds, and we've got perfectly clear skies here at New Mexico Skies.  Even though Cloudcroft has an EXCELLENT light pollution law, when the clouds do cover the town, it can create a small light dome that can be seen for 5 to 7 miles from town. Also, as the winds blow across the mountain tops, you'll find quite a bit of turbulence for the next 5 to 10 miles downwind from Cloudcroft, which can definitely affect the seeing. By time the air travels the 15 miles from Cloudcroft to New Mexico Skies, it has generally become very stable (it's not unusual to see less that 1 arc-second seeing conditions), and the clouds are normally gone. You can always check the local sky conditions by going to the NM Skies weather page.

If you go south a few miles, it's not unusual to find the winds 10 to 20 miles per hour higher than at New Mexico Skies. The seeing to south is pretty good, but the wind gusts can be brutal. Generally speaking the skies to the south are dark, they generally have similar weather conditions (except for the wind) to New Mexico Skies, and the transparency is good.

If you go east from New Mexico Skies, the seeing and the transparency start to drop off pretty fast. As you go further east, the elevation drops off fairly quickly, and you'll be imaging thru much more of the atmosphere. To the east, the skies a very dark, but the seeing can be disappointing.

If you go north from New Mexico Skies and there really is not much, if any private property available. The Lincoln National Forest starts just across the valley from New Mexico Skies and continues until it meet the Mescalero Apache Indian Tribal Lands which continues all the way to Ruidoso. There is a VERY small amount of private land available to the north, but most of it is valley land.  Unfortunately for us astronomers, it's not very good land for astronomy. The valleys are usually experience more winds and more turbulent winds, they experience greater temperature swings at night, and the little bit of moisture we do get tends to concentrate in the valleys. We've had perfectly sunny days on the mountain top here at New Mexico Skies, yet the valley was fogged in for hours.

Simply put, you'll be hard pressed to find any where in North America that offers you the excellent conditions that exist at New Mexico Skies. We're a community for amateur astronomers, by amateur astronomers.

The North American Nebula.

This is a single 3 minute exposure with a Canon DSLR taken at New Mexico Skies. It truly is amazing how much easier, AND better your images will be when you have the finest skies to work with.