LISTEN
Colorado's Black Canyon of the Gunnison certainly ranks among the foremost chasms of the world in terms of dimensions and renown. The canyon is 53 miles long but only the deepest, most spectacular 14 miles of the gorge lie within the National Park. I attended a presentation given by noted author Craig Childs “Talking with the Sky: Archaeology and the Alignment of Celestial Events”. The next evening I went to the Park and enjoyed a very good, as usual, Ranger talk. Being a former Ranger myself I’m familiar how hard Rangers work to develop their presentations but the Black Canyon of the Gunnison go even further. This past April the Park staff attended training at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas - one of the darkest locations in the country, and trained on one of the world's largest optical telescopes, with a mirror about half the size of a tennis court. The Rangers learned how to better present astronomy programs and how to preserve dark night skies in National Parks…WOW!
