Created Mon Apr 21 17:27:11 2025
Click here for a G__gle Map showing all observatory codes
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The first half of each line (MPC code, lon, lat) links to a G__gle™ map for that observatory; the rest of the line links to a Bing® map.
| 000 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 |
| 900 | A00 | B00 | C00 | D00 | E00 | F00 | G00 | H00 |
| I00 | J00 | K00 | L00 | M00 | N00 | O00 | P00 | Q00 |
| R00 | S00 | T00 | U00 | V00 | W00 | X00 | Y00 | Z00 |
Code Longitude Latitude Altitude rho_cos rho_sin_phi region
Roving observer file. This contains "MPC codes" for observers who
don't have MPC codes, mostly satellite observers. Also, MPC provides
wrong or imprecise coordinates for many obscodes, and/or lumps many
telescopes spread out over a mountaintop under one obscode. This file
provides corrected locations in such cases.
Locations can be in the MPC standard longitude/rho_cos_phi/rho_sin_phi
triplet format, or as lon/lat/altitude. So far, MPC has used codes
with starting characters 0-9 or A-Z, followed by two digits. So I've
used three letter codes, often mixed-case, ideally giving a hint as
to the observatory. One is not limited to alphanumerics; note the use
of '2.2' and '0.6' for the Maunakea 2.2-meter and 0.6-meter scopes.
Characters from ASCII 33 = '!' to 126='~' can be used, for 94^3=830584
possible observatory codes. That should last for a while.
Altitudes marked with '?' are usually just copied from the altitude
given for a nearby telescope, and may not be completely accurate.
The '!' in column 5 indicates that the data depart from the usual MPC
format. The observatory name starts in column 48, rather than column
31, to allow more precision. It also gives room to specify a non-Earth
based observer (see examples below for planets, MSL, LCROSS and Chang'e
5-T1 booster impact points, Lagrange points, etc.) It allows for
four-character MPC codes. Punched-card format astrometry won't support
those, but ADES will, and some of my software allows one to request
(for example) ephemerides from a four-character "MPC code". I may
support such codes by allowing 81-column astrometry, though that would
force us to abandon punched cards.
Longitudes and latitudes are either in decimal degree or deg/min/sec
form. See, e.g., (273) EISCAT for an example of the latter. East and
North are positive. For West 82.3 degrees, you could use either -82.3
or 277.7 (implied east), or 2774200. or -821800.
Altitudes are in meters above the (WGS84) ellipsoid. The difference
between ellipsoidal altitudes and above sea level altitudes can be up
to about 100 meters. Gareth Williams tells me that MPC has been careful
about asking people which flavor of altitude they're using. If they
give an ASL elevation, he corrects it to an ellipsoidal one using the
EGM96 model. Google Earth altitudes are ASL and therefore always
corrected; GPS positions have to be flagged so that MPC can know
whether to correct them.
To get the correction ("geoid height") between ellipsoidal and
geodetic (sea level) altitudes, use this :
http://geographiclib.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/GeoidEval
Any line in this file starting with a space is assumed to be a
comment. Negative longitudes (and those between 180 and 360) are in
the Western Hemisphere.
NOTE that rather than add codes here, one can use code (247), the
"roving observer", as described at
https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/RovingObs.html
_Or_, one can use code (XXX), as described at
https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/info/Astrometry.html#HowObsCode
For this last, one uses code XXX, and inserts a line at the top of the
observations such as
COM Long. 239 18 45 E, Lat. 33 54 11 N, Alt. 100m, Google Earth
Note that MPC is rather strict about the above format (east longitudes
only, degrees/minutes/seconds). Find_Orb is more flexible -- you can
use any "code", meaning you can even move existing codes, and you can
use decimal degrees and West longitudes if you wish -- but don't expect
MPC to understand what you've done.
Also note that some information about codes can be gathered via URLs
of the form
https://cgi.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/cgipy/obscode?obscode=xxx
where xxx=code in question. This can (sometimes) get you an 'owner',
which may help in tracking down information about a particular site.
My thanks to Peter Birtwhistle for pointing this out to me.
Some artificial satellite observers :
GRR 18.512900 -33.940580 10.000 0.8304854 -0.5551756 South Africa Greg Roberts, South Africa
MMc 262.133900 +30.131600 918.000 0.8657296 +0.4991206 US/Texas Mike McCants
RPa 289.000000 +43.666600 200.000 0.7245495 +0.6869573 US/New Hampsh Ralph Pass
ScT 236.331500 +49.434800 40.000 0.6515769 +0.7560475 Canada/BritCo Roberts Creek 1 (Scott Tilley)
ATA 238.530500 +40.817800 986.000 0.7579937 +0.6503115 US/California Allen Telescope Array
EKa 10.279056 +54.353330 60.000 0.5840830 +0.8089840 Germany Edgar Kaiser
Brb 5.896093 +43.155552 240.000 0.7306719 +0.6804946 France Barbeau
When 2008 TC3 impacted the earth on 7 Oct 2008, I added the impact point
as an "observatory" so I could get impact-centered ephemerides easily.
Similarly for the 2014 AA estimated impact coordinates, 100 km above
the Atlantic Ocean, and various other impact points.
Sud 33.119520 +20.597770 10.000 0.9364627 +0.3495955 Sudan impact site
Atl 316.800000 +12.500000 00000.000 0.9917560 +0.2184178 2014 AA impact location
C5T 233.510490 +5.193900 10.000 0.9958998 +0.0905271 Chang'e 5-T1 stage impact point
LCO 311.758340 -84.561390 10.000 0.0947797 -0.9955041 LCROSS impact site
WT1 80.900400 +5.548800 0.000 0.9953454 +0.0960492 WT1190F nominal impact point
Shortly after the Chelyabinsk meteor impacted, I computed a (_very) rough
orbit based on the object coming in ten km above Chelyabinsk at 17.3 km/s
from azimuth 97, alt +18. The following 'Che' code helped :
Che 61.420000 +55.152800 10000.000 0.5735782 +0.8183155 Chelyabinsk meteor
Bowdoinham, Maine, my home town in the northeastern United States,
added so I could get topocentric ephemerides readily :
Bow 290.100000 +44.010000 100.000 0.7203948 +0.6912614 US/Maine Bowdoinham
The centers of the Sun, moon, and planets are treated as 'rovers'.
(You'll see below Spirit, Opportunity, and various other spacecraft
set up as 'rovers' on Mars.) The solar system barycenter can be
specified as either (Bar) or (SSB).
Bar 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 SS Barycenter
SSB 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 SS Barycenter
Sun 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun
Mer 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Mercury
Ven 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Venus
Mar 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Mars
Jup 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Jupiter
Sat 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Saturn
Ura 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Uranus
Nep 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Neptune
Plu 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Pluto
Lun 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Luna
Lagrange points are approximate (but good approximation) fictions.
L1, L2, and L3 are assumed to lie in straight lines with both bodies
at fractions based on the relative masses of the objects. L4 and L5
are at equilateral triangle points. Perturbations are ignored. I
don't expect observations to be made from these points; this is
really so you can compute ephemerides from these locations. For
each point, the indices for the primary and secondary object are
given (moon=10); then fraction of distance from primary to secondary,
and then fraction "along orbit" (non-zero for L4 and L5, where the
value is +/- sqrt(.75) to make the equilateral triangle.) For
example, EM1 is 84.906% of the way from the earth to the moon. See
'lagrange.c' in the 'junk' repository for mathematical details and
code to generate these values for other systems.
1 SE1 0.000000 +3.000000 0.990 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Earth L1
2 SE2 0.000000 +3.000000 1.010 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Earth L2
3 SE3 0.000000 +3.000000 -1.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Earth L3
4 SE4 0.000000 +3.000000 0.500 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Earth L4
5 SE5 0.000000 +3.000000 0.500 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Earth L5
6 EM1 3.000000 +10.000000 0.849 -nan -nan Earth-Moon L1
7 EM2 3.000000 +10.000000 1.168 -nan -nan Earth-Moon L2
8 EM3 3.000000 +10.000000 -0.993 -nan -nan Earth-Moon L3
9 EM4 3.000000 +10.000000 0.500 -nan -nan Earth-Moon L4
0 EM5 3.000000 +10.000000 0.500 -nan -nan Earth-Moon L5
1 SJ1 0.000000 +5.000000 0.933 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Jupiter L1
2 SJ2 0.000000 +5.000000 1.070 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Jupiter L2
3 SJ3 0.000000 +5.000000 -0.999 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Jupiter L3
4 SJ4 0.000000 +5.000000 0.500 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Jupiter L4
5 SJ5 0.000000 +5.000000 0.500 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Sun-Jupiter L5
Note that ephems generated from these spacecraft require auxiliary
files saying where the spacecraft were at a given time. I don't
distribute those files by default, because (a) some of them are
large and (b) you can only go just so far into the future before
they may not be entirely accurate. Should you want ephems for
objects as seen from these spacecraft, or any other spacecraft
listed on JPL's Horizons system, contact me. (I may set this up
so that Find_Orb just looks for the relevant ephems on Horizons,
as you need them.)
Luc 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Lucy
SoO 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Solar Orbiter
PSP 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Parker Space Probe
Cas 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Cassini
MEx 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Mars Express
Goe 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 GOES-19
Met 7.212778 +51.520802 54.000 0.6235160 +0.7792001 Germany Bernd Brinkmann meteor site
JSt 8.320000 +52.020000 300.000 0.6166991 +0.7846193 Germany Joerg Strunk meteor site
SBo 8.327722 +47.525778 450.000 0.6765391 +0.7340333 Switzerland Sandro Boschetti
TAROT position from http://tarot.obs-hp.fr/tarot/infos/. See
(TaS) below, in the La Silla section.
Tar 6.923890 +43.752220 1270.000 0.7236401 +0.6881515 France TAROT Calern Observatory
There are at least eleven telescopes on Maunakea. Until 2022 Oct 7,
all (with a few exceptions) were lumped as (568). Some are not very
close to the position specified for (568). See
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1106.5835 for an example where the difference
matters -- admittedly unusual, involving a close-in artificial object;
there have been a few NEOs where it also mattered. The following list
is from: http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/IRrefdata/telescope_ref_data.php,
and/or http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko/coordinates.shtml (same data).
I had doubts about these lat/lon/alts, derived from an aerial survey
and in NAD83 datum, with altitudes in feet (data given in non-metric
units always makes me worry) and given to a meaningless precision of
about 0.3 millimeters -- those sorts of mistakes usually mean bogus data
-- but checks with people who have actually been on Maunakea with GPS
units and by Dave Tholen (see below) have assuaged those worries.
Lat/lon/alts in this file are supposed to be on the WGS84 ellipsoid.
I just took the NAD83 lat/longs and ignored the difference (about two
meters). I increased altitudes by 26 meters, the approximate geoid
height given by
https://geographiclib.sourceforge.io/cgi-bin/GeoidEval?input=19.82528+-155.46887&option=Submit
to convert heights above sea level (or, equivalently, above the geoid)
to heights above the WGS84 ellipsoid.
No altitudes were given for JCMT and CSO. 4190 meters (increased by
26 meters) seemed at least roughly in the ballpark of the altitudes for
the other telescopes.
Note also that the MPC position for (568) corresponds to longitude
-155.4722, lat 19.8262, 4202 meters. After allowing for roundoff
(only five digits on parallaxes!), this looks like the correct
position for IRTF.
Dave Tholen has gotten a precise measurement for the 2.2-m scope
by imaging navigation satellites. The resulting position was 1.3133e-5
degrees (about 1.46 meters) north, 2.6364e-5 degrees (about 2.76 meters)
west, and 4.975 meters higher than the aerial survey position. We think
the aerial survey is internally consistent, so I've added the same
offset to the other Maunakea scopes in that survey.
Note that (2.2), (CFH), and (Sub) now have official MPC codes (T12),
(T14), and (T09). I've retained the three older codes for historical
compatibility, but you should now use the officially blessed codes.
longitude latitude height
DDD.ddddddddd DD.ddddddddd (m)
0.6 204.529011 +19.821627 4217.302 0.9417372 +0.3371769 US/Hawaii Univ of Hawaii 0.6-m, Maunakea
2.2 204.530540 +19.823004 4244.530 0.9417331 +0.3372009 US/Hawaii University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope, Maunakea
CFH 204.531098 +19.825265 4235.081 0.9417184 +0.3372373 US/Hawaii Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Maunakea
T13 204.527975 +19.826231 4199.042 0.9417074 +0.3372512 US/Hawaii NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, Maunakea
T11 204.529647 +19.822445 4229.473 0.9417341 +0.3371909 US/Hawaii United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, Maunakea
JCM 204.522973 +19.822821 4220.975 0.9417307 +0.3371966 US/Hawaii James Clerke Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)
CSO 204.524477 +19.822451 4220.975 0.9417329 +0.3371906 US/Hawaii Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO)
T16 204.525255 +19.825960 4190.556 0.9417077 +0.3372463 US/Hawaii W. M. Keck Observatory, Keck 1, Maunakea
T17 204.525740 +19.826574 4190.556 0.9417041 +0.3372563 US/Hawaii W. M. Keck Observatory, Keck 2, Maunakea
Sub 204.523955 +19.825517 4193.976 0.9417108 +0.3372392 US/Hawaii Subaru Telescope, Maunakea
T15 204.530927 +19.823815 4244.414 0.9417283 +0.3372141 US/Hawaii Gemini North Observatory, Maunakea
From http://cso.caltech.edu/wiki/cso/telescope/telescope : a position
about 400 meters northwest of the above aerial survey position, and
dozens of meters lower in altitude! (Again with 26 meters added on
the assumption that the altitude given at the page is ASL, not ellipsoidal.)
Note that MPC has added this as code (T10), almost between (Cso) and (CSO),
slightly closer to the former, but at altitude 4111 meters, well below
every other telescope on the mountain.
Cso 204.521632 +19.825472 4165.000 0.9417068 +0.3372370 US/Hawaii Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO)
Following position from Geoff Bowers :
MKV 204.544488 +19.801388 3763.061 0.9417893 +0.3368221 US/Hawaii Maunakea VLBA
The following five (official) MPC sites have corrected positions,
copy/pasted from the above.
266 204.523955 +19.825517 4193.976 0.9417108 +0.3372392 US/Hawaii New Horizons KBO Search-Subaru
267 204.531098 +19.825265 4235.081 0.9417184 +0.3372373 US/Hawaii New Horizons KBO Search-CFHT
T09 204.523955 +19.825517 4193.976 0.9417108 +0.3372392 US/Hawaii Subaru Telescope, Maunakea
T12 204.530540 +19.823004 4244.530 0.9417331 +0.3372009 US/Hawaii University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope, Maunakea
T14 204.531098 +19.825265 4235.081 0.9417184 +0.3372373 US/Hawaii Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Maunakea
Ce1 357.433975 +37.982840 1532.000 0.7893856 +0.6122298 Spain Centu1 (J75 scope)
At one time, it looked as if there might be some Dawn-based astrometry,
with coordinates relative to Ceres.
