Days 13-18 Pie Town, NM: We arrived at Casita de Gila Guesthouses at 3:00 pm, right on schedule. The drive up from Highway 180 to the casitas is a county maintained gravel road almost two cars wide with breath-taking views and at least one hairpin turn.
We met our host Micheal and after checking in, he took us to see the observing pads and we picked out one. Then he took us to the casitas. The style is adobe with a cozy living room, small kitchen, bedroom and bath. There is no air conditioning but with the windows open and ceiling fans going it is cool and pleasant even in the 90 degree heat.
After a few minutes rest, we changed, slathered with sunscreen, moved the "living supplies" and clothes into the casitas and drove the van to the observing field to set up the telescope and igloo.
House in the small village of Gila, NM. It was very pretty and colorful against the grays and browns of the area.
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View from the road up to Casitas de Gila Guesthouses and Art Gallery
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There were houses built on the fingers of land extending out from the road to the casitas. This is a view of the one piece of land for sale. Unfortunately it is mostly valleys with very little level land.
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Here is our casita (little house). Each structure has two small 1 bedroom apartments with living room, kitchen and bathroom. We shared our building with another astronomer from Phoenix.
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The front door to our casita, with walking sticks for the nature trails.
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Here is a view of the fireplace in our living room and the southwest decor.
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This is our bed, with a cameo of the mascots. The headboard was carved with a pair of wolves howling at the moon.
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Also on-site is the Casitas de Gila art gallery. Our host Micheal has some beautiful paintings for sale and his wife, Becky, had some lovely jewelry. There was additional artwork by local artisans from Cliff and Gila, including some beautiful turquoise blue pottery.
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Barry setting up the scope at Casitas de Gila observing area. It is a short walk from the casitas and has several pads for the telescopes. When we were here there were two other astronomers here also.
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This is a view of the mountains behind the casitas. There is a valley formed by Bear Creek that rises up to these mountains. The owners have made several hiking trails along the river for the guests to enjoy the wildlife, geology and plants.
There are 2 aging horses in residence. At night they stay in a corral down near the river. Every morning around 8 am they cut through a trail behind the casitas. This morning we saw them enjoying the shade on the porch of one of the unoccupied casitas.
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Horses feeding near our casita.
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Cactus abound in this area. This one managed to fill Lori's arm with cactus needles our first night here. She doesn't hold it against it though and the blooms are beautiful.
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Here is a close-up of the bloom. I believe these are Cane Cholla cactus. It seemed new blooms opened every day while we were here.
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We also saw Prickley Pear cactus at Casitas de Gila Guesthouses.
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One morning the prickly pear cactus bloomed!
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Here is a pincushion cactus and some small white star-like flowers that grew in abundance.
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This bush was so colorful with the yellow blossoms and pink tassels. Michael tells us this is a Bird of Paradise which grows well in the New Mexico soil.
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Most of the juniper trees had these green-golden pop-poms mixed in the branches like at the top of this branch. The first time we saw them we wondered if it was like the parasitic plant mistletoe, but then when we saw more and more of it, we decided it was a bloom. But we were wrong - we later found out it was, indeed, mistletoe!
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Barry snapped this picture of a Mexican Jay sitting behind our casita.
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The first day we were here, Michael brought some hummingbird food for the feeder. Within an hour there were multiple hummingbirds buzzing about. Barry got out the Canon 60Da and captured some great hummingbird shots.
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Here is a great "coming in for a landing" shot!
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Hummingbird Hover - The feeder was popular and at any time there might be two or three hummingbirds vying to use it. They were very noisy birds making a chattering sound at each otherwhich sounded like a much bigger bird.
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Hummingbird on final approach
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Hummingbird drinking. They only stopped for an instant and put their head down to drink. Then it was up again and moving.
We were so taken by the casitas, the area and the clear skies that we immediately discussed the option to skip the drive to Portal and stay for two more nights in the Casitas de Gila Guesthouse. While we were setting up we talked with an another astronomer from Phoenix who was set up on an adjacent pad who told us that the wind was pretty bad at Portal and supposedly a scope as big as ours wouldn't do well there. The next morning Barry talked with our host Micheal and extended our stay. I canceled with the guesthouse in Portal. We ended up having 5 beautifully clear, calm nights and did not regret our decision. Below are some of the photos we took. Barry also set up the 60Da on a tripod with different lenses to capture views of the Milky Way.
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Jupiter rising in the east over a notch in the mountain at Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM. Taken 5/15/2018 with the Canon 60Da and 28mm lens.
