Learn more about what we do
About NMAV
One Essential Requirement
Astronomy communities have one absolute requirement, a dark sky. Without a dark sky, there is no astronomy. NMAV's skies currently are pretty dark, (Bortle 3 on dark nights), SQM 21.5 measured on 10/16/18.
About Location and Sky Conditions
Why did we choose this location? NMAV was identified as a great place for an astronomy community because it provided reasonably dark skies, affordable land, pre-existing county maintained roads, electric service to almost every lot, and small towns within 20 miles. Humans love their light so finding a place with very few humans and minimal light pollution was a requirement. Instead of extremely remote locations with the darkest skies, we chose a fairly remote location that wasn't too far from small towns, and a platted area where we could build a community of like minded neighbors. After all, we're not hermits, we have social lives, but our hobby requires a reasonably dark sky.
About Sky Conditions
What are the Sky Conditions like here at NMAV? The desert conditions of New Mexico create remarkably varied skies that change rapidly, and seasonal influences magnify the changes even more. Its probably why they call New Mexico "The Land of Enchantment." With such widely variable weather and sky conditions, it is challenging to characterize NMAV's astronomical sky conditions, so its better to characterize or quantify a general range of sky conditions.
Atmospheric seeing and transparency at NMAV are best in cooler months, November thru May. Warmer months, June through October, have more atmospheric turbulence, more atmospheric extinction, and more reflectivity from aerosols, forest fire smoke, dust, and moisture. In the past eight years, the residents of NMAV have observed more cloudy nights and poorer sky conditions than when we first came here in 2012, no doubt the result of global climate change, yet this area of New Mexico may have more clear sky nights than anywhere else in the continental US.
Some nights the sky conditions are poor, yet other nights are amazingly dark with great transparency and good seeing between 1 and 2 arc seconds. It is not uncommon to see sky conditions range from poor to good on a single night, mostly due to ground heat dissipation and suspended atmospheric particulates generated during high wind events. In non desert areas, plants typically absorb much of the Sun's infrared energy which reduces heating on the surface of the land, but deserts don't get much protection from plants. Accordingly, the land temperatures increase greatly during sunny days, and dissipate that heat slowly throughout the night, so the seeing is worst at sunset and best just before sunrise. Mountain ranges typically create a lot of atmospheric turbulence.
NMAV is situated 15 miles or more from the closest mountains which helps to improve NMAV's average seeing conditions.