Astronomy in New Mexico

Blessed with beautiful night skies and a low population, New Mexico is home to world-class astronomical observatories. Telescope-hosting sites have also appeared recently in different parts of our state. Campus observatories, amateur astronomy clubs, and cosmic art installations complement the mix of facilities in New Mexico dedicated to the observation or contemplation of our night skies. Galen Gisler will take us on a planetarium tour of several of these sites.

Admission: $8/adult; $6/child; $20/family
Nature Center doors open at 6:45pm.
Planetarium events in general are not recommended for children under 5.

About the Presenter:

Galen Gisler was born under the dark and starry skies of eastern New Mexico and eventually found his way back to his home state. He traveled the country and world pursuing his education in astrophysics and working at various observatories. In 1981, he began a 25-year career at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Galen has been involved in a variety of activities including extragalactic gets, particle beams, plasmas, astronomical transients, adaptive processing, and hydrocode simulations of impact processes and tsunamis. Although semi-retired, Galen works as an Associate at LANL on ways of defending the Earth against asteroid impacts.

Photo:  The Milky Way Galaxy seen over the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array west of Socorro, New Mexico.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, Jeff Hellerman