Tenagra Observatories is a complex of privately owned telescopes in S

March 2, 2009. The new 16" f/3.75 astrograph with a 4K X 4K X 9μ pixel KAF-16801 camera is being installed. This will provide sampling of 1.3" per pixel, and a total field of view of 1.48º square. This will make Tenagra III an excellent NEO/Comet observing and wide field photometric instrument. Expected installation time is end of April, 2010. This telescope will be as fully automated as the Tenagra II including GRB interruption. It's filter wheel has LRGB filters as well as UBVRI and clear. Contact us to reserve time.

February 24, 2009. Tenagra Observatories has implemented an automatic GRB (or other transient) response system. A single FTP upload from a GRB user will automatically interrupt the Tenagra II or III run, slew to the provided GRB coordinates and begin a user-defined series of images. Interested users can demo this feature before purchasing GRB rights. Contact Michael Schwartz at mbs@tenagraobservatories.com for additional information.

In the course of the many NEO recoveries and follow-ups done recently with the Tenagra II 32", we have discovered at least 5 main belt asteroids. We don't have the time to follow them up, although we do submit an initial report to the MPC as do the surveys such as Catalina and LINEAR. If you are interested in discoveries there are clearly some to be made in the 20-21rst magnitude range, especially if your searches are optimized for main belt MPs.

September 29, 2009. The Tenagra II 32" is the most efficient NEO telescope in the world over the last 3 days thanks to the efforts of expert NEO hunter, Paulo Holvorcem:

June 3, 2009. Recovery of Comet P2002 JN 16 (LINEAR). Tenagra II helps Russia's Leonid Elenin recover this comet and detects a tail.

March 3, 2009. While Tenagra has made quite many minor planet discoveries, we have officially named the following four:

(70401) Davidbishop = 1999 RH241
(131186) Pauluckas = 2001 DS
(123860) Davederrick = 2001 DX

March 1, 2009. Tenagra II 32" Telescope & Observatory Control Hardware and Software Have Been Completely Replaced.

• A TPOINT derived pointing model (also applied to tracking) is in place, rather than a proprietary algorithm, and includes correction for atmospheric refraction. Tracking errors are eliminated up to 5 to 10 minute exposures. Pointing is about 10 arc seconds RMS.

• The telescope focuses before every exposure rather than 4 or 5 times a night. Focus is based upon temperature, telescope altitude and filter choice.

• Complete replacement of all electronics and older computers. Previously it took 2 computers in the dome to run the scope. Now it takes one. This means even greater up time and no dependence on legacy hardware and software. In fact, the telescope can operate with no computer which provides an excellent fail-safe.

• The telescope can now track in non-sidereal rates (of great interest to NEO & comet observers).

• We now have the ability to use a guide scope (although none is currently attached or needed).

• Users can take manual control of the scope and dome using common planetarium programs and full manual control of filter wheel, focus, dome control and support for a large variety of cameras. The system is now 100% ASCOM compatible.

February 14, 2009. Tenagra tests non-sidereal tracking on NEO 2009 BO58. This is by far the best way to get a magnitude and position data on fast moving objects.

2009 BO58 is an Aten object (orbital period 281 days)
Magnitude 19.5
Motion 3.0 deg/day
Diameter estimated at 80-250 m
distance 25 million km from Earth
Observed from Tenagra 4.5 h after discovery by the Mt. Lemmon Survey
MPEC announcing the discovery: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K09/K09B85.html
Image shows a 6.5' x 6.5' subframe from the original 14.8' x 14.8' full frame
Exposure time: 180 seconds

January 24, 2009. Tenagra donates time to a high school team to recover their asteroid and hopefully gain the right to name it. Click here for details.

January 15, 2009. The Norway Tenagra telescope images the "The Stardust Spacecraft" on a mission to re-image comet Tempel 1 in 2011.

September 11, 2008. The Tenagra II 32" began its 2008-2009 observing season on September 15th. It will end July 1, 2009.

April 2, 2008. Dr. Rachel Street (working at Las Cumbres, this years Tenagra 100% user) has announced 10 new planets discovered in part through their use of the Tenagra II 32" telescope. This is an extraordinary contribution to the number of exo-planets discovered and we are proud that the Tenagra 32" is a major player! Click here.

