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The Sabino Canyon Observatory

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.

 

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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