Tenagra Observatory and Tenagra Observatory II are astronomical observatories in Cottage Grove, Oregon and Arizona. The observatories house heavily automated

robotic telescope A robotic telescope is an astronomical telescope and detector system that makes observations without the intervention of a human. In astronomical disciplines, a telescope qualifies as robotic if it makes those observations without being operated ...

s. Circa 2016, the observatory was utilized with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope a member of the

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...

and Tenagra Observatory Supernova Searches (LOTOSS). Beginning in 2018, after a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

grant to owner Michael Schwartz expired, control of the Arizona observatory was turned over to Gianluca Masis Virtual Telescope project.

Instruments

The observatory near Cottage Grove, Oregon was constructed 1998, and had a

Celestron Celestron, LLC is a company that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan. History The predecessor ...

Schmidt-Cassegrain with a SBIG CCD imager, probably upgraded to Apogee Instruments later. The Arizona observatory at

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

, 20 miles from Nogales, began operations in 2000. Tenagra II is a custom-made Ritchey-Chretien telescope manufactured by SciTech Astronomical Research, in operation since 2001. "Pearl" is a f/3.75 corrected Newtonian. There is also a SciTech Ritchey-Chretien, and another 14-inch Celestron. The Oregon site was in use as of 2004 as a backup site, during the

Southwest monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

season.

Observations and public outreach

The robotic telescopes can image 1,000 galaxies in an evening for supernova discovery. Using the Oregon Tenagra I telescope, its maker became "the first amateur to achieve consistent supernova discoveries" by using a robotic telescope "to patrol hundreds of galaxies each night". The Oregon observatory reported 77

Minor Planet Electronic Circular 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 ...

s between 1999 and 2002. The Oregon observatory discovered supernova . Paulo R. Holvorcem (Porto Seguro, Bahia, Brazil) and Michael Schwartz (Patagonia, Arizona) discovered comet in May 2011. Schwartz also independently discovered two comets, P/2013 T2 and C/2014 B1, at Tenagra. Comet is named for the observatory and

Clyde Tombaugh Clyde William Tombaugh (; February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer best known for discovering Pluto, the first object to be identified in what would later be recognized as the Kuiper belt, in 1930. Raised on farms in ...

. Tombaugh initially discovered it in January 1931, but was not recovered until 2012. It was provisionally named Comet P/2012 WX_32 (Tenagra) when recovered by Michael Schwartz and Paulo R. Holvorcem using Tenagra II. The observatory's Tenagra IV instrument, along with Palomar Observatory's Samuel Oschin telescope, was the second to image dwarf planet Sedna, providing

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...

of its discovery and refining its

orbital parameters Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit. There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same o ...

. In 2018, Pearl imaged the Tesla Roadster in space, when it had a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of 15.5, comparable to

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

's moon

Charon In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon ( ; ) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and ...

. In 2018, imagery from the Arizona observatory was livestreamed by Gianluca Masi during the close approach to Earth as a Virtual Telescope project outreach event. Images of the Tiangong-1 space station in its decaying orbit were livestreamed in 2018, a few days before reentry.

Awards

2013 Edgar Wilson Award

References

Sources

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External links

*{{webarchive, title= Tenagra Observatories homepage, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017060240/http://www.tenagraobservatories.com:80/, date=October 17, 2018 Astronomical observatories in Arizona Buildings and structures in Lane County, Oregon Buildings and structures in Santa Cruz County, Arizona