1700 Miles

We arrived back home today around five o'clock. All in all it was a wonderful trip. After a full day of Roswell on Thursday we drove to Ft. Davis, TX and went to a Star Party at the McDonald Observatory. The lecture didn't really hold the kids attention. Sunil in particular was not impressed, but the constellation talk, outside under a West Texas sky, was incredible. We even saw a few meteors. But Sunil was really won over by the telescopes. I counted fifteen and I think we managed to look through them all. They ranged from 8" to 36" mirrors. We saw starts, star clusters, supernovae debris, Venus and Saturn - complete with rings and moons. Afterwards we drove to Odessa to spend the night.

Odessa is more than just a convienient stopping place, it has a famous meteor crater of its own. Actually a pair of craters that are still visible. The main crater was originally (50,000 years ago) more than 100 feet deep. Now it is only about six feet deep. This was our second attempt to see the crater and museum. Last year we arrived just as they closed the gate for the night. This time we managed to walk the crater (in broad daylight) but they opened the museum late and we couldn't wait for them.