Showing posts with label McDonald Observatory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McDonald Observatory. Show all posts

Friday, September 18, 2009

Pictures: Ana Darcy's First Sights

First picture: the McDonald Observatory from the highway below
Second picture:
The old observatory dome, where the offices are
Third picture:
View From the Observatory looking south toward Alpine
Fourth picture: Ladybugs. Why do they do this? No idea....
(Right click to enlarge in another tab and keep your place.)

Also: What Ana saw along the El Paso freeway: 1 2 3

What Matt saw while searching for Ana (DC1)

Meet Ana Darcy!

(See other photos in right column-->)











Thursday, September 17, 2009

Maps (click): El Paso and Mesilla Valley, West Texas, Ft. Davis & Observatory



(If you right click a map to open in its own tab, you won't lose your place in the narrative!)


Ana Darcy Méndez's stories have taken her all over the world, but the map above zeroes in on the area around her home base (at top, just south of Las Cruces and Mesilla, New Mexico, in the dark areas which are enormous groves of pecan trees in the Rio Grande River valley). Distant Cousin: Recirculation takes her to Mata Ortiz, a tiny Mexican town south of Columbus New Mexico (on the border), further down Mexican Highway 2.





The second and third maps above show West Texas venues from Distant Cousin and Distant Cousin: Reincarnation. Ana first came to earth and landed in the mountains to the northwest of Fort Davis, Texas (map #3). The McDonald Observatory is where Ana expected to be greeted by astronomers who would welcome her as the first human to return to the home planet. That did not happen, of course.



The fourth map above shows the highways from Alpine to El Paso, Lac Cruces, and Mesilla., which Ana has driven several times. Note the few towns along this 200+ mile distance: Valentine, Marfa, and Van Horn.


See more maps and photos from the venues in the books down the right column.under the photo of Ana's hair.

Maps of West Texas & Southern New Mexico




The map above (really a satellite photo) shows Las Cruces, New Mexico at the top. (RIght click to another tab for the full size image.) Our extraterrestrial heroine, Ana Darcy, lives among the green pecan groves which follow the Rio Grande just south of Las Cruces with her husband and family. See Distant Cousin for more about her!

Below is a photo of west Texas south of El Paso (seen above). (Right click to another tab to see the entire map.) The white patch on the road leaving Fort Davis (the red "A"), going up (north) diagonally to the left, shows the approximate location of the McDonald Observatory, where Ana first landed on Earth (and was kicked out, being thought crazy). The road south from Fort Davis (diagonally down to the right) leads to Alpine, where Ana hid from the FBI, local police, and Army Special Forces. The road crosses some mountains (the darker areas), to the right of which is the approximate location of the Williams ranch, which appears in Distant Cousin, Distant Cousin: Reincarnation, and Distant Cousin: Regeneration.



See more maps and photos from the stories in the column on the right.

Now, meet Ana Darcy!