April 2, 2008. The Tenagra station in W. Australia, run by Paul Luckas, discovers SN2008bq. Odd Trondal, of Tenagra, Norway, performed the automated analysis to spot the SNe.

February 17, 2008. The Tenagra II 32" telescope time has already been sold out for the 2008-2009 observing season. Contact Michael Schwartz if you wish to use any other Tenagra telescopes.

October 6, 2007. Long lost asteroid 6344 P-L was co-recovered as 2007 RR9 by SETI (http:/aurigid.seti.org:80) and Tenagra Observatories Western Australia station. This is a potentially hazardous "dead" comet nucleus. See the news section at SETI and an animated GIF made by Paulo Holvorcem requested by SETI: http:/aurigid.seti.org:80/2007_RR9_071003.gif

October 3, 2007. Paulo Holvercem and Paul Luckas (Tenagra W. Australia) cooperate to recover 2000 TH1. It was found 9.8 deg from the nominal position. If it had been 3 FOVs further out from the nominal position, it would have been missed. The search covered 21 deg along the recovery line, 10.5 deg on each side of the
nominal position. Paulo Holvorcem and Paul Luckas once again show that when working as a team the most difficult recoveries are possible. Congratulations to Paulo and Paul, a true intercontinental cooperation under the Tenagra name. Without such marvelous cooperation this NEO would certainly have been lost.

October 2, 2007. Congratulations to Peter and and friends from Sternwarte Aichwald in Germany. He and his coworkers are starting a new observatory for public work, including imaging. They will use the 102 CD DSS donated by Tenagra Observatories to compare to their telescope galaxy images. Good luck Peter!

September 21, 2007. Congratulations to Mark Johnson and friends from San Jose, CA, for writing a beautiful message about how he can use RealSky on his notebook for his own visual observations and those of his friends. He has chased down Stephan's Quintet of galaxies with his C11! We hope that further use of the Tenagra Observatories donated RealSky will help him find those "fuzzies" and that he and his friends keep holding public nights. Good luck Mark!

August 31, 2007. FREE! We have a copy of RealSky and the DSS (102 CD Digital Sky Survey) free to the first amateurs who request them by writing a paragraph or two about what they will do with them. We will even pay the shipping. Both sets of CDs are made from the original Palomar Sky Survey (and UK Schmidt in Australia for the southern sky). We are simply not using them and would like to see them go to an individual or club who would use them for research or fun. Send your submission to Michael Schwartz at mbs@tenagraobservatories.com.

August 13, 2007. Tenagra Observatories Western Australia recovers MP 2002SV not far from the southern celestial pole:

K02S00V C2007 08 11.88203 03 56 22.13 -76 48 40.3          19.3 R EP041D21
K02S00V C2007 08 11.88652 03 56 19.02 -76 48 40.0          19.2 R EP041D21
K02S00V C2007 08 11.89029 03 56 16.26 -76 48 39.0          19.1 R EP041D21
K02S00V C2007 08 12.88581 03 45 03.37 -76 43 39.2          18.3 R EP041D21
K02S00V C2007 08 12.88933 03 45 00.88 -76 43 38.3          18.8 R EP041D21
K02S00V C2007 08 12.89284 03 44 57.83 -76 43 37.5          19.2 R EP041D21

Observer details:
D21 Shenton Park. Observers P. Luckas, P. R. Holvorcem, M. Schwartz.
    Measurer P. R. Holvorcem. 0.35-m f/9.4 Schmidt-Cassegrain + CCD.

August 10, 2007. Tenagra Observatories is honored by long-time user, J.C. Merlin of France, who has named one of his asteroid discoveries after us. Henceforth, asteroid 2005 UD4 discovered 2005 Oct. 26 by Jean-Claude Merlin at Tenagra II will be known as asteroid "(155142) Tenagra" with the following official citation: "The name Tenagra comes from a mythic island in a Star Trek series episode. It is an exploration of how far people can go in the spirit of cooperation. The Tenagra observatories are operated by Michael Schwartz and Paulo Holvorcem. This minor planet has been found from the discoverer's home in France with the fully robotic 32 inch (81 cm) telescope of the Nogales station (Arizona)."