Daw 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Dawn spacecraft
I found some observations of Phobos transiting the Sun as seen from
Spirit and Opportunity, and wanted to compute ephems from the rovers.
Updated 2020 Mar 12 using data from the Mars24 clock program,
https://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/ . Note that it gives remarks
about significant disagreements in positions between sources. East
longitudes are positive, as on Earth. Positions given with altitudes
are from JPL _Horizons_ (entered 2023 Nov 26).
Spi 175.472900 -14.569200 -2647.500 0.9674497 -0.2484929 Spirit
Opp 354.642710 -2.255483 -2104.200 0.9986153 -0.0388695 Opportunity
MSL 137.441700 -4.589500 -4501.000 0.9955100 -0.0789740 MSL (Curiosity)
InS 135.623447 +4.502384 -2613.400 0.9961830 +0.0775216 Mars InSight
Pho 234.248000 +68.219000 -4100.000 0.3725041 +0.9212682 Phoenix lander, Mars
Pat 326.745703 +19.311531 -4190.700 0.9431762 +0.3266246 Mars Pathfinder
Vk1 312.048630 +22.509314 -3941.700 0.9235407 +0.3782217 Viking 1
Vk2 134.280365 +48.006141 -3365.800 0.6705673 +0.7361492 Viking 2
Be2 90.430000 +11.530000 0.000 0.9800500 +0.1975812 Beagle 2
ExM 353.790000 -2.070000 0.000 0.9993551 -0.0356968 ExoMars Schiaparelli
Per 77.450900 +18.444600 -2567.000 0.9484708 +0.3126187 Perseverance, Mars
Exf 335.450000 +18.200000 0.000 0.9505164 +0.3088458 ExoMars (future)
MPL 195.300000 -76.100000 0.000 0.2415676 -0.9646723 Mars Polar Lander
Ma6 19.420000 -23.900000 0.000 0.9151359 -0.4007725 Mars 6 site
Ma3 202.000000 -45.000000 0.000 0.7091909 -0.7008668 Mars 3 site
Ma2 47.000000 -45.000000 0.000 0.7091909 -0.7008668 Mars 2 site
Zhu 109.925000 +25.066000 -4099.400 0.9056827 +0.4186196 Zhurong landing site
In some cases, viewpoints from the Moon may be useful.
Ch6 206.014800 -41.638500 0.000 0.7473518 -0.6644285 Chang'e 6 lander
Ch5 308.083900 +43.057600 0.000 0.7306677 +0.6827333 Chang'e 5 lander
Ch4 177.589000 -45.457000 0.000 0.7014444 -0.7127242 Chang'e 4 lander
Ch3 340.488400 +44.121400 0.000 0.7178663 +0.6961810 Chang'e 3 lander
11a 23.473070 +0.673450 -1927.600 0.9988215 +0.0117406 Apollo 11 LRRR
LHD 62.212900 +12.714200 -3670.000 0.9734195 +0.2196231 Luna-24 landing site
Su7 348.487300 -40.981200 81.000 0.7549600 -0.6558419 Surveyor 7 landing site
Cd3 32.319000 -69.373000 492.000 0.3523825 -0.9361587 Chandrayaan-3 Vikram site
LNA 314.103473 -22.010970 1000.000 0.9276937 -0.3725090 Brazil LNA (Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica)
There has been one radar observation, of (367943) Duende (2012 DA14),
made from the following station. It's at E 19 13' 33.1", N 69 35' 11.3",
altitude 89.16 meters, in Norway. The formatting should be obvious :
273 19.225861 +69.586472 89.160 0.3498282 +0.9336878 Norway EISCAT Tromso UHF (32-m)
Jah 8.351507 +54.652323 10.000 0.5798301 +0.8120076 Germany Jost Jahn's home observatory
Coordinates for DSN stations, added from
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/ftp/eph/planets/stations/dsn.itrf93/dsn.itrf93_cartesian_19oct2020.txt
and converted from Cartesian coordinates to lat/lon/alt.
d12 243.194511 +35.299937 962.155 0.8171751 +0.5747181 US/California DSS 12 Goldstone Echo 34-meter
d13 243.205541 +35.247164 1070.444 0.8177191 +0.5739783 US/California DSS 13 Goldstone Venus 34-meter
d14 243.110462 +35.425901 1001.321 0.8159118 +0.5765088 US/California DSS 14 Goldstone 70-meter
d15 243.112805 +35.421853 973.196 0.8159490 +0.5764488 US/California DSS 15 Goldstone 34-meter
d16 243.126350 +35.341539 943.978 0.8167543 +0.5753070 US/California DSS 16 Goldstone 26-meter
d17 243.126495 +35.342177 936.916 0.8167470 +0.5753154 US/California DSS 17 Goldstone 9-meter
d24 243.125206 +35.339893 951.512 0.8167718 +0.5752843 US/California DSS 24 Goldstone 34-meter
d25 243.124637 +35.337612 959.634 0.8167958 +0.5752527 US/California DSS 25 Goldstone 34-meter
d26 243.126984 +35.335689 968.693 0.8168163 +0.5752262 US/California DSS 26 Goldstone 34-meter
d27 243.223350 +35.238272 1052.469 0.8178061 +0.5738504 US/California DSS 27 Goldstone 34-meter
d28 243.221109 +35.238272 1064.648 0.8178077 +0.5738515 US/California DSS 28 Goldstone 34-meter
d34 148.981964 -35.398479 692.020 0.8161487 -0.5760919 Australia/ACT DSS 34 Canberra 34-meter
d35 148.981456 -35.395796 694.889 0.8161761 -0.5760541 Australia/ACT DSS 35 Canberra 34-meter
d36 148.978544 -35.395102 685.505 0.8161819 -0.5760434 Australia/ACT DSS 36 Canberra 34-meter
d42 148.981267 -35.400675 674.615 0.8161243 -0.5761214 Australia/ACT DSS 42 Canberra 34-meter
d43 148.981267 -35.402424 688.797 0.8161085 -0.5761475 Australia/ACT DSS 43 Tidbinbilla 70-meter
d45 148.977686 -35.398458 674.333 0.8161466 -0.5760900 Australia/ACT DSS 45 Canberra 34-meter
d46 148.983082 -35.405011 676.812 0.8160809 -0.5761831 Australia/ACT DSS 46 Canberra 26-meter
d49 148.263516 -32.998399 414.815 0.8395742 -0.5415430 Australia/NSW DSS 49 Parkes
d54 355.745903 +40.425622 837.052 0.7624220 +0.6451129 Spain DSS 54 Madrid 34-meter
d56 355.747939 +40.425965 835.737 0.7624180 +0.6451173 Spain DSS 56 Madrid 34-meter
d55 355.747367 +40.424296 819.061 0.7624349 +0.6450935 Spain DSS 55 Madrid 34-meter
d61 355.750978 +40.428739 840.426 0.7623872 +0.6451546 Spain DSS 61 Robledo 34-meter
d63 355.751991 +40.431210 864.746 0.7623623 +0.6451898 Spain DSS 63 Robledo 70-meter
d65 355.749301 +40.427206 833.840 0.7624038 +0.6451336 Spain DSS 65 Madrid 34-meter
From the same file : these three radiotelescopes were moved or raised,
and the previous positions are given below.
d1b 243.194511 +35.299937 959.107 0.8171747 +0.5747178 US/California DSS 12 Goldstone Echo 26-meter (before Oct 1978)
d6a 355.750978 +40.428739 837.378 0.7623869 +0.6451543 Spain DSS 61 Robledo 26-meter (before August 1979)
d6e 355.748582 +40.427185 833.816 0.7624040 +0.6451333 Spain DSS 65 Madrid 34-meter (before March 2005)
Coordinates for these four DSN Stations were given in
ftp://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/eph/planets/stations/dsn.itrf93/dsn.itrf93_geodetic_19sep2016.txt
but apparently dropped in the above 2020 version. Similar
degree/minute/second formatting as with (273) EISCAT above.
longitude latitude height
DDDmmss.sssss DDmmss.sssss (m)
d23 243.127137 +35.339550 945.351 0.8167745 +0.5752789 US/California DSS 23 Goldstone 11-meter
d33 148.983092 -35.400485 684.100 0.8161275 -0.5761196 Australia/ACT DSS 33 Canberra 11-meter
d53 355.750348 +40.427357 826.792 0.7624012 +0.6451349 Spain DSS 53 Madrid 11-meter
d66 355.748582 +40.429975 849.874 0.7623744 +0.6451719 Spain DSS 66 Madrid 26-meter
The coordinates supplied for these stations by the MPC are
given to 10^-6 Earth radius (in latitude/altitude), which
is about six meters. At least one radar observation is
given with a sigma of 0.05 microseconds. That's a round-trip
time; in 25 nanoseconds, light travels about 7.5 meters. So
we ought to replace the MPC parallax data with the following
lat/lon/alts. The precision in lat/lon is about 0.3 mm,
with room for two more digits (3-micron precision). Go and
try making _that_ insufficient precision, radar guys!
252 243.205541 +35.247164 1070.445 0.8177191 +0.5739783 US/California Goldstone DSS 13, Fort Irwin
253 243.110462 +35.425901 1001.391 0.8159118 +0.5765088 US/California Goldstone DSS 14, Fort Irwin
257 243.124637 +35.337612 959.634 0.8167958 +0.5752527 US/California Goldstone DSS 25, Fort Irwin
Coordinates for Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachon telescopes, from
https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.1616 , Table 6. Note that some positions
given here don't match those given by MPC's ObsCodes.html. In
particular, the location for (I33) given by MPC is about half a
kilometer west of reality (compared to the above reference, and the
map and lat/lon given at https://noirlab.edu/science/images/soar-map,
and inspection on G__gle Maps). I am reasonably sure that (I02) 2MASS,
and five LCO telescopes are among those listed below, but matching
up the telescopes listed below to their MPC codes is difficult;
the area is a packed array of domes, and the MPC coordinates are
not up to the job of puzzling out which scope is which. Also,
the altitude listed for LSST is ~15m below the planned altitude
of the pier floor, which is in turn somewhere below the point where
the optical axis crosses the altitude axis (the point we really
want when we say "where the telescope is"). So my bet is that
most of these altitudes are at least a few meters lower than they
really should be.
W84 289.193475 -30.169661 2241.400 0.8655767 -0.4997970 Chile Blanco 4-m
S1.5 289.193211 -30.169283 2241.900 0.8655800 -0.4997914 Chile SMARTS 1.5-m
S1.0 289.193936 -30.168867 2240.500 0.8655835 -0.4997850 Chile SMARTS 1.0-m
S0.9 289.193372 -30.168861 2241.400 0.8655837 -0.4997850 Chile SMARTS 0.9-m
C0.6 289.193714 -30.169056 2240.900 0.8655819 -0.4997879 Chile Curtis Schmidt 0.6-m
UCAC 289.193661 -30.168597 2241.200 0.8655859 -0.4997810 Chile Former UCAC
CHAS 289.193986 -30.168603 2240.500 0.8655858 -0.4997810 Chile Former CHASE
RASI 289.193025 -30.168897 2238.000 0.8655829 -0.4997853 Chile RASICAM
WHAM 289.196431 -30.168311 2188.000 0.8655812 -0.4997725 Chile WHAM
W93 289.196003 -30.167178 2182.000 0.8655903 -0.4997550 Chile Korea Microlensing Telescope Network-CTIO
W85 289.195211 -30.167383 2198.000 0.8655907 -0.4997594 Chile Cerro Tololo-LCO A
W86 289.195339 -30.167331 2198.000 0.8655912 -0.4997586 Chile Cerro Tololo-LCO B
W87 289.195319 -30.167447 2198.000 0.8655901 -0.4997603 Chile Cerro Tololo-LCO C
S1.3 289.195022 -30.167447 2200.000 0.8655904 -0.4997605 Chile SMARTS 1.3-m
PRO1 289.194747 -30.167644 2207.000 0.8655896 -0.4997640 Chile PROMPT #1
PRO2 289.194567 -30.167636 2207.000 0.8655897 -0.4997639 Chile PROMPT #2
PRO3 289.194764 -30.167547 2207.000 0.8655905 -0.4997625 Chile PROMPT #3
PRO4 289.194633 -30.167656 2207.000 0.8655895 -0.4997642 Chile PROMPT #4
PRO5 289.194678 -30.167544 2207.000 0.8655905 -0.4997625 Chile PROMPT #5
PRO6 289.194733 -30.167728 2207.000 0.8655889 -0.4997652 Chile PROMPT #6
PRO7 289.194622 -30.167869 2208.000 0.8655878 -0.4997674 Chile PROMPT #7
GONG 289.194489 -30.167756 2209.000 0.8655889 -0.4997658 Chile GONG
SSIA 289.194567 -30.168133 2212.000 0.8655860 -0.4997717 Chile SSI Airglow
T80S 289.194311 -30.167864 2212.000 0.8655884 -0.4997677 Chile T80-South (site)
SARA 289.200797 -30.172144 2151.000 0.8655427 -0.4998272 Chile SARA South 0.6-m
I11 289.263317 -30.240742 2748.000 0.8650235 -0.5009051 Chile Gemini South 8.2-m
I33 289.266358 -30.237892 2738.000 0.8650471 -0.5008615 Chile SOAR 4.1-m
Note that LSST = Rubin now has obscode (X05), same lat/lon
(almost), but MPC puts the observatory 37m higher. As explained
above, MPC is probably correct here.
LSST 289.250583 -30.244633 2647.000 0.8649758 -0.5009556 Chile LSST 8.4-m (site)
LSA 289.252278 -30.244797 2647.000 0.8649743 -0.5009580 Chile LSST Aux. 1.4-m (site)
ALO 289.261806 -30.251769 2552.000 0.8649004 -0.5010552 Chile Andes LIDAR Obs. (ALO)
Wrr 149.193000 -31.276300 552.000 0.8555197 -0.5162009 Australia/NSW Warrumbungle Observatory
Dub 148.585250 -31.293580 300.000 0.8553300 -0.5164371 Australia/NSW Dubbo Observatory
https://www.eso.org/public/usa/teles-instr/lasilla/ provides a map of
telescopes at La Silla, enabling me to identify the following scopes
and measure lat/lon/alts on G__gle Earth. MPC lumps these at (809)
and (262), which appear to be for NTT, and (I40) TRAPPIST. I've
added a 34 metre geoid height to the Google values.
