Trip to Cabezon Peak

Cabezon Peak is an old volcanic plug that is visible for miles in the north-central area of New Mexico. The mountain rises to 7,785 feet and is about 2,000 feet above the surrounding area.

I've been wanting to go see it up close and Jill and I drove out to visit it -- about an hour drive. The area is an old volcanic field with many smaller features clearly visible for several miles. We climbed most of the way up to the base of the plug -- a vertical basalt monolith -- but didn't try to do the entire hike around the peak. The peak is climbable but with great difficulty and some special equipment may be needed.  We were not interested in that.

So here are some pictures we took on the trip....

The road to Cabezon -- it gets much worse

A trail goes around the vertical basalt plug
once you climb up the terrace - a
steep and treacherous climb.

A smaller volcanic plug in the distance

View from the shoulder of the peak -- lots of volcano relics

Coming back down

We were being watched

Toro! Toro!  Open range



Heading back home
 

The Star Party

The local astronomy club scheduled a public star gazing 'party' last night and they had a good turnout of amateur astronomers and their telescopes as well as a lot of folks wanting to see what they could see. There were many families with their kids - which was really great.  The conditions were not ideal because of the bright 1st quarter moon and the close proximity to the city lights.  We were able to see quite a lot and it was an interesting and informative evening.

None of the following pictures are mine but this is an example of what we saw. The telescopes were of every description and size...but still portable and limited in what they could

Lunar landing sites -- One telescope had a video screen that produces a great image of what the telescope was aiming at. Because it was a bright screen it was kept away from the other telescopes but it had some great views of the moon and the Apollo landing sites.

Andromeda Galaxy -- Kids were excited to see this. The image was fuzzier than I expected but very cool to see.

There were several telescopes aimed at star clusters. This one is a double cluster.

The Dumbbell Nebula -- This was cool. The telescope had a video screen that showed the image but you could look at it directly as well.





I was most excited about seeing Neptune and Uranus.

Neptune was discernible as a sphere -- maybe due to the power of the telescope. It was this same milky blue color. It was much smaller than the image.

Uranus is the farthest known planet in our solar system...way out beyond Pluto, now. The image we saw through the telescope was a small blue dot. It wasn't recognizable as a planet...just a bluish star....much, much smaller than the image but the color is about right.





The evening experience inspired me to get out my old telescope that I got when I was a kid.  Jupiter will be visible late in the night and we have a comet to watch in a few weeks.

Dona Nobis Pacem - Grant Us Peace

Today, November 4th, is Blog For Peace Day. For information, go here:
http://mimiwrites.blogspot.com/

Grant us peace.

No Cats vs. Dogs

No Hawks vs. Doves

No Us vs. Them

Only We...Together

Camera on the Fritz...or the Photographer? Or what...?

I've noticed my pictures is not living up to my "exalted" standards. Is that because the camera is acting up or because the photographer is confused on the settings?  Or is it something else...like the dust and vapor in the air?

The images are grainy for some reason no matter what I do. Maybe because the camera had a slight mishap in the car?  I hope not. This is an ultra zoom camera and I've always relied on the zoom feature but something is screwy.   I adjust film speed and other settings. Maybe I'm expecting too much.  I even tried taking pictures of some doves bathing in my pond but they were terrible...at close range.

 

sunset storm

The mountain is about eight miles away and it's raining there as the sun goes down behind me. There is a lot of stuff in the air between me and the mountain so it should be grainy but even the satellite dish looks grainy on the building.

 

 

Rainbows are hard to shoot anyway.

 

 

 

 

Maybe I'm expecting too much. Sandia Mountain above and Ortiz Mountains below.

 

 

Extreme zoom - Snow on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains above Santa Fe -- about 60 miles away...more or less.    I'm thinking dust and vapor in the air is a big part of the problem...we have had 55 mph wind gusts and some rain this past week.

 

 

same image in black and white

 

Oh well...  I've only been here about 60 days so I'm still trying to figure out the climate and best conditions for photography. Pictures of about two or three weeks ago were fine.

I'm always looking east but this is toward the west and the Jemez Mountains.  It is a little dryer and maybe a little clearer.