At this point we decided to go back to the hotel and heat up the siopao asado and return to picnic at the overlook's bench. It was nice.

Since we've been viewing the Indian Lodge all day we decided to visit it. It shows so white along the trail. On the way we stopped at the interpretive center. Inside there was a viewing area of the various feeders that were installed to attract the native bird species. There was a dude there with binoculars that helped point out the variety of birds visiting the feeders. A fat squirrel apparently was a frequent visitor to the feeders also. Outside we encountered another viewing area that listed the birds we were seeing. In addition we walked along a flower bed where the fauna was identified.

Continued to the Indian Lodge. Looked like it was pretty much closed as Marilou was searching for a rest room and didn't find any opening. We did a short walk along the trail before heading back home to get her to a rest room and then we rested the rest of the afternoon.

Tuesday, August 3^rd :

When we entered the greenhouse for the "Chihuahuan Desert Museum" we encountered numerous different cacti and I found one species named after our neighbor: Escobar(ia). They were similarly quite prickly. Many of the small cacti had pretty blooms.

Exiting the greenhouse we headed back along Trans-Pecos Natives route to the Visitor Center and I took more pictures of the native plants and their names.

Just outside the visitor center was a Mining Exhibit. It contained a replica of a mine and included several examples of the equipment used in mining in the area.

There were displays of some of the equipment used for extracting the various ores from the ground. In addition there were examples of the various minerals that were mined there. Pretty interesting for a chemical engineer.

On the way back we came to the intersection for the Modesta Canyon Trail. I told Marilou that my initial plan was to do that trail, but the receptionist made it sound like the start was too steep for Marilou. She told me to go ahead and do it, she would shop in the visitor center while I was gone. So that's what we did.

Returned to the hotel and ate lunch, then we tried to nap in preparation for a late night at the observatory.

Left for the McDonald observatory a little early because I wanted to get some pictures before it got dark. The road was quite windy especially near the summit. Took several pictures of the observatory while the doors were still locked.

They opened the doors for our 9:30 event at 8:30 to allow some time for shopping and looking at the displays. A few minutes before 9:30 we were instructed to go to the observation arena and find a seat. There were a few more visitors than I thought they were covid allowing, but everyone managed to distance their group from the other groups. When the sun started to set we were allowed to follow the signs to the presentation stage. On the way we got a pretty good view of a red sunset.

The leader of the show introduced herself then made some small talk and semi-jokes to kill time while it got dark enough to start seeing the stars. Venus was visible as we sat down, but that's not a star. A trick question was how many stars do you think there are in the solar system? She asked it while sweeping her hands implying the entire cosmos. Answer: one, the sun.

Opened it up for questions and one little girl asked if we were going to see the Milky Way. Leader promised to point it out when it got darker.

She promised we would see the International Space Station, and when it did pass over she used her laser pointer to note it's passing by in the north sky. She then pointed out the big dipper and tried to point out the fainter stars that made it into Ursa Major. pointed out how to find the north star from the big dipper. Then proceeded to point out the constellations that make up the zodiac. We saw Leo, Gemini, Taurus, before she moved on to other constellations such as Orion, Canis Major, etc.

Following the Evening Sky viewing session, some of us headed back down to the patio for the Star Party. What this consisted of was a person in the Telescope room focusing it on various objects which were then sent to a big screen where we could see the actual object as the telescope sees it. In addition to the actual siting they also displayed some other views of the objects, such as from the space station and other telescope views. Objects pointed out included M51, M13, and Saturn. Saturn is in a good position to view the rings. She showed us some other orientations where it is more difficult to see the rings.

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