Some science highlights since summer 1996 construction

1997 August: First light with the twin telescopes
1997 Oct: 1500 watt amorphous silicate solar PV system installed
1998 June: First Astronomical League guest observers
1998 July: Sprites II campaign (U of Alaska guests)
1998 Aug: First astronomy class held at observatory
1999 June: support for NASA Cassini probe at Venus
1999 Aug: Absolute gravity measured at summit (USGS)
1999 Sept: 1200 watts additional installed CIS PV arrays
2000 Jan: Helicopter ingress for PV battery maint.
2000 June: First remote-attended internet observing session
& Reached 22nd magnitude in 30 minute exposure
2000 July: Lightning damage to 20% of A-frame solar panels
2000 Aug: New solar pv batteries and battery insulated box
2001: January ingress due to drought conditions
2002: Extreme drought - access by road on May 3rd, a record.
2003: Mars at extrem close approach, 8/26. More normal snow amounts.
2004: AAS guests 5/31. A wet summer - snows in late June! Removal of old telescope pier.
2005: Supporting observations, Deep Impact mission
2006: Decent summer weather - planetary transit monitoring continued.
2007: Intensive SSP4 photometry of J,H for PTI
Additional DU astronomy reports

Update on infrared instruments
Return to main page The view from Mt.Evans
In daylight, we see the alpine tundra of many surrounding 13,000 plus foot hills, and the more distant plains of South Park and Denver and beyond. At night, when the stars are visible, good eyes can easily see 7.5 magnitude stars, except in the directions of towns and cities including Metro Denver, Colorado Springs, Dillon and others where unintelligent upward lighting is blocking the sky view.