Friday, July 12, 2019
Today we visited the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot NM.
The telescope was actually shut down for maintenance today but Sean, an intern working here, was extremely knowledgeable and taught us a lot about what is done here.
This is one of the three largest solar telescopes in the world. They study the sun.
The telescope sits on a mountain at an elevation of 9200 ft.
1/3 of the telescope is above ground, the other 2/3 is below ground. It is over 300 ft all together.
Watching butterflies in the gardens around outside.
Ninja-ing
Yep, he is my son.
After the solar observatory, we headed to Carlsbad Caverns, about a 4 hour drive. We were planning to get there for the evening exodus of the bats from the caverns.
Along the way, we got a text from friends that used to live in NC but moved to California a few months after we left NC saying they were in a nearby town going west as we were headed east. So we stopped in a Walmart parking lot and got to visit for about an hour!! Little blessings from God along the way.
The timing was certainly a GOD thing because if we would have contacted each other a half hour later, we would have missed each other. Love you Martha and kids!!
We arrived at our campsite after sunset and missed the bats but it was worth it to meet up and get to visit with the Villanuevas! (We can see the bats tomorrow).