A few days ago, Bo and I were 700 feet below the surface of the Earth deep in the Carlsbad Caverns. Today we are 6600 feet above sea level on top of Mt Locke at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains State Park of Texas. The Davis Mountains are the highest peaks fully contained in Texas. The McDonald Observatory has nine different telescopes on the mountain tops aimed at the starry heavens!
Bo and I were lucky enough to arrive at the Observatory for a Special Viewing from one of the large telescopes on site. In the three hour viewing, we were delighted with views of Jupiter, the Crab Nebula, Andromeda galaxy, a dying star, globular star clusters, planetary nebula and other bright objects in the sky. Quite a thrill!
The Crab Nebula is 6500 light years distance from Earth. One light year is roughly six trillion miles. Do the math!
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