Mike Kretlow points out that (262) probably corresponds to the 1-m
ESO Schmidt. I'm not moving (262) quite yet, but that does look
as if it would be the right thing to do.
(gpo) observed from 1968 June 6 until it was decommissioned in 1996
and replaced by the 1-m MarLy telescope (now also decommissioned in
2009), so (gpo) and (Ma1) have identical coordinates. The GPO is
now at the Observatoire Haut-Provence in France (see (GPO) below).
I40 289.260609 -29.254609 2349.000 0.8734763 -0.4859884 Chile La Silla--TRAPPIST
Da5 289.260413 -29.254999 2354.000 0.8734737 -0.4859947 Chile Danish 50-cm, La Silla
ES5 289.260627 -29.255072 2356.000 0.8734733 -0.4859959 Chile ESO 0.5-m, La Silla
Boc 289.260356 -29.255257 2355.000 0.8734716 -0.4859987 Chile Bochum 0.61-m, La Silla
Du9 289.260613 -29.255496 2360.000 0.8734703 -0.4860027 Chile Dutch 0.9-m, La Silla
ELS 289.261075 -29.255892 2369.000 0.8734681 -0.4860094 Chile ESO 1.52-m, La Silla
ES1 289.261623 -29.256736 2371.000 0.8734612 -0.4860223 Chile ESO 1-m (decommissioned), La Silla
Mas 289.262180 -29.257163 2370.000 0.8734575 -0.4860287 Chile Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA (MASCARA), La Silla
gpo 289.262028 -29.257378 2369.000 0.8734555 -0.4860319 Chile Grand Prisme Objectif
Ma1 289.262028 -29.257378 2369.000 0.8734555 -0.4860319 Chile MarLy 1-m, La Silla
Ms3 289.262110 -29.257550 2368.000 0.8734539 -0.4860344 Chile Marseille 0.36-m, La Silla
Dan 289.262483 -29.257800 2366.000 0.8734515 -0.4860381 Chile Danish 1.54-m, La Silla
MPG 289.263358 -29.257896 2364.000 0.8734504 -0.4860394 Chile MPG/ESO Max Planck 2.2-m, La Silla
ESo 289.264210 -29.258138 2364.000 0.8734484 -0.4860430 Chile ESO 1-m Schmidt, La Silla
DIM 289.264666 -29.258092 2365.000 0.8734489 -0.4860424 Chile DIMM (Differential Motion Monitor), La Silla
NTT 289.266163 -29.258970 2384.000 0.8734440 -0.4860572 Chile New Technology Telescope, La Silla
LEu 289.267038 -29.259573 2382.000 0.8734386 -0.4860662 Chile Leonhard Euler 1.2-m, La Silla
TaS 289.267422 -29.260101 2397.000 0.8734362 -0.4860753 Chile TAROT, La Silla
ESO 289.268216 -29.261065 2420.000 0.8734311 -0.4860917 Chile ESO 3.6-m, La Silla
CAT 289.268170 -29.260797 2422.000 0.8734337 -0.4860878 Chile CAT (Coude Auxiliary Telescope), La Silla
SST 289.267629 -29.263556 2397.000 0.8734068 -0.4861277 Chile Swedish-ESO Submillimetre (SEST), La Silla
https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/astroclimate/site.html gives
latitude/longitude for not only each of the four "unit telescopes"
making up the VLT; it also gives lat/longs for the many auxiliary
telescopes. However, they're all given as being at 2635.43 meters
above sea level. The geoid height is 33.91 meters for UT1 (using
EGM96), resulting in an ellipsoidal height of 2369.34 meters.
I'll go with that until we get better data...
Incidentally, there are actually four 1.8-m auxiliary telescopes.
But they can be moved to any of the thirty locations CPA0 to CPM0
given below.
(X11) = VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is omitted. The MPC location is
only six meters lower and one meter away from the position given
at the above URL. (309) is in the midst of UT1, 2, 3, 4, but its
altitude is about 32 meters too low. I think ObsCodes.html is
using a geoid height where it should use an ellipsoidal one.
UT1 289.594925 -24.627622 2369.340 0.9099019 -0.4143250 Chile VLT UT1 (Antu)
UT2 289.595169 -24.627167 2369.340 0.9099052 -0.4143178 Chile VLT UT2 (Kueyen)
UT3 289.595467 -24.626844 2369.340 0.9099075 -0.4143127 Chile VLT UT3 (Melipal)
UT4 289.596042 -24.627044 2369.340 0.9099060 -0.4143159 Chile VLT UT4 (Yepun)
VIST 289.602400 -24.615700 2369.340 0.9099881 -0.4141367 Chile VLT VISTA
CPA0 289.594878 -24.627942 2369.340 0.9098995 -0.4143300 Chile VLT A0
CPA1 289.594928 -24.628078 2369.340 0.9098986 -0.4143322 Chile VLT A1
CPB0 289.594953 -24.627917 2369.340 0.9098997 -0.4143296 Chile VLT B0
CPB1 289.595003 -24.628053 2369.340 0.9098987 -0.4143318 Chile VLT B1
CPB2 289.595031 -24.628122 2369.340 0.9098982 -0.4143329 Chile VLT B2
CPB3 289.595056 -24.628189 2369.340 0.9098978 -0.4143339 Chile VLT B3
CPB4 289.595081 -24.628258 2369.340 0.9098972 -0.4143350 Chile VLT B4
CPB5 289.595106 -24.628325 2369.340 0.9098968 -0.4143361 Chile VLT B5
CPC0 289.595028 -24.627894 2369.340 0.9098999 -0.4143293 Chile VLT C0
CPC1 289.595078 -24.628031 2369.340 0.9098989 -0.4143314 Chile VLT C1
CPC2 289.595103 -24.628097 2369.340 0.9098984 -0.4143325 Chile VLT C2
CPC3 289.595131 -24.628167 2369.340 0.9098979 -0.4143336 Chile VLT C3
CPD0 289.595178 -24.627847 2369.340 0.9099002 -0.4143285 Chile VLT D0
CPD1 289.595281 -24.628119 2369.340 0.9098983 -0.4143328 Chile VLT D1
CPD2 289.595331 -24.628256 2369.340 0.9098973 -0.4143350 Chile VLT D2
CPE0 289.595325 -24.627800 2369.340 0.9099006 -0.4143278 Chile VLT E0
CPG0 289.595475 -24.627753 2369.340 0.9099009 -0.4143270 Chile VLT G0
CPG1 289.595681 -24.628297 2369.340 0.9098970 -0.4143356 Chile VLT G1
CPG2 289.595397 -24.627550 2369.340 0.9099024 -0.4143238 Chile VLT G2
CPH0 289.595775 -24.627661 2369.340 0.9099016 -0.4143256 Chile VLT H0
CPI1 289.595978 -24.627978 2369.340 0.9098993 -0.4143306 Chile VLT I1
CPJ1 289.596075 -24.627794 2369.340 0.9099006 -0.4143277 Chile VLT J1
CPJ2 289.596153 -24.627997 2369.340 0.9098991 -0.4143309 Chile VLT J2
CPJ3 289.595819 -24.627114 2369.340 0.9099055 -0.4143170 Chile VLT J3
CPJ4 289.595767 -24.626978 2369.340 0.9099065 -0.4143148 Chile VLT J4
CPJ5 289.595689 -24.626775 2369.340 0.9099080 -0.4143116 Chile VLT J5
CPJ6 289.595614 -24.626569 2369.340 0.9099095 -0.4143084 Chile VLT J6
CPK0 289.596072 -24.627567 2369.340 0.9099023 -0.4143241 Chile VLT K0
CPL0 289.596147 -24.627544 2369.340 0.9099024 -0.4143238 Chile VLT L0
CPM0 289.596222 -24.627519 2369.340 0.9099026 -0.4143234 Chile VLT M0
Private communication from Peter Birtwhistle. (J95) is at
a _geoid_ height (from Google Earth) of 105 metres; this was
misinterpreted as an _ellipsoid_ altitude in the MPC's file.
The following will override that mistake, adding in the
47.6-m geoid height for Peter's location. (MPC has fixed this.
But the following coordinates are more precise, and Peter
observes a lot of artsats, where the added precision matters.)
J95 358.552997 +51.474969 152.600 0.6241513 +0.7787144 UK/England Great Shefford
"MPC code" used in Find_Orb's ephemeris code when generating a
list of precoveries.
CSS 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 CSS precoveries
Fixed position for (H01), private communication from Bill Ryan.
Height above geoid 3250 m, geoid height -23 meters.
H01 252.810667 +33.984833 3227.000 0.8304737 +0.5560958 US/New Mexico Magdalena Ridge Observatory, Socorro
Spacewatch telescope positions are off. (691) was wrong by
almost half a kilometer, but fixed January 2019. (291) is still
wrong, though only by about 20 meters. Altitude is from
https://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/telescopes
with 30 meters subtracted for geoid height. (695) corresponds to
the 0.7-m Solar Vacuum Telescope and should probably be moved, but
I don't know where.
291 248.400095 +31.961669 2045.000 0.8494713 +0.5264717 US/Arizona LPL/Spacewatch II
Other scopes measured while looking at Kitt Peak in Google Earth.
https://www-kpno.kpno.noirlab.edu/usrhnbk/mtn.gif used to ID most
scopes. 30m subtracted to get ellipsoidal altitudes. I omitted the 2.3-m
Bok telescope, because it has code (V00) and is fairly well placed.
May 248.400105 +31.964027 2051.000 0.8494504 +0.5265070 US/Arizona Mayall telescope, Kitt Peak
1.3 248.401594 +31.959634 2042.000 0.8494897 +0.5264414 US/Arizona 1.3-m RCT telescope, Kitt Peak
2.1 248.401704 +31.958175 2055.000 0.8495048 +0.5264209 US/Arizona 2.1-m telescope, Kitt Peak
WIY 248.399414 +31.958052 2057.000 0.8495062 +0.5264193 US/Arizona WIYN telescope, Kitt Peak
Bur 248.400797 +31.960597 2060.000 0.8494832 +0.5264571 US/Arizona Burrell Schmidt, Kitt Peak
Unk1 248.401843 +31.960070 2042.000 0.8494856 +0.5264478 US/Arizona Near visitor center, Kitt Peak
WIY2 248.400380 +31.958041 2060.000 0.8495067 +0.5264194 US/Arizona WIYN 0.9-m, Kitt Peak
Unk2 248.399763 +31.958013 2058.000 0.8495067 +0.5264188 US/Arizona Sm dome between WIYN domes, Kitt Peak
Unk3 248.397817 +31.958133 2058.000 0.8495056 +0.5264206 US/Arizona Roll-off roof W of WIYN, Kitt Peak
From http://kp12m.as.arizona.edu/12m_docs/12_meter_description.htm .
Again, I subtracted 30 meters for geoid height. The odd mismatch in
precision for latitude and longitude makes me suspect mistakes.
12m 248.385146 +31.953333 1884.000 0.8495266 +0.5263353 US/Arizona ARO 12 Meter Telescope
The MDM Observatory at Kitt Peak has the 1.3-m McGraw-Hill Telescope and
the 2.4-m Hiltner Telescope, separated by roughly 60 meters.
I've measured both scopes on Google Maps; Eric Galayda provided
altitudes and IDs as to which scope was which (not really apparent
from just looking at Google Maps). As with other Kitt Peak scopes, 30
meters is subtracted from the geoid heights to get ellipsoidal heights.
Hil 248.384136 +31.951503 1908.500 0.8495467 +0.5263103 US/Arizona Kitt Peak, Hiltner
697 248.383315 +31.951754 1895.000 0.8495426 +0.5263129 US/Arizona Kitt Peak, McGraw-Hill
Positions for the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope from Keel et. al :
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/129/971/015002/pdf
(SARA-Cerro Tololo is given above from its original source; SARA-Kitt Peak
corrected via private communication from Bill Keel.) The 2369 meter altitude
given for JKT is above sea level; 40 meters is added to get an ellipsoidal
alt, as it is for INT, WHT, and other Observatorio del Roque de Los
Muchachos (ORM) telescopes.
G82 248.400403 +31.960596 2043.000 0.8494809 +0.5264557 US/Arizona SARA Observatory, Kitt Peak
JKT 342.121917 +28.761167 2409.000 0.8776442 +0.4784911 Canary Island Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
Source : http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/int/intcoord.html
INT 342.122361 +28.762056 2376.000 0.8776322 +0.4785021 Canary Island Isaac Newton Telescope
Source : http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/wht/whtcoord.html
WHT 342.118361 +28.760639 2372.000 0.8776435 +0.4784802 Canary Island William Herschel Telescope
Source : http://www.tng.iac.es/instruments/telescope_description.html
Z19 342.110944 +28.754000 2427.200 0.8777067 +0.4783832 Canary Island Telescopio Nazionale Galileo
Source : http://www.not.iac.es/telescope/tti/technical-details.html
NOT 342.114917 +28.757278 2422.000 0.8776785 +0.4784328 Canary Island Nordic Optical Telescope
Source : http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/TelInst/Spec/
J13 342.120800 +28.762400 2403.000 0.8776331 +0.4785094 Canary Island Liverpool Telescope, Canary Islands
Sources : http://www.mercator.iac.es/instruments/telescope/,
http://www.gtc.iac.es/gtc/gtc.php, http://www.magic.iac.es/site/index.html
for altitudes. For these scopes, lat/lon is given to one arcsecond
= 30m precision, so I'm sticking to G__gle Maps for that part.
Z18 342.108111 +28.756611 2340.000 0.8776728 +0.4784164 Canary Island Gran Telescopio Canarias
Z20 342.121516 +28.762366 2373.000 0.8776292 +0.4785066 Canary Island Mercator Telescope, Canary Islands
MA1 342.109412 +28.761325 2271.380 0.8776240 +0.4784831 Canary Island MAGIC (southwest)
MA2 342.109915 +28.761963 2271.380 0.8776186 +0.4784928 Canary Island MAGIC (northeast)
Various telescopes near JKT can be identified from
http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/visits/mapaorm.png (WARNING: South is _up_),
then measured via G__gle Maps. I don't have altitudes for these scopes,
so they have the JKT altitude.
SWw 342.119309 +28.759647 2409.000 0.8776569 +0.4784679 Canary Island Canary Islands Swedish Telescope (west)
SWe 342.118687 +28.759634 2409.000 0.8776570 +0.4784677 Canary Island Canary Islands Swedish Telescope (east)
J50 342.117597 +27.759999 2409.000 0.8858839 +0.4631631 Canary Island La Palma-NEON
Positions for some Haleakala scopes. Sorting out which was which was done
thanks to input from people who have worked there over the decades. Positions
measured from Google Earth. Altitude for (T05) is from the MPC file and is
good to 1e-6 Earth radius = 6.3 meters. Altitudes for (F65) and (608) are
from the same source, but given to one less digit = 63 meter precision.
