5/5/2023 0 Comments Mcdonald observatory![]() ![]() Girded by the Davis Mountains in the north and the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park in the south, this part of Texas has some of the darkest skies in the US. In an effort to dim the lights given off by these operations, the observatory launched the Dark Skies Initiative, a collaboration with oil and gas drillers to change the way they illuminate their fields before they permanently fog the astronomer’s window into the universe.įor most of its 85 years the observatory, which houses one of the largest optical telescopes in the world, was thought to be safely south of the oil fields. Today 40 percent of oil and gas rigs working in the United States are located on what is known as the Permian Basin, a vast oil reserve covering 75,000 square miles in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. That’s when I grabbed my little laptop and started going to all the oil and gas conventions that I could.” Then we realized we could see Black Mountain silhouetted against the sky. ![]() The glow, says Bill Wren, a special assistant to the observatory superintendent, “was kind of a curiosity at first. The craggy nighttime outlines of the high desert only became visible around 2010, when horizontal drilling-in which wells are approached from new angles-resuscitated oil fields previously believed to be tapped out. The observatory that contains the Hobby Elberly underneath the dome. Photo by Jasmina Kelemen. Even still, the peaks to the north never fully disappeared, their outlines clearly visible, as if permanently backlit by stage lights: the glow cast by burning natural gas and rigs lit up like Christmas trees at the oil-drilling sites, which start just 60 miles north of the observatory. ![]() There were no pinpricks of artificial light anywhere aboveground. We must also beware of the “suicidal” javelinas, wild hogs that, Kelly swore, wait for cars to come around curves before dashing across the street.Īlmost any urban dweller, unaware of how the night sky appears without the glare of electricity, would have described the night as dark. If we must leave early, it was imperative that we back out and descend the mountain from the right to avoid bouncing headlights off the observatory. Cell phones were strictly prohibited even just a flash from the screen would undo our developing night vision. We sat in a circle around our emcee, an astronomy buff named Kelly, who promised to take us on a tour through the constellations but only after laying down a few ground rules. The only visible lights were red, ground-level bulbs, illuminating the walkway to an amphitheater where we were corralled by a group of astronomers for 45 minutes: the time, we were told, that it would take our eyes to acclimate to true darkness. ![]() The sun receded toward the horizon, and distant peaks shimmered on a canvas of pink, orange, and violet before disappearing into velvety darkness. Some 200 people had gathered at the McDonald Observatory outside Fort Davis, hours from the nearest airport, for one of its thrice-weekly Star Parties. It was a chilly September night in the Davis Mountains, deep in the isolated expanse of West Texas. ![]()
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