Latest News
MMT October Observing Statistics
Aug 23, 2010
Percentage of time scheduled for observing 100.0
Percentage of time scheduled for engineering 0.0
Percentage of time scheduled for sec/instr change 0.0
Percentage of time lost to weather 37.5
Percentage of time lost to instrument 7.3
Percentage of time lost …
Canoa Road Underpass Closure
Nov 07, 2009
Effective Monday, November 3, 2008.
The underpass at Canoa Road is scheduled to close for approximately 6 -7 weeks (until mid-December). Southbound drivers on I-19 will need to use the Arivaca exit (exit 48) and then double back north on …
The New Red Channel Detector
Oct 19, 2009
The installation and testing of a new detector for Red Channel has been completed by the UofA’s Imaging Technology Laboratory (ITL). The new device has 15-micron pixels and a format of 520 x 1032 pixels (spatial x dispersion). The read …
MMT September Observing Statistics
Oct 12, 2009
Percentage of time scheduled for observing 96.7
Percentage of time scheduled for engineering 3.3
Percentage of time scheduled for sec/instr change 0.0
Percentage of time lost to weather 26.3
Percentage of time lost to instrument 0.1
Percentage of time lost …
Bear Sighting
Oct 10, 2009
In recent weeks there has been many sightings of bears around Mt Hopkins and the observatory, including a family of three. They are often seen up in the trees munching on the ripe nuts.
On Monday morning as the …
All Over!
Oct 09, 2009
LCROSS successfully impacted the moon at 4.31am (MST)!! NASA will be having a news conference at 7.00am (PDT) on NASA TV.
We collected data with multiple instruments throughout the impact and for an hour after it. We now have a multitude …
T-30 mins!
Oct 09, 2009
The last blog before impact (and probably for a while after the impact as I’ll be busy reducing the data we observe!)
Everything here is good – sky is clear with 0.5″ seeing! Could not have asked for a better …
Countdown continues…
Oct 09, 2009
At 1.31am (MST) NASA will count down to T-3 hours mark for the centaur impact. We are busily working away making sure we have all our cameras aligned (we are using 4 different camera’s for different purposes …
LCROSS: It all comes down to tonight…
Oct 09, 2009
After being involved in the LCROSS project and preparation for the ground based observations from the MMT over the last 18 months it has all come down to tonight. We have one shot at getting these observations so the nerves …
Watching LCROSS impact!
Oct 09, 2009
Want to see professional astronomers at work? We are taking the unique time of the LCROSS experiment to give you all a direct view into the world of a professional observatory for one night only!
We will be streaming images …