DKIST alt is from https://dkist.nso.edu/faq, with a 17 meter geoid height
added. Which puts it pretty high up above everything else. Everybody else
has a 'guessed' altitude of 3050 meters above the ellipsoid.
DKI 203.743846 +20.706789 3101.000 0.9362486 +0.3515376 US/Hawaii Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST)
F65 203.742504 +20.707009 3055.001 0.9362405 +0.3515386 US/Hawaii Faulkes Telescope North
AMO 203.743287 +20.708171 3050.000 0.9362327 +0.3515572 US/Hawaii AMOS 3.67m satellite surv, Haleakala
Mee 203.743425 +20.706542 3050.000 0.9362427 +0.3515308 US/Hawaii Mees Solar Telescope, Haleakala
2IR 203.742692 +20.708390 3050.000 0.9362313 +0.3515608 US/Hawaii 2.5m IR sat surveillance, Haleakala
T05 203.742992 +20.707582 3040.957 0.9362349 +0.3515471 US/Hawaii ATLAS-HKO, Haleakala
Geo1 203.742605 +20.708569 3050.000 0.9362302 +0.3515637 US/Hawaii GEODSS #1, Haleakala
Geo2 203.742251 +20.708083 3050.000 0.9362332 +0.3515558 US/Hawaii GEODSS #2, Haleakala
Geo3 203.742560 +20.708078 3050.000 0.9362332 +0.3515557 US/Hawaii GEODSS #3, Haleakala
608 203.742232 +20.708536 3040.446 0.9362290 +0.3515626 US/Hawaii Haleakala-AMOS
h241 203.742145 +20.708404 3050.000 0.9362312 +0.3515610 US/Hawaii Haleakala 24" #1
h242 203.742206 +20.708286 3050.000 0.9362319 +0.3515591 US/Hawaii Haleakala 24" #2
hOld 203.742341 +20.708291 3050.000 0.9362319 +0.3515592 US/Hawaii Dome formerly at Haleakala
Zod 203.743376 +20.707240 3050.000 0.9362384 +0.3515421 US/Hawaii Zodiacal light, Haleakala
HAA 203.742815 +20.707308 3050.000 0.9362380 +0.3515432 US/Hawaii Haleakala Amateur Astronomers
Private communication, Carlos Jesus Perez Del Pulgar Mancebo, from
Google Maps. Note that (Z82) is a correction of the MPC position; Carlos
gave an altitude of 60 meters above the geoid, with 49 meters added for
geoid height; 370 meters above the geoid for (BO3), 7 meters added.
BO3 169.683630 -45.038160 377.000 0.7078646 -0.7040634 New Zealand BOOTES-3, Lauder
Z82 355.959028 +36.759222 109.000 0.8021334 +0.5951714 Spain BOOTES-2 Observatory, Algarrobo
Three BOOTES telescopes, from a private communication from Ignacio Perez
Garcia, 2019 Jul 23. BO1 is at 53m ASL + 50m geoid height. B04 is at
3230m minus 49 meters (the geoid is _below_ the ellipsoid there). BO5 is
at 2812m ASL minus 32 meters for geoid height.
BO1 353.265894 +37.104098 103.000 0.7985270 +0.5999675 Spain BOOTES-1B
BO4 100.030067 +26.695222 3181.000 0.8944586 +0.4467629 China BOOTES-4, Lijang, China
BO5 244.536389 +31.044167 2780.000 0.8579072 +0.5129277 Mexico BOOTES-5, Mexico
Private communication, 2018 Jul 30, Giorgio Baj: "K38, 008 55 05.654 E,
45 52 25.533 N, 0484 m, GPS altitude referred MSL." Added 47 meters
for geoid height.
K38 8.918237 +45.873759 531.000 0.6975035 +0.7142948 Italy M57 Observatory, Saltrio
National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand telescopes.
TRT 98.485555 +18.586944 2559.000 0.9485439 +0.3168451 Thailand TRT (Thai Robotic Observatory)
Nar 98.485694 +18.589972 2559.000 0.9485271 +0.3168949 Thailand NARIT, Chiangmai
Artsat observers, from
https://github.com/cbassa/sattools/blob/1da489eb347683f1eb70bbd6575e8fcd289ca567/data/sites.txt
1111 255.438600 +38.947800 2073.000 0.7790025 +0.6254357 US/Colorado Ron Lee
4171 6.378500 +52.834400 10.000 0.6054100 +0.7932472 Netherlands Cees Bassa
4172 5.258000 +52.371300 -3.000 0.6118276 +0.7883385 Netherlands Leo Barhorst
4553 357.767000 +53.321000 86.000 0.5986295 +0.7983571 UK/England Cees Bassa
0001 262.239000 +30.334000 160.000 0.8638555 +0.5021004 US/Texas Mike McCants
0002 262.133900 +30.313800 280.000 0.8640490 +0.5018069 US/Texas Mike McCants
0030 18.972700 +47.485700 400.000 0.6770489 +0.7335556 Hungary Ivan Artner
0031 18.736600 +47.561200 149.000 0.6760516 +0.7344153 Hungary Ivan Artner
0070 359.399700 +53.223300 30.000 0.5999906 +0.7973306 UK/England Bob Christy
0100 17.913800 +59.462700 0.000 0.5093656 +0.8576649 Sweden Sven Grahn
0110 263.109400 +32.540800 200.000 0.8438527 +0.5348342 US/Texas Lyn Kennedy
0433 18.512900 -33.940600 10.000 0.8304852 -0.5551758 South Africa Greg Roberts
0434 27.928800 -26.103000 1646.000 0.8988187 -0.4374377 South Africa Ian Roberts
0435 18.510100 -33.936900 25.000 0.8305231 -0.5551238 South Africa Greg Roberts
0710 10.675600 +52.326100 85.000 0.6124603 +0.7878677 Germany Lutz Schindler
0899 303.877300 -34.896100 30.000 0.8210947 -0.5688865 Uruguay Fernando Mederos
1056 23.983300 +57.012200 4.000 0.5457475 +0.8351409 Latvia Martins Keruss
1086 30.755600 +46.477800 56.000 0.6898568 +0.7215307 Ukraine Nikolay Koshkin
1234 24.788200 +60.174600 24.000 0.4986182 +0.8639197 Finland Tomi Simola
1244 33.970100 +44.393200 69.000 0.7157369 +0.6960440 Ukraine Andriy Makeyev
1747 287.647400 +45.727500 191.000 0.6992937 +0.7124796 Canada/Quebec Daniel Deak
1775 284.309000 +44.606200 200.000 0.7131505 +0.6987053 Canada/Ontari Kevin Fetter
2018 358.881200 +51.094500 124.000 0.6293269 +0.7745600 UK/England Peter Wakelin
2115 359.205000 +51.328600 75.000 0.6261392 +0.7771121 UK/England Mike Waterman
2414 358.120000 +50.746800 34.000 0.6340258 +0.7707260 UK/England David Hopkins
2420 356.861400 +55.948600 40.000 0.5612310 +0.8248918 UK/Scotland Russell Eberst
2563 2.404300 +51.052400 10.000 0.6298869 +0.7740847 France Pierre Nierinck
2675 357.673600 +52.135800 70.000 0.6150833 +0.7858324 UK/England David Brierley
2701 280.607600 +43.687600 230.000 0.7243003 +0.6872251 Canada/Ontari Ted Molczan
2751 358.015100 +51.344000 125.000 0.6259343 +0.7772860 UK/England Bruce MacDonald
2756 356.837700 +56.090700 25.000 0.5591727 +0.8262763 UK/Scotland Andy Kirkham
3333 10.220500 +53.450600 0.000 0.5968062 +0.7996951 Germany Roland Proesch
4353 4.490800 +52.154100 0.000 0.6148245 +0.7860197 Netherlands Marco Langbroek
4354 4.560200 +52.116800 -2.000 0.6153380 +0.7856200 Netherlands Marco Langbroek
4355 4.499400 +52.138800 -2.000 0.6150350 +0.7858557 Netherlands Marco Langbroek
4541 12.453100 +41.963900 80.000 0.7446909 +0.6651905 Italy Alberto Rango
4542 12.454500 +41.968300 80.000 0.7446397 +0.6652475 Italy Alberto Rango
4641 16.901000 +41.106000 70.000 0.7545954 +0.6540070 Italy Alberto Rango
5555 94.553300 +56.101900 154.000 0.5590217 +0.8264021 Russia Sergey Guryanov
5918 18.104500 +59.298500 40.000 0.5118368 +0.8562096 Sweden Bjorn Gimle
5919 18.620600 +59.261500 30.000 0.5123916 +0.8558781 Sweden Bjorn Gimle
6226 262.180600 +28.486100 110.000 0.8796180 +0.4741220 US/Texas Scott Campbell
7777 357.673300 +38.165600 1608.000 0.7874331 +0.6147415 Spain Brad Young remote
7778 149.064400 -31.273300 1122.000 0.8556232 -0.5162027 Australia/NSW Brad Young SSO
7779 254.471700 +32.920400 2225.000 0.8405504 +0.5405592 US/New Mexico Brad Young NM
0797 22.144800 +36.970800 6.000 0.7999119 +0.5981069 Greece Pierros Papadeas
8048 236.358000 +49.417500 1.000 0.6518020 +0.7558466 Canada/BritCo Scott Tilley
8049 236.331500 +49.434800 40.000 0.6515769 +0.7560475 Canada/BritCo Scott Tilley
8305 261.783700 +26.243100 30.000 0.8975178 +0.4395103 US/Texas Paul Gabriel
8335 264.016200 +36.139700 205.000 0.8085492 +0.5865101 US/Oklahoma Brad Young
8336 264.016200 +36.139700 205.000 0.8085492 +0.5865101 US/Oklahoma Brad Young
8438 240.225000 +38.810800 1545.000 0.7804352 +0.6235269 US/California Sierra Stars
8536 283.499000 +36.847900 4.000 0.8011958 +0.5963969 US/Virginia Tim Luton
8539 280.661200 +39.470700 839.000 0.7730976 +0.6323674 US/Maryland Steve Newcomb
8597 138.633300 -34.963800 100.000 0.8204294 -0.5698582 Australia/SA Tony Beresford
8600 151.647700 -32.977000 18.000 0.8397246 -0.5411970 Australia/NSW Paul Camilleri
8831 238.096000 +47.771700 220.000 0.6733465 +0.7368948 US/Washington Chris Lewicki
0699 132.236900 -14.473300 108.000 0.9684831 -0.2483118 Australia/NT Paul Camilleri
8730 262.272100 +30.308600 150.000 0.8640770 +0.5017185 US/Texas Ed Cannon
8739 238.297200 +37.113300 282.000 0.7984527 +0.6001121 US/California Derek Breit
9461 19.893650 +47.917500 938.000 0.6715376 +0.7386842 Hungary Konkoly Obs
9633 263.001800 +33.020600 153.000 0.8393295 +0.5418444 US/Texas Jim Nix
9730 262.134000 +30.315000 280.000 0.8640385 +0.5018249 US/Texas Mike McCants
6242 357.171600 +42.945300 623.000 0.7332159 +0.6778593 Spain Jon Mikel
6241 357.179700 +42.956500 619.000 0.7330825 +0.6780017 Spain Jon Mikel
4160 5.476800 +51.279300 35.000 0.6268064 +0.7765696 Belgium Bram Dorreman
9900 4.900000 +52.366600 0.000 0.6118928 +0.7882888 Netherlands Amsterdam
9901 289.193500 -30.169600 2000.000 0.8655445 -0.4997771 Chile CTIO
9910 357.591700 +37.501100 1200.000 0.7944769 +0.6055673 Spain Telescope Live Spain
9911 148.976300 -34.864100 350.000 0.8214541 -0.5684585 Australia/NSW Telescope Live Australia
9997 238.096000 +47.771700 220.000 0.6733465 +0.7368948 US/Washington Chris Lewicki
9998 6.396100 +52.811900 10.000 0.6057228 +0.7930100 Netherlands Dwingeloo telescoop
9999 5.515100 +47.348000 100.000 0.6787845 +0.7318967 France Graves
Luca Buzzi supplied coordinates for three telescopes at (204). All
are about 1230m above sea level (geoid height is 48 meters). (Sc2)
used to report (204) data, but has been discontinued. Luca tells me
(Sc3), a smaller dome between the two, houses a C14 that will be
remotely controlled in early 2021 (hasn't actually submitted any data).
MPC corrected their position for (204) in early 2024.
Sc2 8.770610 +45.868450 1278.000 0.6976514 +0.7143144 Italy Schiaparelli Observatory, 0.60-m scope
Sc3 8.770270 +45.868530 1278.000 0.6976504 +0.7143154 Italy Schiaparelli Observatory, C14
Kwa 167.733333 +8.716666 5.000 0.9885266 +0.1505455 Marshall Isla Kwajalein Island
G34 13.701403 +50.860289 490.670 0.6325369 +0.7720325 Germany Oberfrauendorf
920 282.335701 +43.075229 141.000 0.7316169 +0.6794627 US/New York RIT Observatory, Rochester
David Briggs supplied corrected coordinates for (J69). The scope
is 155 metres above sea level; the geoid height is about 46 metres.
(J69) is one of five domes visible on G__gle Earth as part of the
Hampshire Astronomical Group site. The altitudes appear to be identical.
Further identification is given at https://hantsastro.org.uk/tour/index.php
(comments come from that page).
J69 358.980344 +50.939017 201.000 0.6314426 +0.7728633 UK/England North Observatory, Clanfield
Cdi 358.980337 +50.939114 201.000 0.6314413 +0.7728644 UK/England 12" Dome, Clanfield
"This dome is privately owned... 12-inch f5.5 Newtonian... for imaging"
J84 358.980371 +50.938673 201.000 0.6314473 +0.7728595 UK/England South Observatory, Clanfield
C7i 358.980694 +50.938298 201.000 0.6314524 +0.7728554 UK/England 7" Dome, Clanfield
"...the favourite amongst members for astronomical imaging"
C5i 358.980860 +50.938284 201.000 0.6314525 +0.7728553 UK/England 5" Dome, Clanfield
"The oldest of our telescopes are housed in this dome"
Some telescopes at (711) McDonald Observatory in Texas, sorted using the
site map at http://www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/observers/mcd_site_map.pdf
and measured using G__gle Maps. HJS is identified on the site map as the
107" scope; the OST is 82"; Mc9 is 36"; Mc8 is 30". HET is on Mt.
Fowlkes, alt 6659 feet; the others are on Mt. Locke, alt 6792 feet,
probably above sea level. I subtracted 22 meters to get an ellipsoid alt.
