UNM-Taos hopes telescope program will connect students to STEM fields

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the type of spacecraft that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon.

TAOS — Growing up in central England during the heyday of NASA’s Apollo program, Colin Nicholls dreamed of one day going to space himself.

In the early morning hours of July 21, 1969, his parents rousted him from bed to view the first moon landing on their black-and-white TV, and like so many people who watched the broadcast, Nicholls has carried the memory of that viewing experience all his life.

The grainy images of men walking on the lunar surface were astonishing, he thought, and Neil Armstrong’s famous “one small step for man” remarks crackled across their TV speaker and those of millions of others throughout the world, coming to emblemize a new era in human endeavor that inspired children everywhere.

Afterward, Nicholl’s would sit upside down in chairs around his family’s living room — feet pointed at the ceiling — trying to get a sense of what it might have felt like to sit inside the lunar module that took the astronauts to the moon.

Nicholls never went to space, but that early experience was nonetheless pivotal in motivating him to attain his degree in physics at the University of Oxford and to go on to teach other young people about the wonders of the night sky.

That passion for space science and continuous learning about the natural world is the beating heart behind Cielo Centro, an educational observatory at Taos’ Klauer Campus that will soon house the largest publicly accessible telescope in New Mexico.

“The objective of it is to build an astronomy center here at (University of New Mexico-Taos),” said Nicholls, who is leading the project and has also taught math, physics and astronomy at the university. “We call it Cielo Centro, and it will comprise of an observatory structure, space for people to use telescopes outside that structure, and an amphitheater for presentations, both on astronomy and also a more general college facility for outside presentations.”

The project is divided into two phases, the first of which will include the construction of the amphitheater, which is scheduled to open next summer and is being financed with $2.5 million in public funding. UNM faculty, staff, students and members of the public gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony for phase one of the project on Nov. 21.

The state has directed $1 million toward the new star-gazing endeavor. Taos County voters awarded another $1.5 million in funding for the project through a general obligation bond last year.

The amphitheater was originally slated to open this fall, but was delayed after $5.25 million in public funding for the project was stalled at the New Mexico Legislature due to a conflict with the project’s timeline, Nicholls explained.

Now, the university is engaged in fundraising for Cielo Centro’s second phase, which includes the construction of an observatory building with a roll-on/roll-off roof, expected to cost $5 million to $6 million.

Longtime arts and science advocate Melissa King donated the Dobsian telescope that will eventually be housed there. It features a 36-inch — or 3 feet in diameter — F4 mirror that can capture more than 23,000 times more light than the human eye, allowing viewers to see into deep space.

Its hobbyist housing, however, requires updating for public use, which is where Nicholl’s friend and fellow astronomy club member, Phil Poirier, joined the Cielo Centro team.

Poirier lives in San Cristobal north of Taos and is the chief executive of Bonny Doon Engineering, a company that develops and manufactures hydraulic presses and tooling systems for the jewelry industry. As a fellow space science enthusiast with a background in astrophotography, Poirier volunteered to help construct the telescope’s housing as well as a periscope-style device that will allow people with physical disabilities to see through its viewfinder.

“It’s kind of a new concept,” Poirier said of the custom-built periscope, which they’ve begun to test. “I don’t know of more than two that are in the country, but it’s a great way of relaying an optical image without losing too much (detail). It allows anybody to look through the telescope without climbing a ladder to get up to where the eyepiece typically is in a telescope like this.”

UNM-Taos ultimately is aiming to host other universities, K-8 students and the general public for stargazing events at the new facility to learn about the night sky and inspire young people to seek careers in New Mexico’s burgeoning space industry — a primary goal of the project.

“The bigger picture is to develop a workforce development center,” Nicholls said. “The space economy is a priority for New Mexico, and our students in Taos and other rural universities may not know really what it’s about and can’t access jobs because they can’t get the courses they need. So the plan is to form a consortium with other colleges in the region that are facing similar challenges.”

UNM-Taos Chancellor Mary Gutierrez said the telescope will give local students who are struggling with STEM subjects a hands-on way to learn about concepts otherwise difficult for them to grasp.

“The observatory really allows us to teach students in a manner where they’re able to apply math and they’re able to learn about the Earth outside the pages of a book,” Gutierrez said. “It makes learning real in a way it isn’t when it’s inside the four walls of a classroom.”

Nicholls is also a council member of Dark Sky New Mexico, an organization that has for years been calling for the state to update and add teeth to its Night Sky Protection Act, created in 1999. Preserving dark skies, Nicholls said, is a key component of Cielo Centro’s mission.

“The regulations are based on measurements that are no longer relevant,” Nicholls said. “All of the technologies then were based on incandescent lights, but hardly anybody uses those now. A 100 watt LED is a very, very different light source from a 100 watt incandescent bulb.”

On moonless nights in Taos County, for example, it’s easy to spot the glow of Española in the sky 46 miles to the south.

Several New Mexico counties, including Taos, have their own dark skies regulations on the books. Yet advocates of preserving views of the Milky Way and other celestial objects remain concerned that such laws are also out of date and are too loosely enforced.

Nicholls, Poirier and Gutierrez all spoke to the Journal about how the dark skies that remain around Taos and many parts of rural northern New Mexico connect them to the natural world and the planet, fueling their efforts to seek the remaining funds necessary to make Cielo Centro a reality.

“We’re very fortunate here to have skies that are dark enough that we can see not just the Milky Way, but when the moon is down, you can actually see the Andromeda Galaxy with your naked eye,” Nicholls said. “That’s 2 and a half million light years away. It’s a very precious resource that connects us to our scientific and cultural history, and we need to preserve that.”