About the ASLC

Greetings from the professional and amateur astronomers who comprise the Astronomical Society of Las Cruces (ASLC). The club was formed in 1951 by a group of dedicated astronomers including Clyde Tombaugh, who had discovered Pluto just 21 years earlier. For 70 years, we've been sharing a little bit of the universe with our community under our beautiful Southern New Mexico skies.

The club has a variety of ongoing observing, education and public outreach programs. We host a public Moongaze each month, offer monthly dark sky observing at Leasburg Dam State Park, and support countless star parties and education programs for schools, scouts and various organizations. We hold a meeting each month which includes a featured presentation.

ASLC also holds numerous clinics such as a new telescope owners workshop. For individuals who don't yet have equipment, we offer telescope making workshops. Several of our members collect scientific data on minor planets and variable stars. We also work to protect the dark skies of Southern New Mexico by educating city leaders and the general public about light pollution issues.

ASLC members may elect to join one or two discussion groups where topics such as equipment, imaging techniques, upcoming outreach events and other general club information are discussed. Additional information regarding the group(s) may be found here.

Our mission is to provide an opportunity for astronomers and the general public to enjoy and learn about the wonders of the night sky. The information contained herein will help acquaint you with our various activities including our regular meetings and events, our observing sites, and selected special events. There is also information regarding our publications, our education programs and workshops, and a variety of additional resources to help get you started.

Enjoy perusing our website. There is information on scheduling star parties, telescope selection basics, and a calendar of club and astronomical events. Please note that the images on the mastheads of each page was acquried and/or processed by an ASLC member.

An information packet (pdf format, 3.8Mb) describing many of the club's activities can be downloaded here.

Dark Skies!

About the Website

Richard Jones created the ASLC-NM domain in 2004 and served as its first webmaster (aka webslave). Rich Richins took over website management in 2006 and gave the site a major make-over in 2008 (based somewhat on the UNM website design at the time). Rich was awarded the Astronomical League Webmaster Award the following year. Steve Barkes joined the webslave 'staff' a few years later and works primarily with maintaining/updating Fred Pilcher's extensive asteroid light curve data set.

The club does not request or receive any compensation for products mentioned on the site. Associated costs are paid solely by membership dues and donations.

Please report bad links or errata be to the webslaves.

Last Update: 29 January, 2023 8:29