Alan Dana wrote in message ...

Now I'm about to take my first ever trip to New Mexico, and as luck would
have it, will be arriving on March 20th under the new moon (I guess this
guarantees it will be cloudy).

I will be in Albuquerque and then Santa Fe for a few days. My meetings
begin on the 21st, so I have a chance to drive out of the city on the 20th,
and again on the 25th. I was wondering if anyone had a recommended
observing location

If you can spare a whole day/night, you can go up to New Mexico Skies
and rent a telescope as big as 30" if you like. Mike and Lynn are top
notch telescope operators with an excellent location 20 minutes east of
CloudCroft.