HJS 255.978027 +30.671745 2007.700 0.8611248 +0.5073063 US/Texas Harlan J Smith, McDonald Observatory
OST 255.977214 +30.671524 2007.700 0.8611268 +0.5073030 US/Texas Otto Struve Telescope, McDonald Observatory
Mc9 255.978056 +30.671420 2007.700 0.8611277 +0.5073015 US/Texas McDonald Observatory 0.9m
Mc8 255.977262 +30.670799 2007.700 0.8611332 +0.5072922 US/Texas McDonald Observatory 0.8m
HET 255.985321 +30.681398 2048.200 0.8610447 +0.5074539 US/Texas Hobby-Eberly Telescope
Mc? 255.976288 +30.669781 2007.700 0.8611422 +0.5072770 US/Texas McDonald Observatory unknown
Mt. Hopkins telescopes, identified with
http://linmax.sao.arizona.edu/FLWO/MtHop090529.jpg and measured with
G__gle Maps. (G91) and (V07) really are two different codes for the
exact same 1.3-m scope. Alts are from ObsCodes.html, with (G91/V07)'s alt
recycled for FL5 and FL2 (they're all close to one another). (696) is the
6.5-m MMT.
696 249.114821 +31.688899 2627.639 0.8520505 +0.5224892 US/Arizona Whipple Observatory, Mt. Hopkins
G91 249.121313 +31.680742 2287.949 0.8520797 +0.5223405 US/Arizona Whipple Observatory, Mount Hopkins-2MASS
V07 249.121313 +31.680742 2287.949 0.8520797 +0.5223405 US/Arizona Whipple Observatory, Mount Hopkins-PAIRITEL
FL5 249.121660 +31.681015 2287.949 0.8520772 +0.5223445 US/Arizona Whipple Observatory, 1.5-m
FL2 249.121512 +31.680868 2287.949 0.8520785 +0.5223424 US/Arizona Whipple Observatory, 1.2-m
G__gle Maps shows five domes on Calar Alto. MPC gives five codes. (493),
"Calar Alto", has low precision; I have no idea which scope is intended.
(Observations on the 2019 Oct 10 MPCs say data came from a 1.23-m scope,
a 1.23-m f/8 scope, a 1.2-m f/8 scope, and a 3.5-m f/3.9 scope.)
(Z84) and (Z79) were identifiable. I _think_ (G36) = Un1. Alts are from
G__gle Earth, with 51m added for geoid height. According to Wikipaedia,
(Z79) = 3.5m scope; (Z84) = 0.8-m Schmidt; (Un1) = 1.23m; (Un2) = 1.5m;
(Un3) = 2.2m. Z84 is removed from this rovers list as the elevation has
been corrected.
Un1 357.452517 +37.223165 2211.000 0.7975386 +0.6018185 Spain Unknown about 100m SSE of Z84; (G36)?
Un2 357.451752 +37.224987 2201.000 0.7975181 +0.6018428 Spain Unknown about 100m north of Z84
Un3 357.453963 +37.223133 2112.000 0.7975266 +0.6018087 Spain Unknown about 200m ESE of Z84
Z79 357.453322 +37.220850 2210.000 0.7975628 +0.6017863 Spain Calar Alto TNO Survey
Two ASAS-SN scopes, both sharing LCO domes. These are essentially
duplicates of (V37) and (T03), measured from G__gle Maps with altitudes
copied from the MPC data.
HSL 255.984817 +30.679849 2010.000 0.8610533 +0.5074277 US/Texas ASAS-SN, Henrietta Swan Leavitt/McDonald Obs
AHa 203.742506 +20.707009 3050.000 0.9362398 +0.3515383 US/Hawaii ASAS-SN, Haleakala 'Brutus'
Leo 248.983138 +32.374086 723.900 0.8454777 +0.5324323 US/Arizona Leo Observatory
2019 Nov 7 : these two ISON observatories tracked the NEO A00001.
Ark 41.431575 +43.649983 2046.000 0.7249588 +0.6869476 Russia Arkhyz
Bla 127.722333 +50.126578 146.000 0.6423761 +0.7638498 Blagoveschensk
093 20.365000 +69.348333 200.000 0.3537349 +0.9322431 Norway Skibotn
From various links at
http://haro.astrossp.unam.mx/oanspm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2
67a 244.533333 +31.045278 2790.000 0.8578985 +0.5129451 Mexico 1.5-m, National Astronomical Observatory of Mexico
67b 244.536389 +31.044167 2800.000 0.8579098 +0.5129293 Mexico 2.12-m, National Astronomical Observatory of Mexico
67c 244.533889 +31.045000 2790.000 0.8579010 +0.5129409 Mexico 0.84-m, National Astronomical Observatory of Mexico
Some observations of C/1844 Y1 were made from this site in southern
India. G__gle Maps shows a dome there.
Tre 76.958300 +8.508500 57.000 0.9890752 +0.1469777 India Trivandrum
Steve Hutcheon supplied these locations for two stations that made other
19th century observations of comets.
Buc 359.910000 +51.488000 10.000 0.6239596 +0.7788385 UK/England Westmorland House, Walworth Common
Fre 359.868700 +50.842900 10.000 0.6327246 +0.7717826 UK/England Brighton
Various unidentified scopes on Mt. Lemmon. Altitude is that
for (G96). Lat/lon is from Bing Maps (the area is redacted
on Google Maps, but apparently, nobody got round to asking
Bing to delete their imagery.)
ML1 249.211323 +32.442480 2789.000 0.8451136 +0.5336100 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk1
ML2 249.211272 +32.442267 2789.000 0.8451156 +0.5336069 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk2
ML3 249.210907 +32.442301 2789.000 0.8451152 +0.5336074 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk3
ML4 249.211138 +32.442066 2789.000 0.8451174 +0.5336039 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk4
ML5 249.211098 +32.441672 2789.000 0.8451211 +0.5335981 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk5
ML6 249.210615 +32.442164 2789.000 0.8451165 +0.5336053 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk6
ML7 249.210258 +32.441551 2789.000 0.8451222 +0.5335963 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk7
ML8 249.208473 +32.441551 2789.000 0.8451222 +0.5335963 US/Arizona Mt. Lemmon unk8
Various unidentified scopes on Mauna Loa. Altitude is that
for (T08). Lat/lon/alt is from G__gle Earth, 27 meters
added for geoid height.
mL1 204.423887 +19.536009 3425.000 0.9432905 +0.3324646 US/Hawaii Mauna Loa unk1
mL2 204.423586 +19.536252 3423.000 0.9432888 +0.3324684 US/Hawaii Mauna Loa unk2
mL3 204.423407 +19.535446 3434.000 0.9432951 +0.3324558 US/Hawaii Mauna Loa unk3
mL4 204.423412 +19.535550 3434.000 0.9432945 +0.3324575 US/Hawaii Mauna Loa unk4
mL5 204.424000 +19.536421 3420.000 0.9432874 +0.3324710 US/Hawaii Mauna Loa unk5
Three planned or in-process telescopes of 39.3, 24.5, and 30-m aperture.
ELT 289.808369 -24.589327 3046.000 0.9102754 -0.4137642 Chile Extremely Large Telescope
GMT 289.314167 -29.028333 2516.000 0.8754147 -0.4825654 Chile Giant Magellan Telescope
TMT 204.518400 +19.832700 4050.000 0.9416473 +0.3373489 US/Hawaii Thirty-Meter Telescope
Improved coords for both Magellan scopes. The locations given at
https://astro.arizona.edu/magellan-telescopes are indentical, and
and split the difference between the positions given below, which
were measured on G__gle Earth. The MPC altitudes match those from
Google Earth, and are probably ground heights uncorrected for
geoid height. The MPC locations are about 70m west of the G__gle
ones (used below). Altitude is that from Google, with 33m added
for geoid height. The arizona.edu altitude (given in "feet") is
~125m above ground, which seems unreasonably high.
268 289.307380 -29.014044 2422.000 0.8755224 -0.4823410 Chile Magellan-Clay Telescope
269 289.307813 -29.014442 2422.000 0.8755190 -0.4823471 Chile Magellan-Baade Telescope
Las Campanas telescopes, from G__gle Earth. Identifications are from
that source, and from https://www.lco.cl/tenant-telescopes-2/ and hatpi.org.
(I05) gives coordinates for the TIE (Telescopes In Education) scope, about
500m north of the nearest observatory dome and probably wrong. As with the
Mt Wilson TIE, good coordinates are lacking. The twin Magellan telescopes
have codes (268) for the Clay Telescope and (269) for the Baade Telescope.
Code (304) is between them; see MPEC 2024-Y07. For completeness, a
(GMT) Giant Magellan Telescope code is given above.
33m added for geoid height.
DuP 289.296014 -29.007334 2310.000 0.8755636 -0.4822305 Chile DuPont Telescope, Las Campanas
LVa 289.297310 -29.008345 2301.000 0.8755538 -0.4822452 Chile Vacant dome, Las Campanas
War 289.298366 -29.009926 2301.000 0.8755405 -0.4822692 Chile Warsaw Telescope, Las Campanas (OGLE)
ASA 289.298791 -29.010365 2303.000 0.8755371 -0.4822760 Chile All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS), Las Campanas
HAp 289.298920 -29.010486 2303.000 0.8755360 -0.4822779 Chile HATPI, Las Campanas
HAW 289.299119 -29.010788 2304.000 0.8755336 -0.4822825 Chile HAT South (west dome), Las Campanas
HAS 289.299168 -29.010790 2304.000 0.8755336 -0.4822826 Chile HAT South (east dome), Las Campanas
LVM 289.299291 -29.010851 2304.000 0.8755331 -0.4822835 Chile Local Volume Mapper Instrument, Las Campanas
CAS 289.299462 -29.010986 2305.000 0.8755321 -0.4822856 Chile CASCA, Las Campanas
HSw 289.299764 -29.011994 2308.000 0.8755240 -0.4823012 Chile Henrietta Swope Telescope?, Las Campanas
BiS 289.310213 -29.021614 2370.000 0.8754514 -0.4824521 Chile BiSON, Las Campanas
Carolin Liefke sorted out the history of (024) Heidelberg-Konigstuhl
(see https://groups.io/g/mpml/message/35417). The site listed below as
(024) was used by observers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
until about 2013. The MPIA was founded in 1967. Observations from 1898
to 1967 were made at the Landessternwarte Konigstuhl (LSW) site, given
below as (HeK), with a 6" double astrograph before 1900 and the 16"
Bruce double astrograph after that. Later observations were probably
all made at the (024) MPIA site with a 70-cm Cassegrain. Locations from
G__gle Earth, 48 metres added for geoid height.
024 8.723675 +49.395428 616.000 0.6521570 +0.7556694 Germany Heidelberg-Konigstuhl (2003?-2013)
HeK 8.724941 +49.398185 621.000 0.6521210 +0.7557013 Germany Heidelberg-Konigstuhl (1898-?1968)
Some neighboring domes near the above. Carolin directed me to
https://www.lsw.uni-heidelberg.de/foerderkreis/gelaende/image.php
for identifications, and provided some comments for most of them :
"The 72-cm Waltz reflector was used for spectrographic measurements and,
if I remember correctly, also had a photomultiplier attached in previous
times. It's currently used with a high-res spectrograph for exoplanet
radial velocity measurements."
He1 8.724705 +49.397846 618.000 0.6521252 +0.7556971 Germany Waltz reflector, LSW-Heidelberg
"The 75-cm Zeiss telescope from 1977 is now called ATOM and supports the
H.E.S.S. cherenkov telescopes in Namibia since 2005."
He2 8.725357 +49.398129 616.000 0.6521213 +0.7557000 Germany Zeiss telescope, LSW-Heidelberg
"Access to dome... hosting a 50-year old Schmidt telescope is prohibited
because of risk of collapse"
He3 8.725390 +49.397949 617.000 0.6521237 +0.7556981 Germany 25-cm f/3.6 Schmidt, LSW-Heidelberg
"The 70-cm [Cassegrain]...built in 1989. It can be remotely operated
and is mainly used for student projects."
He4 8.725620 +49.397864 619.000 0.6521251 +0.7556974 Germany 70-cm f/8 Cassegrain, LSW-Heidelberg
"The historic Kann refractor was used for visual observations
only and is now - like the guiding telescope of the Bruce double
astrograph [HeK] - used for observations with the public and guided tours"
He5 8.725960 +49.397864 618.000 0.6521250 +0.7556973 Germany 8" refractor, LSW-Heidelberg
"I have been in [this] dome once, the dust cover on that 50cm telescope
is so thick, it has not been used in decades"
He6 8.726110 +49.398032 616.000 0.6521225 +0.7556989 Germany 50-cm f/14 Cassegrain, LSW-Heidelberg
"The rooftop observatory He7 from your list does no longer exist. It was
a Meade Skyshed Pod erected in 2010 which hosted a 8" SC that was meant
to track space junk ... and has been dismantled two years ago"
He7 8.724327 +49.398147 619.000 0.6521213 +0.7557006 Germany 8" SCT, LSW-Heidelberg
Carolin has hopes that the 20" Planewave CDK scope in (He8) can be
set up for remote observing and put to work :
He8 8.723153 +49.395424 616.000 0.6521571 +0.7556693 Germany Sm dome ~40m W of (024) at MPIA
Carolin Liefke also points out that Max Wolf's early discoveries were
made from his parents' home in Maerzgasse, at the following location
about 2.2 km NW from the above He* cluster. This is presumably the
site used by Wolf until the above (HeK) site site opened on 1898 June 20.
(There is a two-year gap in the reported astrometry.)
He9 8.699555 +49.409750 173.000 0.6519222 +0.7557792 Germany Heidelberg (before 1896)
Michael Gill advises me (private e-mail) that "Wilfred Hall Observatory
Preston is now the Alston Observatory", and supplied the following
lat/lon from G__gle Maps. 52m added for geoid height.
Jan Manek adds references :
http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/observatories/history-of-astronomy-in-preston/
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1963QJRAS...4..314
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-journal_query?volume=4&plate_select=NO&page=314&plate=&cover=&journal=QJRAS
which leads to :
http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/observatories/alston-observatory/
Tim Haymes has been on the site recently. He says the (989) dome contains
the 15" Grubb refractor. WH1 is a 3-m ScopeDome, installed in 2019, with
an instrument planned for it. WH2 is now gone. (Z49) is the Moses Holden
70cm alt/az robotic scope, installed in 2016.
989 357.406146 +53.801360 115.000 0.5918887 +0.8033396 UK/England Alston Observatory
WH1 357.406065 +53.801238 115.000 0.5918904 +0.8033383 UK/England 3-m ScopeDome near (989)
WH2 357.405980 +53.801184 115.000 0.5918912 +0.8033378 UK/England Removed dome SSW of(989)
Luca Buzzi points out that (559) has data at
http://sln.oact.inaf.it/sln_old/index.html (49m added for geoid height).