Thank you, Jean-Claude for honoring us. We are flattered and appreciative. We really do thank you for your patronage and support.

June 19, 2007. Tenagra creates another "first" by fully automating the 14" telescope at Tenagra, W. Australia, as an MP/Comet hunting system. It is a totally automated system for moving object search and detection. Scheduling and moving object detection software by Paulo Holvorcem reports ONLY true moving objects from the W. Australia site. Paul Luckas, the operator of Tenagra W. Australia, has done an excellent job of upgrading the computers and reducing the focal length such that this project can cover as much sky as possible. Bravo Paul and Paulo! Anyone interested in using a Paramount-based system for totally automated moving object detection should contact Paulo Holvorcem at holvorcem@mpc.com.br.

April 1, 2007. Tenagra hosts team of French astronomers for observation of the occultation of a star by Pluto. We had a great time! Good company, fine cooperation and good science. All photography courtesy Dr. Bruno Sicardy:

March 15, 2007. The Tenagra station in W. Australia, run by Paul Luckas, discovers SN2007as close to the southern galactic pole. Odd Trondal, of Tenagra in Norway, performed the automated analysis to spot the SNe.

March 11, 2007. How busy can a fully automated telescope get? Here are some stats for the Tenagra II 32" this year (from November 1, 2006 to March 11, 2007):

125 active nights out of 131 clear nights (95.4% up time)
25,592 slews
Total slew distance in RA: 113,448.6 degrees
Total slew distance in Dec: 107,829.8 degrees
804 bias frames
620 dark frames
4,481 flat fields
18,455 science exposures
563.63 h of total science exposure time
11,559 filter changes
1,229 automated focusings

May 1, 2006. The Tenagra fully automated spectrograph is now online. Tenagra clients who wish to use the spectrograph should contact Michael Schwartz at mbs@tenagraobservatories.com. Click here if you want an in-depth description of how to request spectra.

Tenagra Observatories is expanding. Stations have been opened in Western Australia and Norway. The Australian site (Paul Luckas) will finally give us access to the southern skies. The Norwegian site (Odd Trondal) will give us great northern coverage during the very long winter nights. Both sites are non-commercial and will spend virtually all observing time on supernova search and GRB follow-up.

March 19, 2004. Two objects within 10 degrees of each other in the sky: the farthest member of the solar system and the closest (at least temporarily)!

This is a still image of 2004 FH. It is a 4-sec exposure taken on March 19.1 UT. This 100 foot object was at about 120,000 km from Earth (within the orbit of the moon), moving away from earth at 120 deg/day with respect to the stars, quickly fading and going into solar conjunction. It is estimated that many more of these (and larger) bodies pass very close to the earth and are never detected.

When Dr. Michael Brown and NASA needed confirmation of Sedna guess who they came to for verification? Tenagra Observatories. The MPEC (list of observations announcing the discovery) shows that the Tenagra II 32" (0.81-m) telescope at Station 926 (Tenagra in S. Arizona) produced the second set of measurements of the object that will forever change our idea of the solar system. We congratulate Michael Brown and his collaborators on the most astounding discovery in the outer solar system since Clyde Tombaugh found Pluto in 1930. We thank them for their trust and patronage. It is an honor to be a footnote in the history of unveiling of the new outer solar system. We expect to continue to recover lost objects and confirm discoveries for CalTech and many other professional installations. Thank you for your confidence in Tenagra.

The official published measurements and brightness estimations of Sedna are available on http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K04/K04E45.html
In addition, the object has been given a technical designation of 2003 VB12.

June 12, 2003. One of the world's busiest telescopes? Certainly yes. Between January, 2003 and mid-May, 2003 the Tenagra II telescope has:

94 Active Nights

55,427 Telescope Slews
54,231 Exposures
2,956 Flat Fields
231 Darks
50,511 Science Images
1,878 Automated Filter Changes

You can more than double these numbers for the total Arizona observing season, from about mid September to end of June.

June 10, 2003. We take pride in the fact that Tenagra gathers many, many kinds of astronomical data and is setting the standard for the ultimate automated telescopes. Here is an overview of some of the NEO work done at Tenagra.

