What is so enchanting about the night sky?
The clockwork precision of the starry background?  The surprising burst of a falling star?

When you look up, are you transported back in time?
Perhaps you are a shepherd watching for the star that will mean it’s time to move the animals to the high pasture.
Does your community rely on you to remember and re-tell the stories of your ancestors, as written in the stars?
Or maybe you are the navigator, checking the positions of Jupiter’s moons to confirm your longitude on a trans-oceanic voyage.
How did constellations get their names?

Will your children ever see the Milky Way - our home galaxy?

Visitors to New Mexico State Parks enjoy some of the darkest, starriest skies in North America.  The camping experience seems incomplete without time to gaze at the carpet of stars, often while serenaded by a chorus of coyotes.  We facilitates that experience with night sky programs statewide. Click here for Star Party schedule (enter "star party" under "category"). 

Trained interpreters help you fulfill that inexplicable desire to understand the heavens.  Amateur astronomers use telescopes and stories to guide you through the wonders of the Solar System, our Milky Way Galaxy, and the universe beyond.  As the skies change through the year, so do the programs.

Public observatories are being built at City of Rocks State Park (right, opened officially on October 1, 2005), Clayton Lake State Park (opening in Spring 2006) and two other parks still to be determined (opening late 2006 and 2007).

Events typically begin after sundown.  Night sky programs are subject to cancellation due to inclement weather.  If you are in doubt about a particular event, call the information number provided. 

Come help us Reach for the Stars!