Five domes are spread out over ~160 metres. I picked one at random to
be (559); since the MPC coordinates are only good to about six km,
it'll be an improvement no matter which one it really ought to be.
559 14.973117 +37.692483 1775.000 0.7925160 +0.6082616 Italy Serra La Nave-INAF
SN1 14.972747 +37.693152 1773.000 0.7925086 +0.6082706 Italy W-most dome at Serra La Nave
SN2 14.974309 +37.693127 1782.000 0.7925100 +0.6082712 Italy Dome W of (SN3) at Serra La Nave
SN3 14.974418 +37.693106 1782.000 0.7925103 +0.6082709 Italy Middle of three domes at Serra La Nave
SN4 14.974534 +37.693119 1782.000 0.7925101 +0.6082711 Italy Dome E of (SN3) at Serra La Nave
MPC has the wrong vowel in the observatory name. John W. Briggs writes :
"Astronomer Lewis Morris Rutherfurd was a major benefactor to Columbia and
a trustee, and the Observatory is named after him. But even on the
Department's website now (last I checked, anyway) they manage to continue
to spell Rutherfurd's last name wrong."
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/pupin.html provides further
info, putting the observatory at that spot when (795) was reporting
data to MPC (1936 to 1940). Coordinates from G__gle Earth, which
gives elevation 88 meters ASL (which appears to take the ten-story
building height into account). I subtracted 32m for geoid height.
795 286.038582 +40.809981 56.000 0.7579723 +0.6501131 US/New York Rutherfurd
John W. Briggs also writes : "796 Stamford Observatory is a facility
owned by the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut. (It was
the first domed observatory I ever entered as a youngster!) The
instrument is an unusual 22-inch Gregory-Maksutov. The dome still
exists (although perhaps not for much longer). I was visiting there
within the last year." John provides the following coordinates (with
31 meters subtracted for geoid height.)
796 286.451112 +41.124166 56.000 0.7543857 +0.6542438 US/Connecticu Stamford
John W. Briggs also writes : "792 Quonochontaug was built by my late
friend, Professor William S. Penhallow (1933-2020) of the University of
Rhode Island, and it was in the backyard of his home... The main
instrument was a 16-inch f/10.7 astrometric Newtonian."
792 288.298889 +41.353333 -23.000 0.7517460 +0.6572363 US/Rhode Isla University of Rhode Island, Quonochontaug
John W. Briggs identifies (303a) below as the 1-m Askania Schmidt. The
other three telescopes, according to Wikipaedia, are "a 65-cm Zeiss
refractor, a 1-m Zeiss reflector and a 50-cm Askania double astrograph."
303a 289.130278 +8.787222 3587.000 0.9888955 +0.1518405 Venezuela OAN de Llano del Hato, Merida
303b 289.131005 +8.787228 3581.000 0.9888945 +0.1518405 Venezuela Dome 100m east of (303a)
303c 289.129530 +8.788358 3589.000 0.9888928 +0.1518600 Venezuela Dome 100m NNW of (303a)
303d 289.129679 +8.789390 3575.000 0.9888879 +0.1518774 Venezuela Dome 230m N of (303a)
Jari Suomela provided the following identification, and notes
that "099 is Juhani Salmi's second observatory and is well
documented. It's has even been featured in Sky & Telescope many
moons ago, and this page http://kyyro.com/salmi.htm." 18m added
for geoid height.
099 25.535292 +61.130225 112.000 0.4840731 +0.8721138 Finland Lahti
Jari also found a magazine article from 1985 in which Kari Kapanen
describes his setup at (100) Ähtäri. The article gave a lat/lon,
but with the latitude seconds at 10", not 01", putting the observatory
in water. Jari contacted Kapanen's daughter-in-law to confirm the
corrected location. 156m alt from G__gle Earth, plus 18m geoid height.
Google doesn't provide a good map; Jari supplied a link to the much
clearer National Land Survey map,
https://kartta.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/?zoomLevel=11&coord=353344.4967_6946189.4187&showIntro=false
The observatory (dismantled ~2000) reported exactly one observation,
of C/1986 P1, on 1986 Sep 27. It was in the small square building
SW of 142b on the 'background map'. This is 5.8 km N of the (low
precision) MPC location.
100 24.141444 +62.617194 174.000 0.4611646 +0.8843703 Finland Ahtari
MPC gives a link to astronomie.at for (563) Seewalchen, the site for
Sternwarte Gahberg, which gives the coordinates below for (563a)
after adding 45 meters for geoid height. Robert Orso tells me the
observations submitted to MPC were done by Martin Bressler at his
site about 5.2 km to the north, and has supplied the lat/lon used
below for the "real" (563).
563a 13.608333 +47.912777 905.000 0.6715953 +0.7386252 Austria Gahberg, Seewalchen
563 13.604255 +47.959486 640.000 0.6709629 +0.7391399 Austria Seewalchen
MPC's list of Web sites for observatories gives (090)'s as
astro-mainz.de, which tells us that the observatory was on
the roof of the Anne-Frank-Realschule from 1962 to 2011.
(The MPC observations are all from 1985.) That site appears in
G__gle Earth, with the dome clearly visible. However, Mike
Kretlow (who grew up there and was a member of the astronomical
societies in Mainz and Wiesbaden) tells me this isn't where
the observations were made. So it doesn't get the (090) code.
48m added for geoid height.
090b 8.270659 +50.003873 172.000 0.6440195 +0.7624793 Germany Mainz, Anne-Frank-Realschule
Mike also says that the AAG Mainz built the Paul-Baumann-Sternwarte
outside the city in 1984, but that this is probably also not where
astrometry was done :
090c 8.225898 +49.946391 250.000 0.6447950 +0.7618439 Germany Mainz, Paul-Baumann-Sternwarte
And Mike has gotten confirmation from the observer for the (090)
data, and the following coordinates. Mike says : "In fact this
station will never be used again, they are not living there anymore,
it was really a once in a lifetime (1985) mobile station in the
backyard." Still 48m for geoid height.
090 8.194322 +49.955881 279.000 0.6446713 +0.7619539 Germany Mainz
http://www.obs-hp.fr/ohp_leaflet.pdf shows a site map identifying
four telescopes at Haute-Provence Observatory. The map is somewhat
impressionistic, and I was not 100% sure of (OH3) and (OH4) (other
than that there are definitely domes there). However, Mike Kretlow
sent me a map (http://stargate-ohp.de/pics/plan2b_gross.gif) and
explanation of the site confirming that the leaflet was correct,
marked SATINO, and noted that Tuebingen is ROTAT. I was then able
to identify all but one of the domes measured below. 51m added for
geoid height.
51m added for geoid height.
OH1 5.712526 +43.931481 705.000 0.7214128 +0.6903428 France Observatoire Haute-Provence, 1.93-m
OH2 5.711704 +43.933394 719.000 0.7213912 +0.6903683 France Observatoire Haute-Provence, 1.52-m
OH3 5.714509 +43.932374 695.000 0.7214009 +0.6903529 France Observatoire Haute-Provence, 80-cm
OH4 5.715177 +43.931745 688.000 0.7214077 +0.6903442 France Observatoire Haute-Provence, 1.2-m
OH5 5.714727 +43.932967 702.000 0.7213945 +0.6903611 France Rosace 40-cm, Observatoire Haute-Provence
OH6 5.715464 +43.933568 701.000 0.7213871 +0.6903685 France Geneve, Observatoire Haute-Provence
OH7 5.713879 +43.933529 709.000 0.7213885 +0.6903689 France Schmidt, Observatoire Haute-Provence
OH8 5.713326 +43.932287 702.000 0.7214027 +0.6903526 France PPO, Observatoire Haute-Provence
OH9 5.712621 +43.932621 708.000 0.7213993 +0.6903574 France Jumelees, Observatoire Haute-Provence
OHa 5.712752 +43.932779 709.000 0.7213975 +0.6903595 France ROTAT, Observatoire Haute-Provence
GPO 5.711919 +43.932509 713.000 0.7214013 +0.6903565 France Grand Prisme Objectif, OHP
OHc 5.710962 +43.934038 726.000 0.7213842 +0.6903771 France Observatoire Haute-Provence, unid
OHd 5.710366 +43.934290 730.000 0.7213816 +0.6903807 France Dobson, Observatoire Haute-Provence
OHe 5.712389 +43.932077 780.000 0.7214140 +0.6903584 France SATINO, Observatoire Haute-Provence
Peter Birtwhistle writes : "...I can offer the original lat. and
long. as supplied by the observers back then, I think generally by
measuring off the British Ordnance Survey maps. I've taken a look at
them in Google Earth and they may indeed be better than the co-ords
in the MPC list but I can't prove that..."
The positions are probably in a datum other than WGS84, and there would
be a datum shift of perhaps hundreds of metres. But since the MPC
positions have a precision of ~6.3 km in latitude and altitude, these
definitely represent an improvement.
Observer F. Van Looy, 45m added for geoid height.
002 0.620278 +51.591389 110.000 0.6225571 +0.7799725 UK/England Rayleigh
Observer Alan Young. 47m for geoid height.
489 359.871500 +52.321250 59.500 0.6125249 +0.7878128 UK/England Hemingford Abbots
Observer John Baguley. 50m for geoid height.
492 358.466667 +52.910556 150.000 0.6043638 +0.7940667 UK/England Mickleover
Peter was also able to contact Mike Swan, the observer for (490), and
confirmed the location and found the concrete base of the observatory
on G__gle Earth. Peter has also suggested modifying the name to make it
a little clearer. 48m for geoid height.
490 358.002583 +50.802694 78.000 0.6332749 +0.7713478 UK/England Stone Park Observatory, Wimborne Minster
Peter writes : " I also took a look at 997 Hartwell which is only about
34 miles from J95 [Peter's observatory] and found that it was the 19th
century observatory of Dr John Lee and a reasonably detailed plan of
the observatory building was published by Captain W.H. Smyth and now
available via the Internet book archive. The observatory is long since
demolished but I've measured the location of where the transit
telescope and also the equatorial telescope were housed..." Based on
the old drawing, Peter guesstimates a height of 3m for the transit
telescope (which we think is the 'real' 997) and 5m for the equatorial,
with a base altitude 83m ASL, plus 47m for geoid height.
Jan Manek points out a map and description at :
https://archive.org/details/deshartwelliano00smytgoog/page/n124/mode/2up
Peter has overlaid the map on G__gle Earth to get
https://birtwhistle.org.uk/MPCCode997Hartwell.htm , from which the
following coordinates were obtained :
997 359.153722 +51.805000 133.000 0.6196351 +0.7822850 UK/England Hartwell
997e 359.153806 +51.805000 135.000 0.6196353 +0.7822852 UK/England Hartwell equatorial
Peter also provides images and background for several observatories at
https://birtwhistle.org.uk/SiteMap.htm (45m added for geoid heights)
576 0.374425 +50.995594 118.000 0.6306679 +0.7734747 UK/England Burwash
984 357.260278 +50.922992 101.000 0.6316497 +0.7726750 UK/England Eastfield
986 359.360556 +51.408888 115.000 0.6250491 +0.7779913 UK/England Ascot
993 2.505833 +51.047117 136.000 0.6299710 +0.7740422 France Woolston
Peter's page at https://birtwhistle.org.uk/HistoryMillHill.htm
provides enough identification for these (998) scopes. The MPC
position appears to be for the Radcliffe dome.
998a 359.757569 +51.613321 130.000 0.6222592 +0.7802126 UK/England Mill Hill, Radcliffe
998b 359.757774 +51.613365 126.000 0.6222582 +0.7802126 UK/England Mill Hill, 24" Ritchey-Chretien
998c 359.757680 +51.613224 122.000 0.6222598 +0.7802106 UK/England Mill Hill, western of 3 sm domes
998d 359.757757 +51.613224 122.000 0.6222598 +0.7802106 UK/England Mill Hill, middle of 3 sm domes
998e 359.757835 +51.613227 122.000 0.6222597 +0.7802106 UK/England Mill Hill, eastern of 3 sm domes
Jan also writes : "(640) Seftenberg has a completely wrong longitude (offset
> ~200 km). It was active ~1845-1858, founded by British astronomer
John Parish. After his death on 1858 Sep 2, his nephew (who had no
interest in astronomy) ordered the observatory pulled down." Jan provides
the following reference :
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/1845AN.....23..129K/abstract
Also, note that this is _not_ the Seftenberg in Germany. It is the Czech
town of Žamberk, known in German as Senftenberg in Böhmen. Jan reminds
me that at the time, Czechia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
and German was the official language. 44m added for geoid height.
640 16.467486 +50.085097 481.000 0.6429648 +0.7634261 Czech Republi Senftenberger Sternwarte
Lowell Observatory scopes. 24m subtracted for geoid height.
The NPOI location is that at the center of the three 'arms'. Some IDs
made using https://lowell.edu/history/the-mars-hill-campus/ .
Pek 248.463214 +35.097069 2178.000 0.8193654 +0.5719437 US/Arizona Perkins 1.8-m, Lowell Observatory
Hal 248.463665 +35.096740 2177.000 0.8193685 +0.5719389 US/Arizona Hall 1.1-m, Lowell Observatory
699 248.463297 +35.095857 2177.000 0.8193774 +0.5719263 US/Arizona Lowell Observatory-LONEOS
NPO 248.466082 +35.095946 2180.000 0.8193769 +0.5719279 US/Arizona Navy Precision Optical Interferometer
L?? 248.463091 +35.099318 2182.000 0.8193434 +0.5719760 US/Arizona Unknown 250m N of Perkins 1.8-m
c24 248.335982 +35.202328 2195.000 0.8183131 +0.5734428 US/Arizona Lowell Clark 24" refractor
Dye 248.336015 +35.201881 2198.000 0.8183180 +0.5734367 US/Arizona Dyer 24-inch telescope, Lowell
L?3 248.334216 +35.202790 2197.000 0.8183087 +0.5734495 US/Arizona Unknown 170m WNW of Lowell Clark refractor
PDT 248.334046 +35.203960 2196.000 0.8182969 +0.5734661 US/Arizona Pluto discovery telescope
L?4 248.333534 +35.203037 2192.000 0.8183056 +0.5734526 US/Arizona Lowell unkn 70m WNW of L?3
L?5 248.332935 +35.202916 2189.000 0.8183064 +0.5734506 US/Arizona Lowell unkn 60m WSW of L?4 (small dome)
L?6 248.332796 +35.202930 2189.000 0.8183063 +0.5734508 US/Arizona Lowell roll-off roof 15m W of L?5
Five domes at (689) U. S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona.