C/2003 J1 2003 JD17 2003 JC17 2003 JP14 2003 JO14 2003 JN14 2003 JF13* 2003 JC13 2003 JD11 2003 JC11 2003 JY2 2003 JX2 P/2003 H4 2003 HU42* 2003 HT42 2003 HS42 C/2003 H3 2003 HR32 2003 HQ32 2003 HP32 2003 HN16 2003 HM16 2003 HB6 2003 HG2 2003 HF2 C/2003 H2 C/2003 H1 2003 HN 2003 HM 2003 HB 2003 HA C/2003 G2 2003 GD42 * 2003 GB34 C/2003 G1 2003 GS22* 2003 GR22* 2003 GQ22 2003 GJ21 2003 GG21 2003 GF21 2003 GY 2003 GX 2003 GW 2003 GS 2003 GR 2003 GJ C/2003 L1 2003 LS3 2003 LW2 2003 KK20 2003 LH 2003 LG 2003 KZ18 2003 KN18 C/2003 K4 C/2003 K2 C/2003 K1 2003 KV2 2003 KU2 2003 KP2 2003 KO2

Minor Planets get lost, especially ones with odd orbits. It takes an expert to find them. As an example, our most active month was May of this year with five recoveries: 2001 BJ16 2000 UN30 2002 JN97 2002 OA22 2002 MQ3. Another important recovery this season was 2002 EZ16. The one is known (within Tenagra) as "Tholen's Object". Dr. David Tholen is a professor at U. of Hawaii who issued a challenge to the world for the recovery of this object. All the calculations were programmed on the Tenagra II scope to perform the mosaics and recover it. As a result and witnessed by others at the AAS Meeting in Seattle, Dave Tholen owes Michael a dinner. A mosaic of 40 Tenagra II 15' X 15' fields were taken to capture this elusive target.

Total NEO observations since 2002 Sept. 20: 2,748
Total published asteroid and comet observations since 2002 Sept. 20: ~7,700

Note: These discoveries only include those for which Tenagra got the designation. Included in the above numbers is some observations with the Tenagra I 14" telescope at station 848. It is most important to note that the above results were obtained using up to ONLY 1 HOUR of Tenagra II telescope time per night.

In a typical full night of MP searching near the ecliptic about 80 objects are detected with about half of them being unknown main belt objects. It is impossible for us to try to gain designations for all asteroids. If we were to return the next night and recover the 40 or so new main belt asteroids we would find 40 or so more. And on and on leaving no Tenagra time for other research projects.

And last but not least is TENAGRA AUSTRALUS. We were unable to find a vendor who could guarantee the building of a large automated structure. We are currently looking into sites in S. America.

June 1, 2003. We are very proud that Tenagra has been part of a quiet revolution. Our sales of research telescope time this first observing season have exceeded our expectations. And with the new 24" f10 in September, 2003 we expect to provide even more quality time and data. We heartily thank this year's university users which include:

Areas of research covered a vast array including GRBs, asteroid rotation curves, recovery of TNOs and unusual variable stars. This does not include our supernovae search and MP/Comet activities.

April 22, 2003. Tenagra IV discovers supernova 2003dt. This SNe is special for two reasons. It is the first discovery of the Tenagra IV 14" telescope! Second, very rarely can two supernovae be seen in one galaxy at the same time. We are pleased that Tenagra IV is in operation and that it can relieve Tenagra II from some of its survey tasks. This Tenagra II image needed to go very deep to see 2002ha.

February 27, 2003. Tenagra II chased GRB030226. The universe usually presents itself at a glacial pace. If you are going to study the dynamics within the disrupted galaxy M82 you can do it today or tomorrow or next year. The Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) waits for no one. The source of these objects is still unknown. But it has been found that some GRBs have optical counterparts that can decay very rapidly. Catching these objects is perhaps the most swift move known in observational astronomy. Automated telescopes such as Tenagra II are very good for observing GRBs because they are always ready and working when skies are clear. So if a GRB alert comes via telephone or pager (we sleep while we observe at Tenagra) it is possible to jump up, interrupt the run and get the GRB within minutes. Unfortunately when GRB030226 was identified on February 26.23 (UT) it was cloudy at Tenagra. The initial magnitude of the optical transient (OT) was estimated at R = 18.0. Within 3.5 hours it had faded to R = 18.4. Despite the bad weather Tenagra II was able to image the GRB on February 26.3 with a 1.5 hour exposure (18 X 300s) in Ic-band under very bad conditions. Most GRBs fade according to a standard power law. This one is an exception with a "break", meaning that this strange object suddenly began to dim at a much faster rate. This magnificent and challenging type of observational astronomy is fascinating. The first image below was taken shortly after discovery in R-band. Star A is R = 15.39. The following is the February 26.35 (mid exposures) image in Ic-band (very near Infrared) taken with Tenagra II and has faded to about Ic = 21.

