About the Property

This house and property is an astronomer's dream –  a 3100 sq. ft. mountaintop house on 23 acres with a 360 degree view of high prairie ringed by mountains and capped with a dark sky.  The property is located near Silver City, New Mexico at 6200 ft. elevation, making it 15 degrees cooler in the summer than Tucson, which is 3 hrs. away. It is located just north of the Granite Gap astronomy community.

Here, you will find some of the darkest skies in the U.S., where the Milky Way is so bright, it literally casts your shadow.  The Zodiacal Light can be seen nearly to the zenith.  If you have never seen the Zodiacal Light, then welcome to dark skies!

Silver City is the home of Western New Mexico University, and has dozens of art galleries.  It borders on the Gila Wilderness, which was designated the world's first wilderness area on June 3, 1924.  With over 3,300,000 acres, the Gila Wilderness/Nat’l Forest contains more publicly owned land than any other national forest outside of Alaska. 

At 6200 ft. elevation, which keeps it comfortable in summer (far cooler in the summer than Tucson, and much warmer than Santa Fe in the winter), Silver City has mild winters with only a few inches of snow.  The property is located about 15 miles south of Silver City, so that the richest part of the Milky Way (to the south) can be seen with not a single source of light pollution all the way to Mexico.  This is what dark skies is all about!

The house is a white stucco, single story southwestern contemporary design.  Not only is there a 360 degree view of high prairie and surrounding mountains, but also a 180 degree view from the rear of the home which encompasses over 1000 sq. miles with not a single house in sight.  A roll-off roof observatory with a view of a very dark sky all the way to the southern horizon is located close to the house.  There are also several cliffs on the property which provide rock climbing in the form of scrambling and bouldering.

Dark skies for astronomy, a mild climate, incredibly scenic views, and proximity to vast amounts of public recreational land provide a combination that is unequalled anywhere in the U.S., surpassing any properties available in Santa Fe or Tucson, even at much higher prices.