State Location
Driving Instructions:
From the East Take U.S. Highway 50 west from Lamar approximately 20 miles to Hasty. Turn south on School Street and proceed approximately 2 miles. The Visitor Center is on the right as the road curves to the east.
From the West Take U.S. Highway 50 east from La Junta to Las Animas, approximately 20 miles. Proceed east through Las Animas to Hasty, approximately 16 miles. Turn south on School Street and proceed approximately 2 miles. The Visitor Center is on the right as the road curves to the east.
Report(s):
From Michael Hotka, visited February, 2005.
Last Thursday and Friday nights, I ventured to SE Colorado to do some star gazing at John Martin State Park. During the winter months, only the Hasty Campground is open. The facilities were open and the water hot in the showers.
The dam for the park is to the west of this campground which takes about 10 degrees of the western sky away. Also, there were yellow street lights that shined onto this campground. Maybe the northern end of the campground would be better, for it would be farther away from the lights.
Lamar is about 30 miles to the east, yet no light dome was seen from this city. Lamar must be doing a good job on street lighting.
Thursday night the sky was incredible. I looked at 13th magnitude galaxies. I have never seen the Orion Nebula as spectacular as it was Thursday night. The 6 stars of the Trapezium were little points of light and ALL were easily seen. The temperature dropped to only 27 degrees.
Friday night was a contrast of nights. No 13th magnitude anythings. The sky was steady, but the seeing was soft. The temperature fluctuated between 32 degrees to 40 degrees. First you are getting cold, so you bundled up, and then you started sweating, so you loosen up. Very uncomfortable!
I did see NGC 3201, a fine globular in Vela at declination -46 degrees 25 minutes. It was just above the horizon, but it was easy to see and this needs another look in more southern skies, for it looks huge and bright.
So, for more southern views of the sky from Colorado, John Martin State Park receives a B for a winter observing site. If you don't want southern views, then I would give a rating of C for this observing site.
