Images and Thoughts about Astronomy
and Archaeoastronomy

Choose a category from our itinerary here, and click on any image below for a full-size image.
 
Acoma/El Malpais | El Morro/Chaco Arrival | Pueblo Bonito (Chaco) | Chaco Astronomy
Supernova Pictograph/Peņasco Blanco | Miscellaneous Images | Mesa Verde | Hovenweep

Walking through Chaco Canyon, by Dereck Rivera
 
Viewing the Supernova Pictograph, by Paul Kantzaridis
 
Peņasco Blanco, by Rachel Harmony
 
I Am a Chacoan..., by Anonymous

	Here's the crew walking down the long trail towards nothing. Actually, we were on a long journey through Chaco Canyon toward the Supernova pictograph.
In the center or this picture is the old access road to the park, but it was blocked off because of looters.
	Mr. Becker is showing us one of the many petroglyphs on the canyon wall. This swirly petroglyph symbolizes the sun.
Rosa is pointing to writing dating back to A.D. 1910. The writing says, "Jean, I cannot get no feed. I cannot wait for you."
	Up on the wall is an ancient pictograph that may represent the supernova that occurred in A.D. 1054. One of the Chacoans saw this, so he decided to record the picture using these objects.
Below the pictograph is a spiral-shaped design that may represent a comet and its dust tail. The comet tail looks like flames coming from the right side of the concentric circles. This may be Halley's Comet, which appeared in 1066.
	When we reached the top of the trail, we spotted the Peņasco Blanco ruins. No one really knows why people would have picked this high, windy spot for a pueblo. The site has not been excavated very much, only stablized.
This scene is the result of an 8-mile hike in 85-degree weather. Left to Right--Rosa Salter, Gary A. Becker (front), Rachel Harmony (back), Mark Balanda, Lisandra Younes, Ronya Younes, and Dereck Rivera (yellow). Far Back on rails are Paul Kantzaridis (left) and Brandon Velivis. On the ground and just in front is Kiva Boy, Sam Hopkins.