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If you don't have to make an income you have many great oppotunities in New Mexico to realize your dream. Look around areas in the western part of the state like Quemado, Fence Lake and Ramah. Also check into rural Rio Arriba County. The area around Gallina, Regina and Lindrith would be ideal for stargazing. However, if you need a source of income plan to commute a long distance to either your job or your hobby.
I found this cute ranch for sale in Quemado, NM. Are the skies dark there??
Cute ranch?! That listing is for almost 300,000 acres deeded and leased combined. And an asking price of nearly $60,000,000.
If you have that kind of money on hand and want a massive spread for a place to live and build an observatory, then Quemado is perfect for you. I'm a bit skeptical of your intentions at this point, though, because you said you were looking for 100+ acres, not a large portion of northern Catron County.
Yes, Quemado has very dark skies. The VLA is near the town for a reason. If you pick up that ranch I will be incredibly jealous. :-)
Actually, the VLA couldn't care less how dark the skies are - radio telescopes run 24 hours a day (I work at one ) -- in fairness though, there is Magdalena Ridge Observatory in the mountains above Magdalena, so it is dark up there.
OP, Quemado is dark alright, good elevation too, over 7k'. Its about as rural as country gets any more, outside of some of the drier areas of NV or deep woods in AK. Not likely to have light problems within my lifetime I'd guess.
If that ranch is in your budget... well, kinda silly I was talking about utilities to the property line and all
Its absolutely gorgeous up there. Springerville AZ is maybe an hour away, Socorro NM, two hours, maybe an hour down to Reserve, but that's not as big as the other two. Nice town though.
Actually, the VLA couldn't care less how dark the skies are - radio telescopes run 24 hours a day (I work at one ) -- in fairness though, there is Magdalena Ridge Observatory in the mountains above Magdalena, so it is dark up there.
OP, Quemado is dark alright, good elevation too, over 7k'. Its about as rural as country gets any more, outside of some of the drier areas of NV or deep woods in AK. Not likely to have light problems within my lifetime I'd guess.
If that ranch is in your budget... well, kinda silly I was talking about utilities to the property line and all
Its absolutely gorgeous up there. Springerville AZ is maybe an hour away, Socorro NM, two hours, maybe an hour down to Reserve, but that's not as big as the other two. Nice town though.
I guess that makes sense about the VLA. Satellites don't need dark skies the way telescopes do. :-) I think Quemado and the area would be ideal for stargazing. So would the Fence Lake area. There isn't much of anything out there to interfere with the dark skies.
I guess that makes sense about the VLA. Satellites don't need dark skies the way telescopes do. :-) I think Quemado and the area would be ideal for stargazing. So would the Fence Lake area. There isn't much of anything out there to interfere with the dark skies.
You know, in further fairness, radio telescopes do require rural areas in order to avoid interference from communications systems and such. So where you find one, you will also find dark skies. So your logic works even if in a more round about way than you may have intended.
We don't look at satellites though, we're looking at astronomical objects just like the optical telescopes do. Just much lower frequencies of EM radiation than is light. Soon we will have a problem worse than light pollution from cities is for optical telescopes - radio pollution from cars. Proximity detectors being developed for high end cars are going to be a huge problem for us as they are basically a little high frequency radar system.
You know, in further fairness, radio telescopes do require rural areas in order to avoid interference from communications systems and such. So where you find one, you will also find dark skies. So your logic works even if in a more round about way than you may have intended.
We don't look at satellites though, we're looking at astronomical objects just like the optical telescopes do. Just much lower frequencies of EM radiation than is light. Soon we will have a problem worse than light pollution from cities is for optical telescopes - radio pollution from cars. Proximity detectors being developed for high end cars are going to be a huge problem for us as they are basically a little high frequency radar system.
Neat! That's some great information I didn't know. Thanks for that. Me, I'm a geology nerd so that's my forte. Astronomy is fairly foreign to me so I don't have specific information. I just known where it's dark in NM because those are the areas I grew up.
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) -- in fairness though, there is Magdalena Ridge Observatory in the mountains above Magdalena, so it is dark up there.
