It’s an experience unique to New Mexico.
When White Sands National Park celebrates Full Moon Night between May and October, night sky enthusiasts flock to the park to enjoy its vistas and viewpoints.
The park’s white gypsum sands reflect the moon so brightly that visitors don’t need a headlamp, and they can savor the full range of the park’s activities even at night.
That can means hiking, sledding, enjoying a picnic or maybe just enjoying the view.
Brian Powers, the park’s manager of interpretation, visitor services and outreach, said that Full Moon Nights have been a New Mexico tradition going back decades.
“We have been hosting Full Moon Nights and offering extended park hours for at least fifty years, to give visitors the rare opportunity to see this unique landscape transform,” he said in an e-mail to the Alamogordo News.
“The bright white gypsum reflects the moonlight so intensely that you can often read a book by it, and it has become one of our most popular and beloved visitor experiences.”
The next Full Moon Night at White Sands is on Wednesday, July 29, and the park’s normal closing hours will be extended two hours. The park generally closes an hour after sunset — which is now occurring around 8:10 p.m — between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The moon is so bright on Full Moon Nights that it can wash out all but the brightest constellations. Powers said that summer constellations with bright stars like Vega, Altair and Deneb should be visible, and so should the supergiant Antares in Scorpio.
“During the fall months of September and October, planets like Jupiter and Saturn often dominate the fall sky and are bright enough to remain spectacular even under direct, heavy moonlight,” Powers said. “Fall constellations, such as the distinctive “W” shape of Cassiopeia and the Great Square of Pegasus, will be visible in the northern and eastern sky, respectively.”
Most visitors do not bring telescopes to White Sands because of the way the moon reflects, but Powers offered a few suggestions to anyone who wants to try.
The best spots to set up a telescope, he said, are the two large parking lots located along Dunes Drive Loop near the back of the park. He also singled out the Sunset Stroll Meeting Area between the Backcountry Camping Loop Trail and Yucca Picnic Area, and Area 10, another remote location.
“This area offers wide-open, unobstructed 360-degree views of the horizon right from the flat surface of the parking lot,” Powers said. “Roadrunner Picnic Area also provides a large space that would be ideal for bringing out a telescope for night sky viewing.”
One other recommendation, said Powers, is to protect your telescope from wind-blown sand by setting up on a tarp.
You should also protect your eyes, he said, by using a moon filter to cut down the glare.
After Wednesday’s Full Moon Night, there are three more scheduled this season: August 27, September 26 and October 25.
The September event will feature a concert by Indigenous flautist and storyteller Randy Granger, and the October Full Moon Night will include a special ranger presentation on Ice Age human and mammal fossilized footprints found within the park.
Seeing stars
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, located about 16 miles south of Alamogordo, offers another dramatic night sky experience.
The park is at the base of the Sacramento Mountains and looks out over the Chihuahuan desert, the largest hot desert by area in North America.
There are no organized night sky programs at the park, though, and the day use hours are from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
For most visitors to Oliver Lee, you’d need a campsite to be there when it really gets dark. Campsites at the park cost $15 per resident and $20 per non-resident.
“We actually don’t have many people who come out here just to stargaze because the only real place to park and do it is in the visitor center parking lot,” said park manager Kate German in an email response. “All our campsites are by reservation only.”
Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is currently in the process of constructing a security gate that should go into effect by the end of the year. Once that gate is in place, German said, only registered campers will have access to the park after dark.
