Death Valley Observatories

An independent telescope-hosting facility on the edge of Death Valley, in the Mojave Desert. It is where Mary Astronomy’s first instrument will be hosted.
CaliforniaNevadaDeath Valleyapproximate areaSchematic. Not to scale, and not a survey.
The operator does not publish a street address or coordinates, so this shows the region rather than a point. Nothing here is used to point a telescope.

Why this site

A remote telescope is only as good as the sky above it and the power and network underneath it. This facility exists to host other people’s instruments, which means the things that are hard to arrange alone — a hard-standing pier, grid power with backup, a roof that closes itself when weather arrives, and someone on site — are already there.

What the operator reports

These are Death Valley Observatories’ own published figures. Mary Astronomy has not independently measured them.

Elevation
2,657 ft (810 m)
Sky brightness
21.97 mag/arcsec²
The operator reports Bortle 1 measurements taken inside the observatory.
Clear nights
over 300 per year
Average humidity
29%
Seeing
nights reaching 0.8″ FWHM
Site area
10 acres (40,000 m²)
Connectivity
1 Gbps up and down, redundant
Wind rating
engineered to 150 mph (250 km/h)

Facilities

The operator describes permanent piers in three sizes, grid power with a backup generator and UPS, well water and septic, an air-conditioned observatory building held below 28 °C, and a 320 sq ft workshop with tools and spare equipment. Monitoring covers seeing, cloud and wind, with an automatic roof that closes on bad weather, alarms and 24-hour camera security. Staff are described as available around the clock, with weekly cleaning and telescope maintenance included.

Where it is

The operator locates itself “on the edge of Death Valley, within the pristine dark skies of the Mojave Desert”, and receives visitors by appointment only. It does not publish a street address or coordinates, so this page shows the region and no more.

Not the national park

Death Valley National Park is a separate place and a separate organisation. This is a private hosting facility near it, and nothing on this page describes the park.