Thursday, March 3, 2016

City of Rocks State Park, NM, Day 5

Santa Rita Copper Mine
Thursday, March 3, 2016, City of Rocks State Park, NM, Day 5, 0 Miles, 4,615.2 Miles for the Trip

The wind did die down enough to make spaghetti & meatballs for dinner last night. I sat out in my chair until 9:00 watching the stars. I put a telephoto lens on the D800 but without an equatorial mount (one that is motorized to counteract the turning of the earth), I found even a 5 second exposure at 400mm caused significant streaking. I did keep one image of Orion's belt that included a blurry image of the Orion Nebula. Skies like last night really make me want to get & carry a good telescope. Not much use in Oswego where we have clouds most of the time, but out here it is amazing!

I slept in a bit later than usual, but did my morning walk around 9:30. A few RVers moved out this morning, but the park is still fairly full. Around 11:00 I headed for Silver City. My key did me the favor of not working when I got to Lawley Toyota & they replaced the battery in the key. No charge, and it seems to be working - only time will tell! I looked at a 2016 Tacoma - a nice looking truck that they would have loved to sell me. While the 3% sales tax is a great deal for New Mexico buyers, the sad news is if I bought it, when I registered it in NY, they would collect the sales tax difference.

I stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch - not a buffet, but lots of choices. OK, but not the best orange chicken I've had. I stopped at Albertson for a few items I forgot on Monday, then I drove to the Santa Rita Mine for a photo. I took one the last time I drove by, but this time a made a panorama, (Large 1.4MB Version)I looked for some of the other mines in the area, but didn't find them.

After that it was back to City of Rocks & some reading. Dinner will be something simple since I'm still full from lunch.

Until tomorrow -

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