Contacts and Addresses
- In preparation for a trip to Mt. Hopkins:
- Dorm reservation: Ginnee Larson, ph. 520-670-5701 or Grace Alegria, ph. 520-670-5704
- Taxi reservation (to/from airport to Base Camp via grocery store): Cavalier Express LLC, Scott Miller, ph. 520-625-1055
- Vehicle reservation (from Base Camp to IOTA): Danny West or Cesar Lopez, ph. 520-670-5710
- Directions to Whipple Observatory (FLWO) Visitor Center (Administrative Complex)
- To require on site assistance: Marc Lacasse, ph. 520-670-5750 , fax 520-670-5739 (Tucson); 520-703-8976 (beeper)
- Contact the IOTA site: ph. 520-670-6757 or 520-670-5752 ; fax 520-670-5751
- Mailing address: Whipple Observatory, P.O. Box 6369, Amado, AZ 85645
- Shipping address (weekdays): Whipple Observatory, 670 Mount Hopkins Road, Amado, AZ 85645
- Express shipping (Saturdays, FedEx "hold at location"):
FedEx World Service Center, Butterfield Park (near TUS airport), 3601 East Columbia Street, Tucson, AZ 85714-2740 (details, map), ph. 1-800-463-3339 (1-800-gofedex);
Saturday pick-up business hours 8:30 AM - 5:00 PMMore information about the Mt. Hopkins services and facilities (by Nat Carleton, 1998)
Arrival procedures
Dormitory and Common-Building use
Vehicles - note the sign-out procedure! for shuttle service, read the FLWO Visiting Observer Guide
Assistance
See also FLWO Visiting Observer Guide (includes maps of the area)
Site conditions
Geographic site location (see also memo about the geometry of IOTA):
Sunset/sunrise times and other useful site information for Mt. Hopkins like local weather conditions ( current conditions graphs ) are found at the MMT Observatory. - The Ridge has a somewhat nicer weather page. -
110° 53' 05.73" (110.8849°) W = 7h 23m 32.38s 31° 41' 29.58" (31.6916°) N Altitude: 8412ft / 2564m (aerial view at Google Maps)
Weather forecast
Basic IOTA characteristics
- Observable sky area:
about 60° from zenith, i.e., declination range about -30 ... +90; hour angle ca. +/-2h depending on declination (plot of accessible sky)- Array geometry:
three telescopes with mutual effective baselines of 5m to 38m; telescope locations are multiples of 5m and 7m (details [PDF], quick-look layout [EPS, JPG])- Brightness requirements on astronomical objects:
- for star tracker, in I-band (0.90µm) brighter than I=11mag (as of Feb. 2004), depending on integration time/seeing (details, quick-look table)
- for integrated optics beam combiner, in H-band (1.65µm) brighter than H=7mag (details, quick-look table)
- 3-beam free-space RIJHK (0.70 ... 2.20µm) combiner under adjustment
