{"id":159,"date":"2004-08-06T21:54:55","date_gmt":"2004-08-07T03:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mjhinton.com\/wild\/index.php\/uncategorized\/chacos-night-sky\/"},"modified":"2004-08-06T21:54:55","modified_gmt":"2004-08-07T03:54:55","slug":"chacos-night-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/?p=159","title":{"rendered":"Chaco’s Night Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

USATODAY.com – Nights with a heavenly view<\/a> By Laura Bly, USA TODAY<\/p>\n

Particularly here in the Land of Enchantment. Home to some of the country’s darkest and clearest skies, New Mexico has long been a magnet for star buffs. …<\/p>\n

One of the best-known portals to New Mexico’s nighttime marvels is Chaco Canyon, eerie, windswept desert ruins about midway between Grants and Farmington (or the proverbial Middle of Nowhere<\/b>).<\/p>\n

Chaco began offering astronomy programs in 1991 and opened its own observatory — the only one in a national park — seven years later. Park managers have designated Chaco’s night sky a critical resource in need of protection, and they have retrofitted all park lighting to enhance after-dark viewing and reduce light pollution from cities as far afield as Albuquerque, about 150 miles to the southeast.<\/p>\n

Today, about 14,000 self-sufficient visitors a year come to gaze and graze on ancient tales. (Aside from the park’s 49-space campground<\/b> and a bare-bones inn in Nageezi, the closest food and lodging is an hour and a half’s drive away.)<\/p>\n

Given New Mexico’s average of more than 300 sunny days a year<\/b>, chances of scoring a cloudless night in Chaco are high. But even on a Saturday evening when the Anasazi’s beloved Father Sky is cloaked by thunderheads, magic is in the air.<\/p>\n

Search this blog for astronomy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USATODAY.com – Nights with a heavenly view By Laura Bly, USA TODAY Particularly here in the Land of Enchantment. Home to some of the country’s darkest and clearest skies, New Mexico has long been a magnet for star buffs. … One of the best-known portals to New Mexico’s nighttime marvels is Chaco Canyon, eerie, windswept … Continue reading Chaco’s Night Sky<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chaco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ahwilderness.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}