I don't know which, if any, of the following should be used. At least
some (689) data came from FASTT, which (says Wi__p__ia) was "140m
southwest of the primary complex", in a location that shows up as
bushes on the imagery. The last three domes are not conclusively IDed,
and (u2f) may not even be a dome. 23m subtracted for geoid height.
KST 248.259279 +35.184047 2282.000 0.8185076 +0.5731907 US/Arizona Kaj Strand Telescope, Naval Obs. Flagstaff
13f 248.258917 +35.183863 2276.000 0.8185087 +0.5731875 US/Arizona 1.3-m f/4 reflector, Naval Obs. Flagstaff
10f 248.261570 +35.184356 2287.000 0.8185051 +0.5731955 US/Arizona 1.0-m Ritchey-Chretien, Naval Obs. Flagstaff?
u1f 248.261760 +35.184360 2288.000 0.8185052 +0.5731957 US/Arizona Unk small dome, Naval Obs. Flagstaff
u2f 248.261559 +35.184604 2281.000 0.8185019 +0.5731985 US/Arizona Unk small dome?, Naval Obs. Flagstaff
Not entirely sure which instrument at Greenwich was used for (000).
(I would guess the transit circle early on, and the 28" refractor later.)
The ATC location is from Wikipaedia; the refractor coordinates are from
G__gle Earth. 46-m geoid height.
000a 359.998528 +51.477805 96.000 0.6241071 +0.7787383 UK/England Airy Transit Circle, Greenwich
000b 359.998856 +51.477720 101.000 0.6241088 +0.7787380 UK/England 28" Great Refractor, Greenwich
Private communication, Marco Micheli. Corrected for 38m geoid height.
W98 291.820278 -22.953055 2435.000 0.9216453 -0.3877123 Chile Polonia Observatory, San Pedro de Atacama
Bernd Klemt was able to find Ernst Pollmann, a well-known German amateur
spectroscopist and observer at (072) Scheuren Observatory, near Koln in
Germany : https://astrospectroscopy.de/Observatory . Pollmann was able
to confirm that this is the site from which measurements were made by
Mr. Ehring. Bernd measured the coordinates below on Google Earth. 47
meters added for geoid height.
072 7.167647 +51.042472 266.000 0.6300468 +0.7740071 Germany Scheuren Observatory
Bernd found four possible positions for (572) Cologne, listed below
as (572a) to (572d). The MPC location is only given to 0.001 Earth
radius (about 6 km), and no observations are listed from it; we
don't know when it was active, so any of these four could be the
"real" (572). Bernd notes :
"In 1935 there was built an observatory on the roof of a school at
'Grosser Griechenmarkt' that was destroyed in WW II. Today there
exists an catholic elementary school with just this name at the
following coordinates :
572a 6.950649 +50.932411 101.000 0.6315222 +0.7727785 Germany Cologne, 1935-194?
In 1962 a new public observatory was built at the roof of the 'Schiller
Gymnasium' [high school], Nikolausstrasse 55, Koln-Sulz,
https://www.volkssternwartekoeln.de/ , which still exists..." (below
is 53m ASL, plus 47m geoid, plus 15m because the telescope is in a
dome on a roof.)
572b 6.930168 +50.923164 115.000 0.6316488 +0.7726786 Germany Cologne, Schiller Gymnasium
"There is also the 'Planetarium und Sternwarte Koln' at the Blucherstr.
15-17, also on top of a Gymnasium (high school), built 1960-1963.
They have two domes, as below. http://www.koelner-planetarium.de/ "
47m ASL, 47m geoid, ~20m building.
572c 6.956572 +50.966817 114.000 0.6310574 +0.7731582 Germany Planete und Sternwarte Koln, N dome
572d 6.956516 +50.966530 114.000 0.6310613 +0.7731550 Germany Planete und Sternwarte Koln, S dome
https://www.konkoly.hu/staff/racz/piszkesteto-en.html provides links
to maps, geodetic coordinates, and other data for three telescopes at
at Piszkéstető Mountain Station (Konkoly Observatory). The geodetic
coordinates are for the intersection of the RA/dec axes, the very point
you really want for orbital calculations. Those coordinates are given
below in their original degree/minutes/seconds form, to 0.1 second.
Much lower relative uncertainties are claimed, but 0.1 second = about
three meters. They are about ten meters north and seven meters east of
the coordinates measured from G__gle Earth (in decimal degrees, in
comments below). I don't know who's wrong, and it may reflect a difference
in geodetic datum. For both sources, a 43m geoid height is added.
The Web site mentions a 40-cm scope with a roll-off roof, but I
wasn't able to identify it on Google Earth. I think the '60/90/180 cm'
designation for the Schmidt means a 60-cm corrector plate (the 'real'
aperture), 90-cm spherical primary, and 180-cm focal length.
Krisztián Sárneczky tells me that (561) = the original MPC code for
this site, starting in the 1960s or 70s, and used only the Schmidt
telescope. (The first observations in the MPC database from (561) are
from 1974.) I've moved (561) accordingly. (K88) and (461) observations
are split between the 1m RC and the Schmidt, so I'm not moving either
(K88) or (461) and am instead storing coordinates for the other scopes
under new codes.
Krisztián also tells me that the '50-cm Cassegrain' mentioned at the
Konkoly Web site was retired in 2018 and replaced with an 80-cm RC.
G__gle : 561 !+19.893693 +47.917421 977. 60/90/180 cm Schmidt
561 19.894333 +47.918306 980.550 0.6715317 +0.7386986 Hungary Piszkesteto Stn. (Konkoly)
G__gle : Pis1!+19.894911 +47.916920 986. 1m RC, Piszkesteto
Pi1 19.895583 +47.917833 1003.610 0.6715402 +0.7386958 Hungary 1m Ritchey-Chretien, Piszkesteto
G__gle : Pis3!+19.893097 +47.918461 977. 50cm Cassegrain, now 80cm RC
Pi8 19.893833 +47.919392 991.100 0.6715187 +0.7387125 Hungary 80 cm Ritchey-Chretien, Piszkesteto
(H21) Astronomical Research Observatory scopes, measured with G__gle and
identified from http://www.astro-research.org/observatory_directory.htm .
215m ASL, -33m geoid height.
H21a 272.031659 +39.482992 182.000 0.7728820 +0.6324671 US/Illinois ARO 0.76-m
H21b 272.031751 +39.483006 182.000 0.7728819 +0.6324673 US/Illinois ARO 1.3-m
H21c 272.031826 +39.482998 182.000 0.7728819 +0.6324672 US/Illinois ARO 0.81-m
H21d 272.031893 +39.482990 182.000 0.7728820 +0.6324671 US/Illinois ARO 0.61-m
Crimea-Nauchnij telescopes, identified with https://mapcarta.com/W389837286
and http://crao.ru/en/telescopes-en, measured with G__gle Earth. I think
(ZTE) = (L51) MARGO, but it could be (AZT5) = (L51). MPC provides only
low-precision coordinates for MARGO, and lists it as a 65-cm f/1.5
astrograph. 26 m added for geoid height. (L52) MASTER-Tavrida may be
(z60N). Somebody who has been there would be required to sort it out.
ZTE 34.016123 +44.729590 621.000 0.7116860 +0.7002807 Ukraine ZTE, Crimea-Nauchnij
z60S 34.016711 +44.729219 619.000 0.7116903 +0.7002759 Ukraine Zeiss 60-cm (S), Crimea-Nauchnij
z40N 34.016138 +44.729130 623.000 0.7116919 +0.7002752 Ukraine Zeiss 40-cm, Crimea-Nauchnij
z60N 34.016591 +44.729742 623.000 0.7116844 +0.7002828 Ukraine Zeiss 60-cm (N), Crimea-Nauchnij
AZT5 34.015764 +44.729285 624.000 0.7116901 +0.7002772 Ukraine AZT-5
ZTSh 34.015824 +44.727959 628.000 0.7117068 +0.7002613 Ukraine 2.6-m Shajn (ZTSh), Crimea-Nauchnij
AZTe = 1.25-m Ritchey-Chretien, 16-m focal length
AZTe 34.017138 +44.726993 620.000 0.7117177 +0.7002484 Ukraine 1.25-m AZT-11, Crimea-Nauchnij
BabZ 34.015562 +44.726860 621.000 0.7117195 +0.7002469 Ukraine Babelsberg Zeiss 122cm, Crimea-Nauchnij
z40S 34.014549 +44.726602 614.000 0.7117219 +0.7002429 Ukraine Zeiss 40-cm (S), Crimea-Nauchnij
MTM = 50-cm Maksutov. RK8 = 80-cm Ritchey-Chretien. K380 = 38-cm Cassegrain.
MTM 34.015159 +44.726339 612.000 0.7117249 +0.7002395 Ukraine MTM-500, Crimea-Nauchnij
RK8 34.014463 +44.726117 607.000 0.7117270 +0.7002362 Ukraine RK-800, Crimea-Nauchnij
K380 34.015660 +44.726292 611.000 0.7117253 +0.7002388 Ukraine K-380, Crimea-Nauchnij
AT64 34.016021 +44.726321 612.000 0.7117251 +0.7002392 Ukraine AT-64, Crimea-Nauchnij
AZT8 34.013314 +44.727013 614.000 0.7117168 +0.7002480 Ukraine AZT-8, Crimea-Nauchnij
Mpa = 15m radio antenna in the Canary Islands. Position from
http://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/ESA_Ground_Stations/Maspalomas_station
Mpa 344.366200 +27.762888 205.100 0.8855547 +0.4630466 Canary Island Maspalomas Station
45m geoid height added to all Ondrejov alts. The (557) position, from
Petr Pravec, is where all observations since Nov 1993 were made. About
200 comet observations submitted for (557) between August 1992 and
November 1993 were actually made from (On7), an 18-cm scope on top of the
Solar department building, about 12m above ground; Petr kindly pointed
that one out and supplied lat/lon for it as well. This is about a 0.5
km difference; I don't think it matters for any of the observations,
but may be of historical interest.
557 14.779622 +49.914797 575.000 0.6452495 +0.7615283 Czech Republi Ondrejov 0.65m
L36 14.780100 +49.909430 562.000 0.6453198 +0.7614664 Czech Republi Ondrejov--BlueEye600 Telescope
On1 14.780960 +49.915150 574.000 0.6452447 +0.7615321 Czech Republi Ondrejov 2m
On2 14.781000 +49.909210 570.000 0.6453235 +0.7614649 Czech Republi W blue dome south of (557)
On3 14.781430 +49.909170 573.000 0.6453244 +0.7614648 Czech Republi E blue dome south of (557)
On4 14.779990 +49.909250 563.000 0.6453223 +0.7614645 Czech Republi Roll-off roof about 100m east of blue domes
On5 14.779720 +49.908580 558.000 0.6453307 +0.7614564 Czech Republi Ondrejov radio telescope (SW)
On6 14.782640 +49.913390 559.000 0.6452667 +0.7615105 Czech Republi Ondrejov radio telescope (NE)
On7 14.781907 +49.909089 580.000 0.6453262 +0.7614647 Czech Republi Ondrejov 18cm
McN 149.156460 -31.273690 610.000 0.8555511 -0.5161668 Australia/NSW Rob McNaught
Kau 24.048889 +54.920931 67.000 0.5760050 +0.8147182 Lithuania Kaunas
The MPC position for Skalnate Pleso is about 600 meters east of the
one given at https://www.ta3.sk/l3.php?p3=mph (and confirmed on G__gle
Maps).
056 20.234120 +49.189350 1828.000 0.6550054 +0.7534694 Slovakia Skalnate Pleso
https://www.klet.org/en/telescopes says that Klet Observatory has two
scopes : a 1.06-m f/3 KLENOT scope and a 0.57-m f/5.2 reflector. Two
domes show up in G__gle Maps, but I don't actually know which dome is
which. For the nonce, I have put (246) KLENOT in the dome that is
~20m northeast of the dome I have labelled as (046). Both points are
about 270 m north-northwest of the location given by MPC, so even if
I do have them backwards, it's an improvement over the current situation.
47m added for geoid height.
046 14.284480 +48.863760 1107.000 0.6592185 +0.7496607 Czech Republi Klet Observatory, Ceske Budejovice
246 14.284690 +48.863900 1107.000 0.6592167 +0.7496623 Czech Republi Klet Observatory-KLENOT
(907) Melbourne reported three positions of C/1917 F1 in 1917, and
then four more of 2P/Encke in 1918, and then they gave up. The following
position for (907) Melbourne Observatory is for the _current_ location
of the main dome at Melbourne Observatory, about 210m north of the
location given by MPC. This is a reconstruction of the original
observatory, but I can't tell from on-line sources if it's in the
same place. However, the MPC coordinates are given to 0.00001 Earth
radius = 63m precision. So I am at least not adding error by using
the following G__gle Earth coordinates. 5m added for geoid height.
907 144.975510 -37.829660 42.000 0.7908392 -0.6099827 Australia/VIC Melbourne
Further scopes near SkyMapper, identified using site maps at
https://rsaa.anu.edu.au/observers/travel-siding-spring-observatory
27m added for geoid height.
Note that (Q57) is unidentified at that map.
https://kmtnet.kasi.re.kr/kmtnet-eng/sites-data-process/ gives
a position matching the MPC's. Both are about 80m west of the position
shown on the map at the KMTNet site... which lands nicely on the
only unidentified dome from the SSO map.