November 28, 2002. Tenagra IV Begins Work. The 14" Tenagra IV telescope has been installed and will soon go to work, mostly minor planet and supernovae searches. As with the other Tenagra telescopes it is equipped with a SITe 1024X1024 based camera, liquid heat removal, fully automated operation and the same prescription BVRI filters as used on Tenagra II.

November 26, 2002. Luminous Blue Variable or Nova in NGC2403? We have detected the object marked below in NGC2403, a nearby open spiral very much like M33. This galaxy is close enough to show these variables and novae are quite rare in galaxies with young star populations. The Lick Observatory 3-m telescope will attempt a spectrum looking for the emission lines characteristic of a nova. (The images right below the 'G' marks are ghosts from the bright stars below.)

November 19, 2002. Tenagra II goes deeper, faster than any other telescope searching for an optical counterpart to a GRB. The following is from GRB AAVSO regard GRB 021113:

M. Nysewander, D. Reichart (U. North Carolina), and M. Schwartz (Tenagra Observatories) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We observed 100% of the 23 arcmin x 13 arcmin error box, but only 90% of the revised 26 arcmin x 9 arcmin error box, of GRB 021113 (GCN 1686) with the 32-inch Tenagra II telescope beginning 2.6 hours (GCN 1687) and 22.3 hours after the burst. For each epoch, we integrated without filter for 1800 seconds per pointing x two pointings under photometric conditions. Due to more favorable airmasses, the second epoch observations went deeper.

Calibration images of M67 suggest that unfiltered magnitudes measured with this CCD best mimic R magnitudes (Henden 2000). Using the image subtraction routine ISIS2 (Alard 2000), we find no transients to the limiting magnitude of our first epoch image, which we measure to be R = 21.5 mag (5 sigma), 22.1 mag (3 sigma), and 23.2 mag (1 sigma) using the following three USNO-A2.0 stars:

RA (hrs) DEC (deg) R (mag)
23.353    40.522     13.8
23.425    40.341     13.9
23.342    40.483     16.7

This is the deepest non-detection of an optical afterglow within four hours of a burst.

November 14, 2002. Tenagra II performs a RECORD NUMBER of 15 immediate NEO follow-ups in a single night. Almost every night Near Earth Object (NEO) searching programs such as NEAT, LINEAR and LONEOS discover potential NEOs, whose immediate confirmation is requested by the Minor Planet Center through their web site. On a nightly basis the Tenagra II telescope chases these potential NEOs to help determine the nature of their orbits.

Objects Still on the NEOCP (as of 2002 Nov. 14, 19:00 UT):

AD25792
AD25789
T9RGD1A
ts209
AD19654
AD17552
AC79946

Objects designated by the MPC on Nov. 14:

T9R92VB = 2002 VD92 (Amor detected at about 1.0 AU from Earth)
AD25495 = 2002 VC92 (Amor detected at about 0.27 AU from Earth)
T9N8VFA = 2002 VB92 (turned out not to be a NEO)
AD17868 = 2002 VA92 (turned out not to be a NEO)
AD19652 = 2002 VZ91 (Apollo detected at about 0.03 AU from Earth)
AD25444 = 2002 VY91 (Apollo detected at about 0.03 AU from Earth)
AD17851 = 2002 VX91 (Aten detected at about 0.05 AU from Earth)
AD17874 = 2002 VW91 (turned out not to be a NEO)

November 13, 2002. Tenagra II joins forces with the U. of North Carolina GRB team as the quickest responder to a GRB. The following is from GRB AAVSO regarding GRB 021113 :

"M. Nysewander, D. Reichart (U. North Carolina), and M. Schwartz (Tenagra Observatories) report: We observed 100% of the 23 arcmin x 13 arcmin error box, but only 90% of the revised 26 arcmin x 9 arcmin error box, of GRB 021113 (GCN 1686) with the 32-inch Tenagra II telescope beginning 2.6 hours after the burst. We integrated without filter for 1800 seconds per pointing x two pointings. Visual comparison with the DSS2-Red reveals no obvious counterpart to the limiting magnitude of the DSS. Future observations are planned."

