The Sabino Canyon Observatory |
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Total Eclipse of the Moon, January 20, 2000, by James McGaha.
Five second exposure on Ektachrome 100 film through
a C-5
telescope mounted on the then 12-inch LX-200 telescope at the Sabino Canyon Observatory.
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The Sabino Canyon Observatory viewed from the west.
The observatory consists of a 14 foot x 14 foot roll-off
building containing a Meade LX 200 14-inch telescope with a Finger Lakes Instrumentation Dream Machine CCD Camera.
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Observatory Roof Closed |
Observatory Roof Closed |
Observatory Roof Open |
Telescope and CCD Camera |
The Sabino Canyon Observatory is owned by James McGaha, a
retired Air Force Major and former C- 130 pilot. He has more
than 45 years as an experienced amateur astronomer and has also
earned a Masters Degree in Astronomy from the University of
Arizona. The Sabino Canyon Observatory was built in 1984 and
currently houses a 14-inch Meade LX 200 telescope. Imaging is performed
with a Finger Lakes Instrumentation Dream Machine CCD camera
that has a SITe 1024 x 1024 twenty-four micron high quantum
efficiency CCD chip.
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Finger Lakes Dream Machine CCD |
The observatory is located near Sabino Canyon National Monument
on the northeast side of Tucson, Arizona. It is at an altitude
of 2600 feet and has clear dark skies, even though it is near a
large city. On dark nights, the limiting visual magnitude
overhead is 6.0. The observatory is used for CCD imaging,
astrometry, photometry, and supernova searches.
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