Seeing Conditions: 1 Arcsecond Seeing 21.90 Mag/Sq Arcsec Darkness 290 Clear Nights/year No Summer Monsoons Average Wind Speed of 1 mph |
Infrastructure: 24/7 Technical Support Easy Access Fiber Optic Internet (Gigabit speeds available) Machine Shop Services |
Remote Astronomical Data Acquisition from the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Sierra Remote Observatories (SRO) provides hosting services for remotely operated telescopes at an exceptional site in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. SRO has been continuously in operation since 2007, currently hosting more than 60 telescope systems and growing. We are honored to host a roster of clients, which include astronomers from universities and science institutes, space industry professionals, and astrophotographers. Our site has:
• 1 arcsecond summer seeing
• 21.90 mag/sq arcsecond darkness
• 290 clear nights each year
• an average wind speed of 1 mph
• rare thunderstorms
• no summer monsoons
• high speed fiber optic internet
• 1 Gbps with higher speeds available
• Starlink internet backup
• 24/7 technical support
• on-site machine shop services
• secure VPN with redundancy
• all site generator backup
• two hours of free tech support each month
• on-site headquarters
• client facilities
We have fiber optic internet with standard 1 Gbps download and upload speeds (full duplex), with higher speeds and dedicated fiber available. Access to the site is easy, being only one hour by car from the Fresno-Yosemite International Airport. We have full time 24/7 technical support with local and on-site machine shop and computer services available. Most repairs are performed on-site and we can ship more complicated issues within 24 hours. We will then reassemble your telescope and make it ready for your use.
Site Conditions
A significant number of clear nights (290/year), calm weather, and year-round accessibility are just a few factors that contribute to our excellent site conditions.
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Services & Support
Full-time, experienced support staff, along with on-site machine shop services. Standard free support (two hours each month) and more extensive monthly hosting support packages are also available.
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Hosting Services
SRO offers telescope hosting in multi-telescope shared observatories, private observatories and custom observatories. You place your telescope and imaging system at SRO and we provide the excellent site conditions and infrastructure. Hosting service packages include: base pier, power (with generator back-up), fiber optic internet (with Starlink backup), network services (including secure VPN, with redundancy), telemetry services, and on-site support. We handle the infrastructure and provide a site with excellent seeing so you can focus on data acquisition, imaging, satellite tracking and communications.
To inquire about observatory availability at SRO, including private, multi-telescope or custom observatories, please contact us via email at [email protected].