November 9, 2002. Tenagra II confirms that a previously discovered asteroid is indeed a comet. From IAUC Circular No. 8013 "Images taken by P. R. Holvorcem and M. Schwartz with the Tenagra 0.81-m reflector on Nov. 7.4 and 8.4 show the object diffuse with a coma diameter of about 8".

November 7 & October 30, 2002. Tenagra helps out veteran supernova hunter Tom Boles (England) verify a couple of supernova. Just because the USA is a breakaway republic is no reason to not give our British brethren a hand:

SUPERNOVA 2002ho IN NGC 4210
T. Boles reports the discovery of another apparent supernova (mag 17.0) on an unfiltered CCD image taken on Nov. 5.130 UT. The new object is located at R.A. = 12h15m17s.97, Decl. = +65o58'55".1, which is approximately 12".9 east and 12".2 south of the center of NGC 4210. SN 2002ho was confirmed on a CCD image taken by M. Schwartz, Cottage Grove, OR, with the 0.82m Tenagra telescope on Nov. 7.526; Boles measured mag 16.8 and position end figures 18s.01, 54".8 from Schwartz' image. SN 2002ho is not present on Boles' images from Apr. 3 (limiting mag 18.5), 13, or May 27, and it is not present on Palomar Sky Survey red and blue plates.

SUPERNOVA 2002hg IN NGC 3306
T. Boles, Coddenham, England, reports the discovery of an apparent supernova (mag 17.0) on an unfiltered CCD image taken on Oct. 28.219 UT with a 0.35-m reflector in the course of the U.K. Nova/Supernova Patrol. The new object is located at R.A. = 10h37m10s.60, Decl. = +12o39'13".2, which is approximately 6".3 east and 3".8 north of the center of NGC 3306. M. Schwartz, Cottage Grove, OR, confirmed the new object with the 0.82-m Tenagra telescope on Oct. 30.54 in morning twilight. Boles measured R = 16.7 and position end figures 10s.60 and 12".8 from Schwartz' image. SN 2002hg is not present on Boles' images from Jan. 16 (limiting mag 18.5), Mar. 2, or Apr. 11, and it is not present on Palomar Sky Survey red (1993) and blue (1994) plates or on a Quick-V survey plate (1985).

October 25, 2002. The light echo around V838 Monoceratus continues to show elaborate structure. This image is binned 2X2, R-band, 60s exposure.

October 10, 2002. The Tenagra II telescope chases the magnificent GRB021004 deeper than 22nd magnitude in a 10 X 300s R-band exposure.

September 22, 2002. Tenagra has its first numbered minor planet discovery, (48047) 2001DL86. Why don't you help us name it? Suggestions are most welcome!

September 19, 2002. Requests using the Tenagra II 0.81-m (32") now include the ability to automatically search for asteroids and comets!

September 10, 2002. The minor planet and comet observing campaign in the summer of 2002 at Tenagra's Oregon site (Tenagra I 0.36-m (14") telescope) produced 557 observations of NEOs, 620 observations of other minor planets (many of which located in areas of the sky not often observed by the surveys and which were not seen after their discovery opposition), and 154 observations of comets. The summer campaign also produced the discovery of 9 minor planets, one of which (2002 QK6) belongs to the Hungaria group (inner main belt objects with near-circular, moderately inclined orbits). Some of the most interesting objects which were confirmed and/or followed up during the summer are listed below:

2002 NY40. This object, which passed less than twice the moon's distance from Earth in mid-August (reaching mag. 10), was discovered in July by LINEAR, and confirmed at Tenagra and other stations.

