Sunspot Observatory to host Great American Eclipse viewing

SUNSPOT — The Sacramento Peak Observatory, just 16 miles from Cloudcroft, is opening its doors to the public Monday to host a variety of activities in honor of the Great American Eclipse. 

Activities will start at 9 a.m. with a free guided tour of the Dunn Solar Telescope. After that tour, if there's enough time, staff also plan to take visitors on a guided tour of the museum in the visitor's center.

At 10:30 a.m. the projected time the eclipse will be visible in New Mexico, visitors can go outside and enjoy the eclipse through a number of ways. 

"We're going to have a few small telescopes set up with filters on them to view the eclipse," said Mark Klaene, Site Manager for Apache Point Observatory. "One of the telescopes will have a Hydrogen-Alpha filter on it and basically that cuts down many other wavelengths that we get from the sun and gives you a different view of the sun, highlighting certain aspects of solar activity in that narrow wavelength." 

The Sacramento Peak Observatory will also have eye pieces for visitors that will act as projectors. 

"People will be able to project an image onto a white piece of paper or we've got some white cardboard that they'll be able to use," Klaene said. "It's a neat way for projecting so that more than one person can see at a time as well. It's extremely safe that way too." 

He said they'll also have authentic viewing glasses and a live feed from NASA of the solar eclipse's totality. If there's enough interest, Klaene said they'll repeat the guided tours again for visitors.

All of Monday's activities are free, except for viewing the museum inside the visitor's center. Entrance into the museum inside the visitor's center is $10 per family or $3 per adult, $1 for children 10 to 17 years old, $1.50 for senior citizens and active duty military, and free for children under 10.

"If the weather is clear, we will always give you a better view of the sun than the Tularosa Basin because of our altitude," Klaene said. "But there is a chance that we'll be weathered out, perhaps a little bit more of a chance for us than the basin." 

He said residents and visitors alike should support Sunspot now more than ever because the National Science Foundation (NSF) will pull out of the Sacramento Peak Observatory in October.

"Southern New Mexico is losing a community, the town of Sunspot is dying," Klaene said. "Since I came here in the 80s, Otero County has lost about somewhere around 80 high-paying jobs that brought money in from outside the area into Sunspot. It brought in teachers, scientists, laborers and all those people lived in Cloudcroft, Alamogordo and spent money here – it's a huge economic loss."

NSF will completely move their operations from Sunspot and other observatories nationwide on Oct. 1 to Boulder, Colorado. NSF is also in the process of building one of the most powerful telescopes atop the Haleakala Crater in Maui, Hawaii, by 2019.

Klaene said Sacramento Peak Observatory is still in negotiations to get a grant from NSF to continue operating the facility at a reduced level. The hope is that through the grant, they'll be able to keep the observatory up for producing research and providing educational opportunities via the visitor's center.

"We're currently advertising several positions, we've filled a few, but we need that funding to continue from the National Science Foundation," Klaene said. "So I think anything we do that shows the community is behind Sunspot helps in our efforts to keep the very historic observatory and town operating." 

For more information, call the observatory at 434-7000 or visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunspotSolarObservatory.

More:Two Alamogordo locations to host Great American Eclipse viewing

Two Alamogordo locations will also be hosting eclipse viewing parties on Monday. White Sands National Monument will host their viewing party, Total Eclipse of the Park, at their visitor's center from 10:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. and the New Mexico Museum of Space History will host their viewing party at the museum from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

For more information about Monday’s solar eclipse click on USA Today’s Solar Eclipse 2017.