Sierra Remote Observatories

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Since the founding of Sierra Remote Observatories (SRO) in 2007, we have been striving to make it a premiere destination for automated astronomical data collection and imaging, satellite tracking and space communication. After an exhaustive search, we chose our site for its unique combination of infrastructure accessibility, exceptional seeing, darkness, mild weather and location. We have 1 arcsecond summer seeing (1.2 arcsecond winter seeing), 290 clear days per year, dark skies, average wind speeds of only 1 mph, no summer monsoons, and only rare thunderstorms. Our location in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at 4610 feet keeps us above the central valley inversion zone without being so high as to incur brutal winter conditions. We are accessible all year round, being only one hour by car from the Fresno-Yosemite International Airport.

We have a robust infrastructure at SRO. We have standard fiber optic internet at 1 Gbps upload and download speeds (full duplex). Dedicated fiber optic cable with higher gigabit speeds are available. This robust fiber optic internet service is backed up with Starlink, in the event of an unlikely service outage. On-site power is backed up by an all site industrial grade Generac generator. We have a secure VPN with systems redundancy. We have 24/7 surveillance. SRO has full time 24/7 technical support with local and on-site machine shop and computer services available. The owner lives on site with our technical support minutes away within the town of Auberry. Most repairs are performed on-site and we can ship more complicated issues within 24 hours, reassembling your telescope upon their return.

SRO began as our private observatory but quickly grew into a professional site for data collection and imaging, satellite tracking and space communications. We currently have 12 operational observatories and over 60 telescopes in operation at SRO. The first observatories constructed at SRO were the eight smaller 10' x 12' roll-off roof private observatories generally used for those who need or desire their own personal observatory. We have since added four large multi-telescope roll-off roof observatories. The most recent buildings being 30 x 40 foot in size with 10 foot ceilings, with two 20 x 24 foot multi-telescope buildings currently under construction. These roll-off roof structures are ideal for out site in view of our average wind speed of only 1 mph. Our observatories have telescopes of various sizes, from 0.7 meters to smaller refractor telescopes. Meter class telescope can also be accommodated in dome or roll-off roof observatories.

As for our size, we currently have 125 telescopes operating at SRO. We always begin construction of new buildings before the site is full. Currently there are 2 new multi-telescope roll-off roof observatories under construction.

Our clients include astronomers from universities and astronomical institutes, space industry professionals, and amateur astrophotographers from around the world. To our existing clients, many of which have been with us since first light in 2007, we are grateful for your trust. For our new and future clients we extend to you a warm welcome to SRO.