2002 RT. This faint (mag. 18.6), fast moving Apollo object was followed up in September as it passed some 0.2 AU from Earth.

2002 RP120. This is one of the first few retrograde asteroids to be discovered, and was confirmed by Tenagra I and followed up in September.

2001 QP153, 2002 EL6. Observations from Tenagra I significantly extended the arc of these NEOs, making it easier to recover or precover them at other oppositions.

August 31, 2002. Starting September 15, 2002 at the Arizona facility, Tenagra is selling time on the Tenagra II 0.81-m (32") F7 Ritchey-Chretien. Available to high end organizations, colleges and universities this is the first offering of its kind with this size of telescope at a very favorable site. Click here for more information.

August 28, 2002. Tenagra I 0.36-m (14") telescope is cited in IAUC 7960 ("P. R. Holvorcem and M. Schwartz (0.36-m reflector, Cottage Grove, OR) found C/2002 Q2 to be diffuse with a coma of diameter about 17" and m_1 = 17.1 on Aug. 27.3, whereas they noted C/2002 Q3 to be 2-2.5 mag fainter with a hint of diffuseness ...") for confirming comets C/2002 Q2 (LINEAR) and C/2002 Q3 (LINEAR). Q2 on the left, Q3 on the right. August 28, 2002.

March 25, 2002. Along with the U.S. Naval Observatory, Tenagra participates in the discovery and monitoring of the light echo around V838 MONOCEROTIS. From IAUC 7859: "A. Henden, Universities Space Research Association and U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO); U. Munari, Padova; and M. Schwartz, Tenagra Observatory, report that an apparent light echo has been discovered developing around V838 Mon on images secured with the USNO Flagstaff Station 1.0-m telescope (scale 0".68/pixel) and confirmed on images obtained with the 0.81-m Tenagra telescope (0".87/pixel): "The light echo is easily visible in the U bandpass and progressively less visible at the longer B-, V-, R-, and I-band wavelengths due to the combined effect of a decreasing surface brightness and increasing output from the central star...". Tenagra II will continue to monitor this extremely unusual object.

May 13, 2001. Michael Schwartz interviews the founding father of amateur supernovae hunting, Rev. Robert Evans, at his home in Australia. Click Here.

January 9, 2001. Michael Schwartz, Director, is honored to have a recently discovered asteroid named after him: 'MPC 41940, January 9, 2001 (13820) Schwartz = 1999 VQ, discovered November 1, 1999 by C.W. Juels of Fountain Hills, Arizona. Michael Schwartz (b. 1950) contributes to professional-amateur cooperative discovery and measurement of supernovae and efforts in improving automated astronomy at Tenagra Observatories in Patagonia, Arizona.'

January 1, 2001. LOTOSS discovers supernova 2001A, the first supernova of the TRUE new millennium..

November 1, 1999. Tenagra and Lick Observatories have combined efforts to create LOTOSS, Lick Observatory, Tenagra Observatory Supernova Search, a collaboration of the LICK Observatory Supernova Search (cf. IAUC 6627, 7126) using the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) and the Tenagra Observatory Supernova Search using the 0.81-m (32") Tenagra II and other Tenagra automated Telescopes.

April 15, 1999. The original Tenagra III 0.5-m (20") Ritchey-Chretien telescope goes into operation. This telescope was decommissioned in October, 2001.

August 2, 1998. Tenagra discovers only the 3rd known hydrogen-deficient dwarf CV during the course of its supernovae survey. S. Jha, P. Garnavich, P. Challis, and R. Kirshner, Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, communicate: "A spectrum of SN 1998di (cf. IAUC 6982) taken by P. Berlind on Aug. 4.4 UT at the Whipple Observatory 1.5-m telescope (+ FAST spectrograph) exhibits a blue continuum with shallow absorption troughs shortward of 500 nm. The object appears 4" east and 4" north of an anonymous galaxy with a recession velocity of 10 750 +/- 30 km/s. The shallow absorption features have widths of about 3000 km/s (FWHM) and correspond to He I absorption at zero radial velocity. The spectrum resembles that of CR Boo, a hydrogen-deficient dwarf nova, near maximum (Patterson et al. 1997, PASP 109, 1100).