We left Marfa this morning and stopped at the Fort Davis National Historic Site en route to Big Bend National Park. Along the way, I discovered that T-Mobile uses a roaming partner here; I discovered this by using up my roaming allowance and losing Internet on my phone!

But we do have connectivity at the Visitor Center across the parking lot from our room at Chisos Mountain Lodge here at the park, so I can post tonight.

Here are a few photos from Fort Davis:

And a few from our first afternoon at Big Bend:

Professor Binzel is taking us star-gazing in a few minutes once it’s dark enough. We only have to walk a few hundred yards instead of driving up a mountain, but I’m still going to call it a night now!

We left El Paso right after breakfast and drove non-stop, arriving at the McDonald Observatory with mere minutes to spare before our 12:30 tour of the 107-inch Harlan J. Smith telescope.

Our guide showed us how the astronomers used hand controls to point the telescope and rotate the dome to the right place for the night’s observation. Of course, they don’t do that any more – they type their target into a computer (running Windows 98!) and it does the rest.

There are a lot of telescopes at the observatory besides the 107-inch; the Hobby-Eberly telescope is the largest, with an eleven-meter mirror.

After the tour, we drove to Marfa and our home for the night, the Paisano Hotel. Marfa began life as an railroad water stop, but today, it’s mostly known for art.

After dinner, we returned to the observatory for a Star Party; there were hundreds of people there to enjoy the dark sky, learn about the constellations, and peer through a telescope at distant galaxies and nebulae.

It’s been a long day, but worthwhile.