The Manastash Ridge Observatory (MRO) is an astronomical observatory built in 1972 by the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

. It is located in a remote area approximately west of

Ellensburg, Washington Ellensburg is a city in and the county seat of Kittitas County, Washington, United States. It is located just east of the Cascade Range near the junction of Interstate 90 and Interstate 82. The population was 18,666 at the 2020 census. and was ...

, at an altitude of 3930' (1198 m), a longitude of 120.7278 degrees West, and a latitude of +46.9528 degrees, and can be reached by

dirt road A dirt road or track is a type of unpaved road not paved with asphalt, concrete, brick, or stone; made from the native material of the land surface through which it passes, known to highway engineers as subgrade material. Dirt roads are suitable ...

s from Ellensburg or

Selah (; hbo, סֶלָה, selā) is a word used 74 times in the Hebrew Bible. Its etymology and precise meaning are unknown, though various interpretations are given. It is probably either a liturgical-musical mark or an instruction on the reading ...

. The observatory features a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope built by

Boller and Chivens Boller and Chivens was an American manufacturer of high-quality telescopes and spectrographs headquartered in South Pasadena, California. History Founded about 1946 by Harry Berthold Boller (1915-1997) and Clyde Cuthbertson Chivens (1915-2008). ...

. Currently, the observatory utilizes an Andor thermo-electrically cooled CCD camera in conjunction with the primary telescope. Initially used for professional and graduate research, the observatory is now used mostly by undergraduate students for instruction and research. For a brief time there was talk of stopping funding for MRO as the University of Washington Astronomy Department focus on the

Apache Point Observatory The Apache Point Observatory (APO; obs. code: 705) is an astronomical observatory located in the Sacramento Mountains in Sunspot, New Mexico, United States, approximately south of Cloudcroft. The observatory is operated by New Mexico State Un ...

, but funding did continue and MRO is still in use. The Manastash Ridge Radar (MRR) is located in the MRO building. MRR is a bistatic, passive radar controlled by the University of Washington's Radar Remote Sensing Laboratory (RRSL) led by Dr. John Sahr. MRR uses commercial FM radio broadcasts from Seattle to sense ionospheric turbulence, meteors, and airplanes. The receivers are located at the University of Washington and at MRO. In 2015 MRO was granted $59,999 from the University of Washington's Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) in an effort to have the observatory run in a more eco-friendly manner. According to the project's Letter of Intent, the main goals were to reduce water and energy consumption. To conserve water they have installed a

rainwater harvesting Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the collection and storage of rain, rather than allowing it to run off. Rainwater is collected from a roof-like surface and redirected to a tank, cistern, deep pit (well, shaft, or borehole), aquifer, or a reservoir ...

system that can hold of water in its tank and can fully supply the MRO's water usage. To conserve energy they have installed two solar panels which will produce more than the necessary 20,000 kWh per year needed to sustain the observatory.

The Telescope

The MRO 30" is an f/13.5 telescope with achromatic focal reducing optics mounted approximately one inch behind the Cassegrain focus to create an effective focal ratio f/6.7. The focal reducing optics are optimized for the wavelength range of 3650-8520 Å. The field of view (using the Andor iKon-M 934 imaging camera attached to the telescope) is 8 x 8 arcminutes with a plate scale (using the default 2 x 2 binning) of 0.93 "/pixel.

References

External links

University of Washington Astronomy Department

Forecast of observing conditions. {{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science Astronomical observatories in Washington (state) Buildings and structures in Kittitas County, Washington University of Washington 1972 establishments in Washington (state) Buildings and structures completed in 1972

The Telescope

See also

References

External links