ring of fire - maybe a possible meet up in Albuquerque?
I would love to do something like this. It might even be feasible...
Mark your calendar. On Sunday, May 20th, the sun is going to turn into a ring of fire. It's an annular solar eclipse--the first one in the USA in almost 18 years. Tucson will be able to see much of it, but northern Arizona and southern Utah will have the best show.
An "annular" eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly in front of the sun, but the lunar disk is not quite wide enough to cover the entire star. At maximum, the Moon forms a "black hole" in the center of the sun."The ring of fire:" Astrophotographer Dennis L. Mammana photographed this annular eclipse behind palm trees in January 1994. Copyright D. L. Mammana.
The "path of annularity" is a strip about 300 km wide and thousands of km long. It stretches from China and Japan, across the Pacific Ocean, to the middle of North America. In the United States, the afternoon sun will become a luminous ring in places such as Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; St. George, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas.
Outside of this relatively narrow zone, the eclipse will be partial. Observers almost everywhere west of the Mississippi, including Tucson, will see a crescent-shaped sun as the Moon passes by off-center.
vid: 3:09
= new reply since forum marked as read
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The eclipse, as beautiful as it is in that picture, would be my secondary reason for going.
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I've only gone through there a few times, but always in the winter when it is really obvious. Inversion layer?
I guess Chaco is way off the beaten track as in the middle of nowhere, but then again, it's less than a two hour drive north of Gallup (off the Interstate).
Abq is fine, though. Clearly a better variety of meet up places. I was just throwing an idea out there.
But those winter days are much more likely to be that way.
back at ya.
sorry about the missing link. Ima doofus. 
(shhhhh don't tell MFM)
Damn Arizona infidels...
