Since 2001 we have made an unprecedented move in the world of professional telescopes. Tenagra Observatories is offering time on its 0.81-m (32") automated system to academic institutions. The Tenagra II telescope is the most efficient automated telescope in the world. This is the first telescope time offering of its kind.

Tenagra Observatories is a complex of privately owned telescopes in S. Arizona, Oregon, Norway and Western Australia. Tenagra already has research partnerships with Lick Observatory, USNO, CalTech, Wesleyan, U. of N. Carolina. Tenagra is well known for its photometric studies and supernovae/minor planet (MPC codes 848 and 926) discoveries. The observatory complex has one telescope currently offering time: 0.81-m (32") F7 Ritchey-Chretien.  It is 100% automated, data is taken unattended and immediately provided to users for real-time FTP download.

The Tenagra site was chosen specifically for its excellent seeing averaged over the S. Arizona observing season from September 15 to June 15. The typical night has 2" FWHM seeing. The site has virtually 100% coverage of the skies at longitude west 110° 52’ 44.8", latitude +31° 27’ 44.4", altitude 1,312m (4,306 feet). The site is in the Sonoran desert and in close proximity with Mt. Hopkins, Kitt Peak and other major observatories. Typical humidity is less than 15% and quite often single digits.

Considering that the Tenagra II telescope goes to ~ magnitude 22 (see below) in a single 5-minute unfiltered exposure, hundreds of faint NEOs are accessible to observation on any given night, and many tens can be observed on a given night. This includes all objects newly found by the big NEO surveys and listed on the NEO Confirmation Page. Similarly, quite a few TNOs are also readily accessible to the 32" telescope on any given night. A complete UBVRI series of a galaxy can easily be accomplished in 60 minutes exposure time.

Your data is held in the STRICTEST CONFIDENTIALITY and is owned by you, not Tenagra Observatories or anyone else.  We understand the importance of your research program and its results.  We only request that if you publish results based on the use of a Tenagra Observatory telescope that you provide a citation to this effect.

We expect that available time on this remarkable instrument will not last long and preference will be given to those institutions or individuals who can make longer time commitments. Special introductory rates are available for those who wish to use the telescope for ½ or full nights.

This is Tenagra Observatories’ flagship telescope. It is an F7 Ritchey-Chretien. The science camera is SITe based 1024 X 1024 X 24u liquid heat removal yielding ~0.87" per pixel. Field of view is ~14.8 X 14.8 arcminutes. Chip temperature is maintained at a constant –40° C. year round. Pointing accuracy is an amazing 10 arc seconds RMS. Even more remarkable, exposures of at least 300s can be taken without need for guiding thereby saving enormous amounts of telescope time that would be dedicated to guide star acquisition. A highly accurate automated refocus occurs between filter changes. Tenagra II is the only production telescope in the world designed for fully automated use and massive data acquisition.

Filters on Tenagra II are the best available. All are Johnson/Cousins, Bessel prescription. Yes, there is room if you wish to add your 50mm filter(s).

[Click Here For A Measured Transmission Graph of Tenagra II Filters]

As of May 1, 2006 the Tenagra spectrograph is available for general use.  To our knowledge, this is the second (and maybe the first) 100% automated spectrograph in the world.  It is a low dispersion system (R=500) and can get reasonably good S/N down to about 13th magnitude.  Resolution is 5 Angstroms per pixel.  Requests for spectra can be intermixed with requests for images.  Click here for an in-depth discussion of how to request spectra.