Table Mountain Observatory (TMO) is an astronomical observation facility operated by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA ...

(

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

). It is located in

Big Pines, California Big Pines is an unincorporated community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is in the Angeles National Forest, San Gabriel Mountains. Geography The community is located in the Swarthout Valley, which was first settled in 1851 ...

, in

Angeles National Forest The Angeles National Forest (ANF) of the U.S. Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains and Sierra Pelona Mountains, primarily within Los Angeles County in southern California. The ANF manages a majority of the San Gabriel Mountains ...

near Wrightwood, north-northeast of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. TMO is part of JPL's Table Mountain Facility (TMF). The larger site hosts a number of non-astronomical projects. The site was first used by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

in 1924, which conducted atmospheric, solar, and astronomical observations for many years. JPL took over the lease in 1962. The observatory conducts high-precision

astrometric Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. Histor ...

observations to support NASA and international

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to spaceflight, fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth ...

mission navigation, confirmation and recovery of

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU) ...

s such as

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma, and sometimes also a Comet ta ...

s and

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

s that may potentially impact the Earth, and technology development. The main-belt asteroid

84882 Table Mountain 84882 Table Mountain, provisional designation , is a bright background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 1 February 2003, by American astronomer James Whitney Young at the Tabl ...

was named in honor of the observatory.

List of discovered minor planets

More than 260 minor planets were discovered at TMO, often referred to as "Wrightwood" the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

and credited to several astronomers, most notably to James Young, but also to other astronomers such as

Jack B. Child This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 nu ...

Greg Fisch This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 nu ...

A. Grigsby This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 numb ...

D. Mayes This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojan The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan astero ...

, and Mallory Vale. The MPC also directly credits TMO with the discovery of one numbered main-belt asteroid ''(see table)''.

Instruments

Two telescopes are currently operated at TMO: * The Pomona College Telescope is a

Cassegrain reflector The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas, the main characteristic being that the optical path folds back onto itself, relative to th ...

built at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it beca ...

. It first became operation in 1985, and had new mirrors installed in 1996. * A 0.6 m Ritchey-Chrétien reflector built by Astro Mechanics was installed in 1966. It is attached to an off-axis German equatorial mount.

Former instruments

Former instruments at TMO include: * A reflector previously located at Cloudcroft Observatory was acquired in the late 1980s and became operational in the early 1990s. It was removed from the TMO web site before June 2003. * A Ritchey-Chrétien reflector built by RC Optical Systems was attached to an

equatorial mount An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that compensates for Earth's rotation by having one rotational axis, the polar axis, parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescopes and cameras. Th ...

. It was installed in 2003 and removed from the TMO web site before July 2011. It was housed in the dome where the Schmidt camera was previously located. * A Cassegrain reflector was installed at TMO in 1962.

Harvey Mudd College Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolls 902 undergraduate students ...

was the main user of this telescope from the 1970s through at least 1991. * A

Schmidt camera A Schmidt camera, also referred to as the Schmidt telescope, is a catadioptric astrophotographic telescope designed to provide wide fields of view with limited aberrations. The design was invented by Bernhard Schmidt in 1930. Some notable e ...

owned by JPL operated at TMO from 1985 until at least 1991. * A millimeter wavelength radio antenna was located at TMO from 1970 until at least 1985. * A radio interferometer with dishes of and became operational at TMO in 1974. Table Mountain Observatory control room1

Table Mountain Observatory control room1

Honours

The main-belt asteroid

, discovered by James Whitney Young at TMO in 2003, was named in honor of the observatory. Naming citation was published on 28 October 2004 ().

References

External links

*
Table Mountain Observatory
at the