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The Milky Way from Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM. Taken 5/15/2018 with the Canon 60Da and 28 mm lens.
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This is a timelapse of the Milky Way rising over the hills surrounding the Casitas de Gila Guesthouses in New Mexico on the night of May 15-16, 2018 between 8:02PM and 2:30AM. Taken with a Canon 60Da DSLR camera with Canon 28mm lens. The nighttime exposures were 30 seconds at F2.8. The planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are also present.
The light streaks across the sky are airplanes.
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A face-on galaxy, M83, stack of four 20 min. guided exposures with ZWO 094 one-shot color camera on a Celestron C-14 at F-11. Taken 5/14/2018 at Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM.
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A face-on galaxy, M101, single 33 min. guided exposures with ZWO 094 one-shot color camera on a Celestron C-14 at F-11. Taken 5/15/2018 at Casitas de Gila, NM.
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The Milky Way rising at Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM. Taken 5/16/2018 with the Canon 60Da and a fisheye lens.
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The Milky Way over Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM. Taken 5/16/2018 with the Canon 60Da and a fisheye lens. Lying in a straight line Jupiter can be seen at the upper right, Saturn is the bright object just below the Milky Way and Mars is the bright object just above and to the right of the notch in the mountain.
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In this long-awaited sequel to the previous day's blockbuster timelapse, the Milky Way is seen rising over the hills surrounding the Casitas de Gila Guesthouses in New Mexico on the night of May 16-17, 2018. The pictures were taken with a Canon 60Da DSLR with a Canon 8-15mm fisheye zoom lens. The sequence begins at 8:15PM with Jupiter rising and finishes at 4:12AM with Saturn and Mars also visible, exposures taken every 40 seconds. Nightime exposures were 30 seconds at F4.
The light streaks across the sky are airplanes.
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Another shot of the Triffid Nebula, M20. This time a single 33 min. guided exposures with ZWO 094 one-shot color camera on a Celestron C-14 at F-11. Taken 5/16/2018 at Casitas de Gila, NM.
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A spiral galaxy, M106, stack of forty 3 minute guided exposures with ZWO 094 one-shot color camera on a Celestron C-14 at F-11. Taken 5/16/2018 at Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM.
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Galaxies, M81 (spiral) and M82 (irregular), stack of sixty 90 second guided exposures, binned 4x4, with ZWO 094 one-shot color camera on a Celestron C-14 with Hyperstar at F1.95. Taken 5/17/2018 at Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM.
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The Leo Triplet, 3 galaxies in the constellation Leo, stack of thirty 3 minute guided exposures, binned 4x4, with ZWO 094 one-shot color camera on a Celestron C-14 with Hyperstar at F1.95. Taken 5/17/2018 at Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM.
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The North American (left) and Pelican (right) Nebulas stack of thirty 3 minute guided exposures, binned 4x4, with ZWO 094 one-shot color camera on a Celestron C-14 with Hyperstar at F1.95. Taken 5/17/2018 at Casitas de Gila Guesthouse Gila, NM.
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We were very intrigued with the area and the incredibly dark skies. In fact at the Casitas de Gila viewing field, the sky brightness meter gave us a reading of 21.75 magnitudes per square arcseconds. We talked with Michael, our host and he recommended a real estate agent who we talked with while we were in the area. We didn't find anything that we had an immediate interest in but we will certainly keep this area in mind.
One day we took a drive to the nearest large city - Silver City, New Mexico. It had numerous restaurants, fast food chains, a large Albertson's grocery story and a Walmart. It also has a hospital. The drive was a pleasant 30 or so minutes.
The last night we went visual-only, which allowed us to pack up the Igloo, monitor and all of the camera equipment. It additionally let us enjoy the skies the old-fashioned way, by looking up or looking through the telescope.
It was also first quarter moon which brightened the western sky until it set. But even with that the visual view was truly amazing. We could see many of the objects which are only smudges in the Canton skies such as the Dumbell Nebula, the Swan Nebula, the Owl Nebula, and the Ring Nebula.
We also saw M-13 and Omega Cenauri, both globular clusters. Because of the Atlanta glow at home we cannot see Omega Centauri from our house.
We also looked at Saturn and could see the distinct separation in the rings, the polar ice cap on Mars was visible, but sadly Jupiter was not well-defined. He was painfully bright with very little definition on the surface.
Barry getting the telescope ready for our visual observing night.
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Today we start the trip home - we will stop for a layover in Ft Worth to visit old friends. Pick up the last of our journey in our final segment - the trip home.