Q55 149.061430 -31.272070 1190.000 0.8556434 -0.5161900 Australia/NSW SkyMapper, Siding Spring
Hun 149.061534 -31.271770 1171.000 0.8556436 -0.5161840 Australia/NSW Huntsman, Siding Spring
AN24 149.061678 -31.271589 1172.000 0.8556453 -0.5161814 Australia/NSW Australian National Univ 24-inch, Siding Spring
AN23 149.062396 -31.271647 1171.000 0.8556447 -0.5161821 Australia/NSW Australian National Univ 2.3-m, Siding Spring
AN16 149.062227 -31.272120 1183.000 0.8556420 -0.5161901 Australia/NSW Australian National Univ 16-inch, Siding Spring
AN40 149.062103 -31.271163 1180.000 0.8556503 -0.5161757 Australia/NSW Australian National Univ 40-inch, Siding Spring
Q57 149.062545 -31.271108 1167.000 0.8556490 -0.5161738 Australia/NSW Korea Microlensing Telescope Network-SSO
HatS 149.062060 -31.272295 1174.000 0.8556392 -0.5161920 Australia/NSW HAT-South, Siding Spring
Sola 149.061874 -31.272380 1175.000 0.8556386 -0.5161934 Australia/NSW Solaris telescope, Siding Spring
Upp5 149.064160 -31.273225 1151.000 0.8556278 -0.5162040 Australia/NSW Uppsala 0.5-m, Siding Spring
UNSW 149.064297 -31.273297 1149.000 0.8556268 -0.5162049 Australia/NSW 0.5-m UNSW Automated Patrol Telescope
UKSc 149.071132 -31.272289 1142.000 0.8556350 -0.5161893 Australia/NSW 1.2-m UK Schmidt, Siding Spring
AAO 149.067264 -31.275358 1161.000 0.8556099 -0.5162365 Australia/NSW 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope, Siding Spring
Ian Adams provided some "on-the-ground" corrections/additions for
Siding Spring. He pointed out the following two GOTO (Gravitational-
wave Optical Transient Observatory) scopes, and supplied a corrected
location for ROTSE (I'd mis-labelled the JAXA observatory as ROTSE) :
GOS 149.064123 -31.273454 1148.000 0.8556253 -0.5162071 Australia/NSW GOTO South
GON 149.064119 -31.273374 1149.000 0.8556262 -0.5162060 Australia/NSW GOTO North
ROTS 149.064040 -31.273364 1150.000 0.8556264 -0.5162059 Australia/NSW UNSW ROTSE Telescope, Siding Spring
Ian also identified a couple of roll-off roof structures in the
neighborhood that had me baffled :
JAXS 149.064204 -31.273410 1121.000 0.8556221 -0.5162043 Australia/NSW JAXA, Siding Spring
APT 149.064281 -31.273343 1122.000 0.8556228 -0.5162034 Australia/NSW APT, Siding Spring
Should check in with Las Cumbres folks to disambiguate the following :
Faul 149.070794 -31.272822 1146.000 0.8556307 -0.5161976 Australia/NSW Faulkes Telescope South?
FauA 149.070736 -31.272999 1145.000 0.8556290 -0.5162001 Australia/NSW Dome ~15m S of (Faul)
FauB 149.070621 -31.272919 1145.000 0.8556297 -0.5161989 Australia/NSW Dome ~15m WSW of (Faul)
The aforementioned Web site also has a link to an excellent site
map for Mount Stromlo. These were all destroyed in the 2003 bushfires.
Geoid height is 20m. Highlights :
St74 149.008898 -35.319125 786.000 0.8169596 -0.5749745 Australia/ACT 74-in reflector, Mt Stromlo
St26 149.009794 -35.318523 787.000 0.8169658 -0.5749661 Australia/ACT 26-in Yale-Columbia refractor, Mt Stromlo
St50 149.007461 -35.320406 786.000 0.8169467 -0.5749927 Australia/ACT 50-in reflector, Mt Stromlo
P07 114.089900 -21.895700 40.000 0.9283023 -0.3705965 Australia/WA Space Surveillance Telescope, HEH Station
SOR 253.536136 +34.964231 1892.000 0.8206554 +0.5700253 US/New Mexico Starfire Optical Range, Albuquerque
Private communication from Francois Kugel, 2021 Oct 18 : N 43 59' 59.26",
E 05 38' 48.96", alt 626m ASL. 51m added for geoid height.
A77 5.646930 +43.999790 677.000 0.7205834 +0.6911963 France Observatoire Chante-Perdrix, Dauban
Identification of Apache Point telescopes, from
https://www.apo.nmsu.edu/Site/usersguide/Facility.html . Altitude from
https://www.apo.nmsu.edu/ ; says it's already ellipsoidal. The MPC
positions for (705) and (645) both land on the 3.5-m dome, about 85m
north of the SDSS 2.5-m dome.
705a 254.179560 +32.780350 2788.000 0.8419460 +0.5385605 US/New Mexico Apache Point, 3.5-m
705b 254.179720 +32.780040 2788.000 0.8419489 +0.5385560 US/New Mexico New Mexico State Univ. 1.0-m, Apache Point
705c 254.179820 +32.779790 2788.000 0.8419513 +0.5385523 US/New Mexico ARCSAT 0.5-m, Apache Point
705d 254.179670 +32.779590 2788.000 0.8419532 +0.5385494 US/New Mexico Sloan Digital Sky Survey 2.5-m
Palomar telescopes identified via the site map at
http://ftp.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/observer/observertravel.html . (I41),
(261), and (644) all refer to the 48" Samuel Oschin telescope. (675) is
the location of the decommissioned 18" telescope. -32m correction for geoid.
P5m 243.134970 +33.356270 1662.000 0.8363320 +0.5468593 US/California Palomar 5m
60P 243.140280 +33.348350 1648.000 0.8364059 +0.5467430 US/California Palomar 1.5m
Coords from Andrea Mattei.
L78 14.780211 +40.682609 134.000 0.7594291 +0.6484410 Italy San Marco Observatory, Salerno
The MPC coordinates for Bucharest were in a pond. I thought that one of
these two domes, about 60m apart from each other and ~300m south-southwest
of the MPC coordinates, was the "right" place. 37m added for geoid height.
073a 26.094870 +44.410950 124.000 0.7155267 +0.6962709 Romania Bucharest (northern dome)
073b 26.094850 +44.410380 134.000 0.7155347 +0.6962649 Romania Bucharest (southern dome)
About 180 meters NW of the above pair is a pair of smaller domes, about
20m from each other :
073c 26.093780 +44.412240 134.000 0.7155121 +0.6962881 Romania Bucharest (small NE dome)
073d 26.093620 +44.412070 134.000 0.7155141 +0.6962860 Romania Bucharest (small SW dome)
However, Adrian Sonka tells me the actual location is none of these;
it is a roll-off roof observatory a little southeast of the above pair.
(MPC has since 'moved' (073) to these coordinates.)
073 26.093910 +44.411970 134.000 0.7155154 +0.6962847 Romania Bucharest
The MPC coordinates for Geneva are about 190m north-northeast of the dome
as seen on G__gle Maps. Corrected location from Stephan Hellmich.
50m added for geoid height.
517 6.134980 +46.309175 509.000 0.6920338 +0.7195551 Switzerland Geneva (from 1967)
The following position is from a GPS survey, from a private communication
from Mike Nolan. _Horizons_ uses an almost identical position, except
with altitude 450.557m. Possibly an ellipsoid difference? And a VLBI
survey reported by Dave Graham differs by ~5 meters, mostly in altitude
(I don't know which way). The MPC position is horrible, about 90m south
and at altitude 504m. On G__gle Maps, it's almost halfway off the dish.
251 293.247307 +18.344219 453.340 0.9495652 +0.3127442 US/Puerto Ric Arecibo
UAZ 249.052639 +32.232722 100.000 0.8467086 +0.5303024 US/Arizona University of Arizona 24"
DSS 47 isn't in the aforementioned file where I got data for other DSN
locations. The following coordinates came a private communication from
Jon Giorgini at JPL.
d47 149.550139 -30.312885 236.870 0.8640512 -0.5017897 Australia/NSW DSS 47
(Opt) is a 'floating' location, used internally in Find_Orb. It is the
'best' topocentric location for observing an object at a given time (puts
the object well above the horizon and the sun well below it), and
therefore moves around as the Earth rotates and the object moves around
in the sky.
Opt 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Optimal topocentric location
One can specify a 'code' for a group of individual codes. In ephemerides,
the 'best' code for a given time and object will be chosen (ideally, object
high in the sky and sun well below the horizon). The individual codes
collected in a group code are specified in 'environ.dat' (q. v.)
LC1 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Las Cumbres Observatory (1m)
LC2 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 Las Cumbres Observatory (2m)
ATL 0.000000 +0.000000 0.000 0.0000000 +0.0000000 ATLAS (all scopes)
RA2 249.152930 +32.581105 1190.000 0.8436063 +0.5355084 US/Arizona RAPTORS-2
RMI 145.061634 -37.680589 160.400 0.7924422 -0.6079430 Australia/VIC RMIT Robotic Optical Observatory
TCO 203.559472 +20.709722 59.000 0.9357845 +0.3514166 US/Hawaii Tennis Court Observatory, Maui
Identified some Perth Observatory scopes from an annotated map at
http://www.phys.ttu.edu/~ozprof/pobs.htm , which also describes some of
the scopes at this facility. Perth has three official MPC codes, (319),
(322), and (323). I don't know to which telescopes those last two refer.
Pe1 116.135450 -32.007730 355.000 0.8488223 -0.5270107 Australia/WA UWA 16" telescope
319 116.136450 -32.006900 355.000 0.8488300 -0.5269984 Australia/WA Perth Observatory, Perth-Lowell Telescope
Pe2 116.136070 -32.007100 355.000 0.8488281 -0.5270014 Australia/WA Perth Observatory Transit Telescope
Pe3 116.136480 -32.007770 355.000 0.8488220 -0.5270112 Australia/WA Perth Observatory 13" Astrograph
Pe4 116.136480 -32.007420 355.000 0.8488252 -0.5270061 Australia/WA Perth Observatory unidentified 1
Pe5 116.136630 -32.007160 355.000 0.8488276 -0.5270023 Australia/WA Perth Observatory unidentified 2
Pe6 116.136450 -32.007290 355.000 0.8488264 -0.5270042 Australia/WA Perth Observatory roll-off roof?
The MPC location for (662) Lick is about 200 meters east-southeast of the
nearest telescope (36" refractor). I don't know which telescope(s) really
corresponds to (662); I am putting it at the location for the 36"
refractor, which is at least an improvement by ~200 meters. Site map is
https://mthamilton.ucolick.org/techdocs/practical_info/lick_map.html
32 meters subtracted for geoid height.
662 238.356985 +37.341081 1273.000 0.7961784 +0.6033624 US/California Lick Observatory, 36" refractor
662a 238.357123 +37.341707 1264.000 0.7961706 +0.6033702 US/California Lick Observatory, 40" reflector
662b 238.359754 +37.341893 1241.000 0.7961658 +0.6033706 US/California Lick Observatory, 22" Touchmann reflector
662c 238.361207 +37.342747 1252.000 0.7961582 +0.6033835 US/California Lick Observatory, Crocker dome
662d 238.361778 +37.342536 1250.000 0.7961601 +0.6033804 US/California Lick Observatory, Automatic Planet Finder scope
662e 238.361997 +37.342617 1251.000 0.7961594 +0.6033816 US/California Lick Observatory, Double Astrograph
662f 238.362843 +37.342842 1245.000 0.7961563 +0.6033841 US/California Lick Observatory, Coude' Auxiliary telescope
662g 238.362791 +37.343034 1246.000 0.7961544 +0.6033869 US/California Lick Observatory, 120" Shane telescope
662h 238.365177 +37.343376 1265.000 0.7961531 +0.6033934 US/California Lick Observatory, Katzman Automatic Imaging telescope
(672) Mount Wilson scopes identified via
https://www.mtwilson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/MWO-Campus-Map-Printable.pdf
The MPC position is at least in the right ballpark, such that I don't
know which way to move it (again, I don't know which of the following was
the "real" (672).) I've omitted (G73), the 24" scope used for TIE (Telescopes
In Education). It was moved from Mount Wilson in 2007. I don't know where it
was when it was in use, but the MPC position is probably about 1.3 km south of
reality; it's way out in the woods. 33 meters subtracted for geoid height.
672a 241.942513 +34.224572 1695.000 0.8279361 +0.5594148 US/California Mount Wilson, 60"
672b 241.942814 +34.225873 1690.000 0.8279227 +0.5594330 US/California Mount Wilson, 100" Hooker
672c 241.942947 +34.224403 1696.000 0.8279379 +0.5594124 US/California Mount Wilson, CHARA S1
672d 241.942890 +34.224699 1699.000 0.8279353 +0.5594169 US/California Mount Wilson, CHARA S2
672e 241.941037 +34.226347 1683.000 0.8279171 +0.5594392 US/California Mount Wilson, CHARA W1
672f 241.942177 +34.226189 1685.000 0.8279190 +0.5594371 US/California Mount Wilson, CHARA W2
672g 241.944306 +34.227149 1660.000 0.8279063 +0.5594487 US/California Mount Wilson, CHARA E1
672h 241.943708 +34.226829 1674.000 0.8279113 +0.5594454 US/California Mount Wilson, CHARA E2
Private communication from Gary Hug. 32m subtracted for geoid height.
H36 264.293446 +38.797700 322.000 0.7804287 +0.6232291 US/Kansas Sandlot Observatory, Scranton
SQO 273.473611 +38.977028 153.000 0.7784485 +0.6256420 US/Indiana Star Quarry Observatory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassar_College_Observatory provides the
following position for (794), and explains that it is the 'historic'
observatory. Positions from (794) in MPC data are all quite old and
would have come from this location, which is about 300 meters west
of the MPC coordinates for it. The new observatory has three domes
visible on G__gle Maps; see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_of_1951_Observatory .
794 286.106690 +41.688290 55.000 0.7478887 +0.6616114 US/New York Vassar College Observatory, Poughkeepsie
VCe 286.109550 +41.682950 55.000 0.7479505 +0.6615420 US/New York Vassar College (since 1997), larger east dome
VCw 286.109370 +41.682950 55.000 0.7479505 +0.6615420 US/New York Vassar College (since 1997), larger west dome
VCn 286.109460 +41.683230 55.000 0.7479473 +0.6615456 US/New York Vassar College (since 1997), small north dome
(Roz) is a new telescope near (071), described at
https://www.ta3.sk/caosp/Eedition/Abstracts/2024/Vol_54/No_2/pp15-21_abstract.html
Coordinates for it, and for (AOB), are via a private communication
from Rositsa Miteva.
Roz 24.738330 +41.696940 1762.000 0.7479883 +0.6619019 Bulgaria 1.5-m NAO Rozhen, Smolyan
AOB 22.675000 +43.622777 650.000 0.7251275 +0.6864535 Bulgaria AO Belogradchik
Gael Musquet supplied the coordinates for the following two telescopes.
VO1 1.499140 +49.103662 169.222 0.6559656 +0.7522952 France Vernon Observatory CB
VO2 1.497679 +49.107085 170.486 0.6559206 +0.7523344 France Vernon Observatory L1
BoR 7.192566 +51.426990 159.650 0.6248066 +0.7781937 Germany Bochum radio observatory
Cha 16.112500 -23.290000 1182.000 0.9191666 -0.3930172 Namibia Chamaeleon Observatory
McC 281.670834 +44.331944 206.770 0.7164985 +0.6952961 Canada/Ontari Hevans Drive Observatory
088 31.827694 +29.934000 494.000 0.8673911 +0.4961138 Egypt Kottamia
OKC 262.328213 +35.411143 390.000 0.8159824 +0.5762440 US/Oklahoma Oklahoma City test site
Code Longitude Latitude Altitude rho_cos rho_sin_phi region