An Astronomer’s Journey from Mars to the Mountains
Meet stargazer Greg Crinklaw
When Greg Crinklaw and his wife moved to Cloudcroft nearly three decades ago, they didn’t arrive with a detailed plan.
“We moved here not having a lot of money with a kid on the way,” Crinklaw said. “And we made a life here and we don’t regret it.”
Today, Crinklaw is a familiar face in the mountain village. Over the years he has worked in computer software and astronomy, volunteered in youth programs and helped raise his family in the close-knit community.
“I grew up in Spokane and we were living in San Diego. There’s no seasons, we’d lived there a long time, and we were getting tired of it. We realized we couldn’t raise kids there because we couldn’t afford a house.”
For Crinklaw, the appeal of Cloudcroft was simple. His wife had been through the area before, and it was an ideal location for an observational astronomer due to the dark sky conditions on the mountain, property was affordable, and beyond that, it was a good place to raise kids.
“I saw a picture taken down James Canyon in a magazine called Sky & Telescope, and it was a picture of the snow on the trees across the way from where this guy had this little observatory of his own where he discovered comets,” he said. “I saw that picture and I thought, I want to move there. And I said that to my wife, who was pregnant at the time, and she said sure, let’s go.”
Career in Astronomy and Computer Science
Looking back, Crinklaw says his career didn’t unfold around one defining moment. Instead, it grew from a series of opportunities that built on each other.
“I do all these different things,” he said. “It’s not like there’s one thing that stands out.”
Crinklaw’s astronomical journey began when he was in high school. He learned computer programming, and eventually decided on the pursuit of studying the skies. He pursued his passion at San Diego State University, where he obtained a master’s degree in astronomy, then to the University of Toledo for a master’s in astrophysics.
After returning to San Diego, Crinklaw landed a job working on a camera that was included in NASA’s Mars Observer. He worked on the project for about two years as a computer engineer.
“We built our camera, we went to the cape, we strapped it on top of a rocket. We watched it go up … It went off to Mars, fired its rocket engine to stop and go into orbit, and blew up. So then I didn’t have a job anymore,” Crinklaw said, laughing.
To help make ends meet after the ordeal, Crinklaw worked as an astronomy professor in the San Diego area. But he had something else brewing, something that would expand his career both as an observational astronomer and computer programmer.
“Part of what I do is plan to make observations. What if I wrote software that people could use to plan what can be seen tonight,” he pondered. “And so I wrote software all these years ago, and it’s just grown and grown ever since then.”
It’s at this point in his career that Crinklaw developed and refined Sky Tools, software for amateur astronomers.
“[Taking] images to do astrophotography is really technical and complicated. And so I help [amateur astronomers] plan so that they can get the best experience,” he said. “I sort of made my own subversion of a hobby, I’ve been doing that for 20 years, helping people find comets in their telescopes.”
This approach to life, the spirit of trying new things and seeing where they lead, is something he encourages young people to embrace.
“One of the things I tell kids when they’re teenagers is just do something,” Crinklaw said. “Go out and do something, it’ll turn into something else, and that’ll turn into something else.”
Scouting Career
Beyond his career as an astronomer and computer engineer, much of Crinklaw’s community involvement in Cloudcroft has come through scouting. About 20 years ago, when his children joined Cub Scouts, he began volunteering with the program. Eventually he became scoutmaster of the local troop.
The troop slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Crinklaw helped revive the program and today serves as the troop’s committee chair.
“That just means I’m Grandpa,” he joked. “I show up and say, ‘Back in my day…’”
Over the years he has also seen the program evolve, including the inclusion of girls in scouting.
“At first there were questions about how that would work,” he said. “But when you look at it, there were always sisters there doing the same things the boys were doing. They just weren’t recognized.”
Today, he says, the local troop actually has more girls than boys. Crinklaw believes the purpose of scouting remains the same.
“It’s about character and leadership,” he said. “It makes kids better adults.”
Keeping Light Pollution Down
One of the things that makes Cloudcroft unique, Crinklaw says, is something residents might sometimes take for granted – the night sky.
High in the mountains with less atmosphere, far from major cities, the area still offers relatively dark conditions compared to many parts of the country. Even with the recent closure and imminent demolition of Sunspot Observatory, Crinklaw thinks there are still plenty of reasons for hobbyist astronomers to bring their business to the village.
“There’s a real opportunity here,” he said. “If we had a place where people could bring their motor homes, pull out their telescopes on a cement pad … Then people will come, and they will show up. We just need the place.”
That’s part of why conversations about reducing light pollution have come up in recent years. Communities around the country have adopted lighting rules designed to preserve dark skies by requiring fixtures that direct light downward and limit unnecessary glare. Crinklaw was part of the committee to rewrite Cloudcroft’s ordinance under Mayor Dave Venable over 20 years ago.
However, over the years, Cloudcroft’s light footprint has grown, raising questions as to whether the lighting across the town’s public spaces and businesses comply with the current ordinance.
At the recent February council meeting, Trustee Matt Willett said dark skies ordinance compliance would be a focus of his during his tenure.
“The solution is really simple. You just turn them off at night. In fact, that’s what the ordinance says,” he said. “And the most important thing is glare. We don’t want the light shining in people’s eyes. Nothing to do with astronomy. It’s about being outdoors, reclaiming feeling comfortable when you’re outside.”
Crinklaw believes Cloudcroft could benefit from thinking about that future, of keeping the stars and astronomical objects above visible. Not just from a tourism standpoint, but for the quality of life of residents as well.
“When you step outside here at night and look up,” he said, “that’s something special.”
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